Utah's National Parks Trip: Day 3 (Arches)

Monday, our 3rd day in Utah, we headed out to Arches National Park nice and early. In fact I think we were through the gate by 7:15 or so after taking a quick photo by the park sign. 


It's a very dramatic entrance to the park with switchbacks and high cliff walls and as soon as you turn the last corner all signs of civilization fall away. It was stunning. 

I don't think you can see it but there is a car where the light colored rock meets up against the dark- that's the road


 




We drove straight to the very back of the park to an area known as Devil's Garden. We only hiked part of the trail though.  

tunnel arch

 




 
 




The weather was perfect, sunny but cool and breezy. We saw a deer, a hummingbird, a blue bird, and some beetles and ants. 

landscape arch

longest arch in America at 306 feet opening; 6 feet in diameter at its narrowest point



This is the point we turned around; I refused to climb up the top part of this trail on my hands and knees like we saw so many others doing. It's much steeper looking in person and while I knew I'd be okay going up I could not see how I'd get back down as I hate heights. 

 

We got the car and drove to Skyline arch. 








We piled back into the car and drove to Delicate Arch viewpoint (though it's only a 3 mile hike to the arch it's rated difficult-- it's all sun all the way and after yesterday none of us wanted to do that). By this time much of the breeze had died down and the sun was getting quite hot. 
 

the sand here (and many other places in these parks) has streaks of green from the copper in it.
 

We were only there for a few minutes then got back in the car to head to the windows section of the park. This actually turned out to be my favorite! These photos loaded in a very random order so I'll try to label the ones I can. 

double arch





we thought this end of the rock formation looked a bit like a cobra


double arch again




From there we walked across the parking lots to the windows/ Turret arch trails. 

north window


turret arch viewed from north window

view through the north window

it was shady and windy and so cool under the north window that we sat under it for a bit and noticed the giant crack in the arch above us


turret arch again viewed from north window

south window

north and south window from turret arch

close up of turret arch

We swung by Garden of Eden and then drove to the visitor's center right near the park entrance/exit. 








We left the park around 12:30/ 1:00 and felt like we had seen pretty much everything. It's a pretty small park but big on beauty. 

We spent the afternoon at our rental relaxing and headed out to dinner at Sunset Grill-- it had amazing views and the food was SO good! 

 

I had the surf and turf special

Others in this series: 

Our Trip by the Numbers 

Day 1: Travel day

Day 2: Canyonlands  


Linking up with: Spread the Kindness, 



 


Comments

  1. Maria RineerMay 15, 2026 at 5:37 AM

    Amazing pictures! This makes me really want to see Arches! I'm glad you had nice weather even though it heated up as the day progressed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JoyceMay 15, 2026 at 6:22 AM

    Looks like another beautiful day. The landscape is so interesting and feels almost lunar.

    ReplyDelete
  3. HollyMay 15, 2026 at 6:31 AM

    Stunning scenery- just incredible!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kathrine EldridgeMay 15, 2026 at 7:01 AM

    Love these pics! Arches is one of the National Parks I need to get to.

    https://www.kathrineeldridge.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Amy ScottMay 15, 2026 at 7:17 AM

    Your photos are so good! I can see what you took so many - it's just a stunning landscape. That view from Sunset Grill and now I want a loaded baked potato for dinner!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

15 Family Restaurant Games

Image
When my boys were little and we'd take them out to eat I kept a small bag of toys in the car to grab on our way into any restaurant.  That way they would be entertained and a bit quieter while we enjoyed our meal. Now that the boys are older we don't keep a bag of toys handy but we do have few games we use to keep the boys occupied if they start getting bored or squirmy while we're waiting for our food or our check. While there are many phone apps, portable gaming systems and electronic games that could occupy my kids we prefer to use the time together at restaurants to connect with one another and so we tend to play games like: Hangman--   any restaurant that has paper place mats works well for this.  We take turns picking  a word and drawing our hangman stand then take turns calling out letters and seeing if we can solve the puzzle.   Tic Tac Toe-- This works best with pen on paper place mats but we have played making a grid with butter knives ...
Read more

Utah Trip By The Numbers

Image
I've always wanted to write one of these fun "by the numbers" wrap up of a vacation but usually blank on what numbers/facts to include-- but not this time!    8-- total days we were gone  7-- total nights we were gone  4- flights taken to and from Utah; Providence to Midway, Midway to Salt Lake City, then the same flights in reverse  1,253- total number of miles we drove in Utah with our car rental 5-- National Parks visited (Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches, & Canyonlands)  2-- State parks visited (Dead Horse Point & Red Canyon) 4-- trips to the grocery store 0-- number of ice cream dishes/cones I ate   7-- Number of restaurants we tried for the first time  7-- Number of restaurants we'd go back to a second time! The food was fantastic everywhere we went 2-- Number of times we had to stop for cows IN the road 646-- Total number of photos Evan and I took combined (not counting those blurry or duplicate/deleted ones)  1- T...
Read more

30 History Movies for Middle School

Image
Ian is starting a new film study unit in our homeschool.  He loves watching movies and when I found the Thinking Tree Film Study Journal I just knew Ian would love the opportunity to watch movies as part of his homeschooling day. I set to work writing up a list of movies I thought he'd enjoy watching.  These are just some of the movies I found that I thought he'd enjoy watching as part of our history lessons. 1.   Secretariat -- A story about a horse that won the Triple crown in 1973; the first American Thoroughbred to win in 25 years. 2.   Captain Philips - A movie about the 2009 hijacking of a US Container ship by a crew of pirates. 3.  Sully- Based on the "Miracle on the Hudson" this movie takes us through the plane that landed in the Hudson river. 4.   A League of their Own - A fictional story of the All-American Girls Baseball League of 1943 5.   Gung- Ho -- When the Japanese re-open an American auto plant the wo...
Read more

Favorite TV Shows Growing Up in the 80's and early 90's

Image
Do you remember the TGIF lineups on Friday nights? I can remember planning sleepovers and time with friends around TV Show lineups of our favorite shows... or else trying to set the VCR to record our favorite shows if we weren't going to be home. And through the years I had SO MANY favorites! Growing pains aired in 1985 which put me around age 8 and it stayed on the air until I was 15 or so; I'm pretty sure most people in my age group watched mostly for Kirk Cameron and all his antics.  I still have a soft spot for family sit-coms!  The Facts of Life aired when I was just 2  and stayed on the air until I was 11 so I'm sure the episodes I remember so fondly were either some of the later ones and then reruns shown later on when I was old enough to watch from the beginning. I think everyone would have loved an Edna Garret in their lives.   Benson another sitcom that began airing when I was just 2 and was done by the time I was 9 (another one I must have watched mai...
Read more

10 of Our Favorite Ways to Serve/Eat Pulled Pork

Image
My husband makes pulled pork fairly frequently.  I started making pulled pork in the crock pot years ago and we've since tried a few different recipes (like this cranberry BBQ pulled pork ) but it wasn't something I thought about very often.  All that changed when my husband got a smoker as an early Father's day gift a couple of years ago!   Now, I feel like we have been eating pulled pork at least a few times a month (and when I say we I really mean they as I hardly ever eat any at all because I don't like pork or smoked meats).  He'll usually smoke up a few pork butts and shred them both then we eat some for dinner and sort the rest into a couple of freezer portions for easy, nearly ready-made weeknight dinners.  1. Pulled pork sandwiches -- The simplest way to serve pulled pork; everyone just piles the pork and cheese (perhaps coleslaw) on a bun.   2. Pulled pork rice bowls -- I cook up some white rice and veggies and everyone portions out th...
Read more