We made it to Arches National Park around 7:45pm and drove all the way to the back of the park to the campground where we hunted down our campsite.
The funny thing was that we didn’t see any arches on our drive, the trick to this park is getting out of the car and hiking to the arches. This is not a park for anyone who is out of shape and it is certainly not an easy hike at any point along any trail, so get out there before you get too old to enjoy this stuff!
After setting up our tent we decided to use the remaining bit of daylight to hunt down our first arch! We jumped in the car and headed off to Delicate Arch. The parking lot for Delicate Arch was pretty full but it wasn’t a large parking lot so we parked and started hiking up the trail to the most famous arch.
We hiked for what seemed like forever before we came upon our first arch!
Of course we had to get a photo with it…
But we were not to the Delicate Arch just yet, we still had a long way to go and this is the path we were going to have to take
The good news is that the view along the hike is amazing! It is just unbelievable that this place was formed naturally, you just have to see it to believe it and there is no way that you can understand how big everything is by just seeing these photos.
Then, finally! We found Delicate Arch!
And we were not alone, this is one of the parks most popular photo spots. In fact you may have seen this arch on a stamp lot to long ago.
This arch is very impressive and it’s HUGE! In this photo there is a person at the far left of the frame, it helps you to understand just how big the Arch is.
Of course we had to get a photo with it
As the sun began to set we decided to hike back to the car before it got dark because we didn’t have a flashlight with us and hiking back in the dark didn’t sound like much fun.
This really is a LONG hike, just to show you how far it really is take a look at this video. I think we were about half way back to the car which is in the parking lot in the distance where you see the headlights. Notice that the path is marked with cairns to help you find your way back to the parking lot. Good thing we did this before dark, I would hate to trip over one of those things.
Arches National Park is going to be fun!