Early on Monday we headed to Arches. This was the first national park I had ever gone to so I didn’t really know what to expect but the climb up to the park impressed me. We started off by just following the road and knocking off the short trails and the couple pullouts. These ones were crowded with families but the people did help convey the scale of the rocks in photos.
first picture with the park featuring the rock formation the Three Gossips
Balance rock was the first formation you could walk up to. It’s pretty impressive in person because it’s huge. This was my first real impression of the park and being up close to the red rock.
First trail 
After driving through desert, this rock formation seemingly poking out of the earth is a strange contrast.
Comprehending the size of the arches is difficult even in person. Looking up at them made me a bit dizzy and my fear of heights began to set in. Double Arch and Windows were the first you could hike right under. The rocky ground made me a bit uncomfy with these ones but I made myself go up a decent way and even sat on a ledge in windows while Becky climbed down to take a photo.
Left to right: Garden of Eden which is a lookout of a valley surrounded by rock formations, North and South Window looks like a face with the rock formation in the middle as a nose, the beautiful backdrop of the arches from a slot in Sand Dune Arch Below: Me sitting in North Window and Turret Arch
We decided to skip the Delicate Arch trail for now so we could hopefully watch the sunset through the arch and headed towards the Devil’s Garden. Sand Dune Arch wasn’t very far into the trail so we walked up to it and then decided to continue for a little while through the desert. The landscape fascinated me because I had never seen anything like the dirt and shrubs for miles. When Becky had visited Arches with my other aunt they had taken a photo in front of an arch and we decided to recreate the photo. She thought it had been Broken Arch which was the second Arch on the trail so we might as well continue hiking. (see photos below including the view of some storm clouds coming in)
Well along the trail we ran into another pair of hikers who we met up with again at the Arch and kindly took our photo. We borrowed their map to check out the rest of the loop and decided we might as well do the couple mile trail while we were at it. It turned out to be the best decision because we had the trail all to ourselves and the other pair of hikers, who we only ran into again at Tapestry Arch.
The hike traveled through the brush where we encountered a ton of lizards and a chipmunk and up to Tapestry which has a wall behind it and we climbed directly under it and in its shadow. The junipers were amazing and the view from the top was incredible. As it turns out either I got the smooth rock did not bother me as much as the rocky arches had so the heights didn’t trouble me much either despite having to hop over a few cracks and scramble a few times. We of course had not brought our map with us considering we hadn’t intended on doing the full trail when we left so when finishing the loop we did lose the trail a few times and came out at a campground which was actually handy since we got to fill up our water and see some different sights.
The view from Tapestry Arch and a beautiful Juniper that gave me some scrapes but it’s okay
It seemed we had really lucked out with timing because as we were leaving a bunch of people were heading down the loop we had had to ourselves. After our fabulous hike it was now afternoon and so we ate some trail-mix on the drive to Devil’s Garden for a few more arches before Delicate. The wind had picked up considerably and the sky was getting darker though so we booked it to Landscape and Double O along the way getting pelted with sand blowing about. These hikes were easy and fairly empty thanks to having lost the majority of the crowd~other than an old man who asked if Becky and I went to school together lol. It was nice and on the way back we could watch some lightning in the distance. You could see so far it wasn’t actually that close to us so we weren’t worried and just headed to the car to snack and watch the show.
Eventually we decided to head to Delicate Arch’s trailhead and parked there while it stormed to wait for it to let up. Neither of us had brought our raincoats though so we did not want to make the hike up to the viewpoint in the rain and while it was lightning the hike up to the Arch was out of question. It seemed to only rain harder though and so after a half hour or so we just settled for the viewpoint and quickly made a break for it. It had cooled down considerably with the rain and was a bit chilly. From the viewpoint I had trouble comprehending the size of Utah’s most famous arch but later at the hotel we looked up photos from under the Arch and I got more of a sense of the magnitude so I would highly recommend looking some of those up. Becky showed me her previous trip’s photos from the top as well and it looked incredible so I do wish we could have made the hike but the storm was cool to see and the clouds made for stunning photos with the contrast to the arches and provided some texture to the sky.
I absolutely loved the red rock. Southern Utah is incredible and so different than anything I had ever seen before.
Coddiwomple With A Canvas 