Day 33: Arches National Park

Hot night

I had a hard time to fall asleep, mostly because of the heat, maybe a bit because of the noise around us. First we started with the full tent setup (inner + outer), but after some time of trying to fall asleep, we folded the outer tent up. This helped with the heat and I finally got some sleep. But then in the night it started to rain and even though we have an additional tent from the campground, we were afraid that the rain could hit us. So we folded back part of the outer tent again :)

Overall a bit a stressful night and as we had to get up early, not much sleep overall. Garmin agreed with that.

Arches National Park

But now to the good part! We were quick in getting ready in the morning and left short before 6:00. On the last meters before the park we spotted a sign that informed us that a reservation is required to enter the park between 06:00 - 17:00. As it was no close to 06:00 we hoped that we maybe make it in time, or at least that the park range is a bit generous and let us pass anyhow. So we made it to the gate at 06:02, were “friendly” asked for our reservation and then told that there is no exception and we have to turn around and come back with a reservation. Definitely our fault that we didn’t inform us better beforehand… It was still frustration, especially because we assumed that there won’t be any slots for today. But Nicole was quick and already spotted that there were still slots available, so it took us around 10 minutes to book them and be back at the gate, second try. This time we made it, and around 6:12 we were on the way to Delicate Arch.

Delicate Arch

There are two ways to visit/see Delicate Arch, you can head to the trail head (also labeled as Wolfe Ranche) or you can check out the Delicate Arch Viewpoint. Out plan was to first do the hike (~2.5 km one way) and then have a quick view from the Viewpoint as well. Parking at the trail head was already filling up (~06:40), we were thankful that we did get up early.

The trail started first with a gravel & sand mixture and did some light up & downs. After a bit it then became more rocky and parts of it led over sandstone rocks.

For the last part it followed a ledge along the rocks, which was pretty cool and as it wasn’t to high, not an issue for me.

And then we reached it, the most famous of the arches, the Delicate Arch. To be fair, it’s really impressive and makes for a great view.

We then sat there and enjoyed the early morning, had some breakfast and lied in the sun. Then we made our way back to the car and drove to the viewpoint to see the Arch from there as well.

Devils Garden

After Delicate Arch we made it all the way to the northern end of the Park, which consists of Devils Garden. It’s a network of trails that stitches together various arches. In total it’s around 13 km of trails and our initial plan was to just start a bit hiking an see how far we make it.

After a short stretch there is a split which leads to the first two arches, Tunnel Arch & Pine Tree Arch.

Then we went back to the split and followed the other trail until we came to Landscape Arch, which earned it’s name, as it felt endless and spanning the whole landscape.

Now we had multiple options, first we thought about turning around, it was getting hotter and hotter. But then we decided to hike the bigger loop as well, which consists of the Primitive trail and the trail to Double O Arch. Primitive Trail seemed interesting and there were multiple warnings: “The obstacles in this segment include difficult route finding, steep slopes, narrow drop-offs, and rock scrambling”.

The first part of it was just sand, which made it hard to move forward and slowed us down. But then the trail became a bit more solid and we could swift the focus to enjoy nature.

Nature is really special here and we were amazed and in awe of it. But we also wondered a bit because of the warnings. The trail so far was as easy as it could be. Shortly after this thoughts, we hiked into a wall and wondered how the trail continues. Then we saw the cairn that marks the trail on the rock and realized that now the climbing begins.

From now on, the trail continued in a mix of hard sand ground and climbing on the sandstone rocks. It was a lot of fun, also staying on the trail required some concentration as sometimes it was really unclear where it continued. Then we reached Private Arch, which was a short detour from the Primitive Trail.

Then we came to the Double O Arch Trail. Here we also had the option to hike a bit further to the Dark Angel, which sounded interesting so we went for it. The Dark Angel wasn’t easy to spot and required a bit creativity to see.

After that it was time to start the way back, first to Double O Arch.

On Primitive Trail we saw a total of 4 People, but now back on the “main” trail, it was more crowded. But the nature was impressive as ever.

Two more detours led us to Navajo and Partition Arch.

On the way back from the split to these two arches, we spotted a deer that apparently found a salty spot on the rock.

After that we hiked all the way back to the trail head and our car. In the end we covered 13.70 km in the 30+ degree sun (and spent 3:18h), so we were pretty done :) So we made our way back to the campground, with a quick stop at the grocery store (to grab some cold beer).

This concluded the day, more or less. After there was a quick thunderstorm, we could enjoy the pool of the campground. Ate dinner here and just enjoyed the warm weather.

Tomorrow we move on to Monument Valley, with a stop to Canyon Lands.

Pictures

Activities

Hike: Devil’s Garden Hike: Delicate Arch