Arches

On May 20, 2015, my family and I went to Arches National Park in Utah. I had been here a few years earlier, but it was good to see again.

Our first stop was Park Avenue. We didn’t hike far; we went to the overlook and snapped a few photos:

After that, we drove to the far end of the park for a picnic lunch and a quick hike (1.5 mi) to Landscape Arch. Landscape Arch is only 11 feet thick in one spot, and may not last much longer. A large piece fell down in 1991, and given the shape of the arch, you can see that it is a geologically temporary structure. I make a point to walk out and see this arch each time.

There was another arch near Landscape Arch, but I didn’t catch its name.

After that, we drove to Skyline Arch. This one also lost a large piece in recent history (1940), which made the opening in the arch almost twice as large.

We then drove to a slot canyon. This may be my favorite place in the park, so I took a few photos of the entrance to the slot canyon.

Inside the canyon is Sand Dune Arch. It was impressive, but going through the canyon to get to the arch was my favorite part.

From the entrance of the slot canyon, you can see Broken Arch. We were quickly running out of daylight and still had several other stops, so we did not walk down to this one. Thankfully, 30x optical zoom helped me get there a little faster, anyhow.

Other than arches, the scenery around Arches National Park was also amazing.

One cannot go to Arches National Park without going to one of the lookout points for the Delicate Arch. I didn’t get to hike up there, but here are a few photos from afar.

Delicate Arch is such a famous and recognizable landmark, I took its photo from several other viewpoints at the park. Thanks again, 30X optical zoom!

We ended our day at the Windows Area. Here, there were numerous arches and windows. I’m not sure of the official boundary between an arch, a bridge and a window, but there were a lot of these at in this area.