This morning I woke up at 6AM, spent a few hours at Starbucks, and then drove straight to Arches National Park. From 10:30 AM until 7:30 PM I was constantly hiking or driving throughout the park. The park was very busy, evidenced by a 10-15 minute line for entering the park and the crowded attractions, trails, and rest areas in the park. If it was this busy on Monday, I can’t imagine how busy it must have been last weekend or will be next weekend. The weather was beautiful from the beginning of the day, feeling like approximately 70-80 degrees. In total, I probably hiked around 15 miles and am completely satisfied and still overwhelmed by all the beauty I experienced today.
Unlike Colorado, my timing for visiting Utah turned out to be perfect. The weather in early May is perfect, not too cold or hot. The ideal weather is the reason why the park was so crowded on a Monday.
The first main trail I walked led to a beautiful set of two arches named “double arch.” It was simply breathtaking to view the arches and also interesting to think about how the arches formed. Arches form when rainwater dissolves sandstone, leaving an arch figure, which will eventually collapse over time. The erosion must have occurred over many, many years.
After the double arch trail, I walked across the parking lot to the trail for North Window Arch, South Window Arch, and Turret Arch.
One of the highlights of the day was hiking the Delicate Arch Trail, a three mile round trip to one of the most famous arches in the park. The hike is very crowded and moderately strenuous, and it was surprising to see older people in their 60s-70s hiking the trail. The hike starts with a continuous, moderate climb up a solid rock slope for about half a mile. This is a beautiful sight and was a fun experience considering how crowded the trail was and the excitement of all the people on the trail.
After 1.5 miles, the sight of the arch is awe-inspiring. The “Delicate Arch” stands on its own without much extra support or reinforcement on both sides, much like the St Louis Arch. Upon viewing the arch, the first thing that came to mind was that the arch on Utah’s license plate was modeled after this arch.
The most exciting part of the day was hiking the 7.2 mile loop trail which started from the Devil’s Garden Trailhead and connected to the Primitive trail which then connected back to Devil’s Garden Trailhead. The main portion of the hike was packed with tourists and had many side-trips off the main trail to visit numerous arches.
At Partition Arch, I met two older women. One was a retiree from Maine who was 6 months into a cross-country road trip. The other was a middle-aged woman from Hubmoldt County, CA who was driving her 1970’s VW Camper Bus on a 2 month-long road trip. The two women met in the Grand Canyon a couple of weeks ago and have remained in touch, traveling together on-and-off for the past couple of weeks. They were kind enough to suggest hikes in Canyonlands and route modification suggestions. Primarily, they suggested visiting Capitol Reef National Park immediately after Canyonlands. I will look into their suggestion and consider modifying the route.
After “Landscape Arch” and even more so after the “Navajo/Partition Arch” Junction, the Primitive trail began. The Primitive Trail is very lightly traveled. During the 90 minutes I spent on the Primitive Trail, I only saw a few people or about 5% of the amount of people on the main trails. The Primitive Trail had many more backcountry characteristics such as hiking in washes, climbing steep surfaces, and following stacked rocks to determine the direction of the trail. The Primitive Trail was one of the main highlights of the day, and by the time I completed the trail it was around 7:30 PM and the sun was setting.
I’m very excited for all the upcoming National Parks I’ll be visting in the next week or two.
