Day Five – Arches

We made it to our first Utah National Park – Arches! The park is about 10 minutes (maybe less) outside of Moab, where we will be staying for the next two nights. Because it gets up in the low 100s during the middle of the day, and because summer draws the biggest crowds (even during COVID it seems), we decided to get up and leave for the park at 6am. Sunrise was at 6:05am, so we got to watch it rise over the park as we drove the 18 miles to the back of the park to start our hike in Devil’s Garden.

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This next bit is solely dedicated to our Devil’s Garden hike, as that took up a chunk of our day – 3 1/2 hours to be exact. We started the trail at about 7 in the morning, so there was still plenty of shade from the giant slabs of rock we were walking through.

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As the trail opened up, we had incredible views of the sun rising over the park (check the picture all the way at the top of this post).

On the way to Landscape Arch (the end of the maintained trail), there were two arches to see on spur trails – Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch. It was amazing having these arches to ourselves this early in the morning!

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As we got back on the main trail, we had our first wildlife sighting! I don’t think I’ve ever been this close to deer. They stopped dead in their tracks when we passed. We locked eyes. For a second, we thought they might come charging, but they were just looking for some breakfast.

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On the other side of the path was the most adorable desert animal that has ever lived. I believe this little guy is a Hopi or Least chipmunk. They are all over the park. One tried to get into our backpacks for a mid-day snack.

To round out our wildlife section, below is a picture of a Western Whiptail Lizard, one of the common lizards in the park. And good people, I give you the fattest squirrel we’ve ever seen. This guy is a Rock Squirrel – which are apparently considered the most dangerous animal at the Grand Canyon because they attack the tourists who try taking pictures with them. While we did snap a picture with him, he didn’t seem like he was moving (or attacking) any time soon.

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Back to our hike to Landscape Arch! The Arch is a sight to see – measuring in at 290.1 ft across, it is the longest arch in the Americas, and 5th longest in the world. There was a rockfall in 1991 when a piece broke off, so they say it’s only a matter of time before this arch is no longer. Glad we saw it in all its glory!

Many people turn back at this point, but we wanted to be adventurous (it’s in the blog name after all), so we headed further back to the Double O Arch. Now, I had read up on this trail prior about how you’ll have to ‘rock scramble’ and walk across rock fins, and so on. But all the reading in the world couldn’t prepare us for the actual act of scaling a rock fin and walking across one with canyons to either side of you.

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As we climb and maneuver our way across these rocks, there aren’t particularly signs telling us which way to go. Luckily, past hikers have marked the trails with ‘cairns’ or stacked rocks to lead the way. It still took some navigating on our part – especially on the way out there, as we were practically the only ones in the park!

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We finally made it to the Double O Arch, two arches on top of each creating a double O. It’s crazy, the size of these, and the thought that they’ve been evolving for millennia and will keep doing so well into the future.

We opted not to take the primitive trail back (we didn’t want to get lost in the heat that was slowly creeping up on us), so we took the same main trail back. There were a couple of sites that we had missed on the way there, though, so thankfully we got to see those!

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And that is the end of the Devil’s Garden Adventure! 7 Arches total, and that was all before 11am.

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And here is what we did the rest of the day! Because we chose to do the hike at the furthest end of the park first, the drive back to the front entrance was full of fun stops visiting the other famous arches and viewpoints in the park. The first stop was to the Skyline Arch – a quick little hike out to get the best views of it.

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Next stop was the Delicate Arch Viewpoints – we opted for the viewpoints in the mid-day sun because the hike out to it has no shade. So the real deal is coming up tomorrow night at sunset, as the lighting is said to be unbelievable at that time of day!

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We then drove out the the Windows Section of the park to see the North and South Windows. The North Window was very popular, as it provided a bunch of shade and was the closer of the two (masks on!). Turret Arch and Double Arch were also back in this area, as well as a rock formation called Parade of Elephants. It really does look like the name!

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The Garden of Eden and the Pothole Arch were also down this road to the Windows.

Turning back onto the main road, we snapped a picture of Balanced Rock (there was also a Balanced Rock in the Colorado National Monument if you remember). And off to the left, there also a baby balanced rock!!

On our way out of the park, we stopped to view Sheep Rock, Baby Arch, and the Three Gossips in the Courthouse Towers section, as well as taking in some cool sights from the road.

A stop at the park store (masks required) to buy a souvenir (500+ piece puzzle of Landscape Arch), and we were out of the park! We took a much needed break for the rest of the night and are getting ready to tackle Canyonlands tomorrow, as well as a little trip back to Arches at sunset to see Delicate Arch.

So excited to see what tomorrow has in store!

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STEPS: 24,299

MILES HIKED: roughly 8-10 miles

ARCHES SEEN: 16 + a bunch of other formations and rocks

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