Our last National Park on the Southern Utah trip was Arches National Park. It was going to be another hot day. Arches National Park is a busy one. It requires a timed pass to enter and the lines back up for 30 - 60 minutes. Skip the lines and enter the park before 7:00 am. No Pass required. We drove through the entrance with no line just before sunrise. We headed to Windows loop. Windows Loop has a North and South “Window” that looks like eyes. It is a short 200 yard hike up to the Windows. We watched the sunrise through the south window. Now there are reportedly 2000 arches throughout the park. To be an arch it has to have a least a 3 foot “hole”. One can never get to all of them, but many are easy to get to and enjoy. As with Canyonlands we schedule a day and it was not long enough. And with the heat of the day we halted hiking just after noon.
After the Window sunrise we went to Double Arch. There were 3 people there and beside them we had the short trail and site to ourselves. You could get echos and the arches were fantastic. This may have been my favorite arch in the park.
We drove out toward the end of the scenic drive and stopped at Skyline Arch. It was a short hike out to get a great view. Then we headed to the end of the line. Devil’s Garden is a 7 mile loop hike with many arches. Due to the heat of the day we did not do this hike, but I would recommend it from everything I have heard. We headed back and hit Sand Dune Arch. I really enjoyed the hike back to see the arch in the narrow canyon.
Next we hit Delicate Arch. This is the most famous arch in the park. We did not hike the three mile exposed trail to the arch; we did the Lower and Upper Delicate Arch Viewpoint. It is very steep, but only a half a mile. It the heat is not too much I would do both in the future.
On the way out we stopped at Balance Rock and strolled around it then hit Sheep Rock (a Fallen Arch), the Three Gossips and The Court House Towers. They look like giants having a chat.
As we left the park there was a line back to the 30 minute sign, which was better than the day before when it was an hour wait. GO EARLY.