Arches National Park

We finally made it into Arches National Park! It was roughly 2:00 by the time we got in and parked at the Balanced Rock trailhead/viewpoint. It was really hot, but we were not new to this by now!

The trail that goes around Balanced Rock is super easy and only 0.3 miles long. It provides a 360 view of the rock formation itself, and a nice view of the area surrounding it.

After enjoying Balanced Rock, we decided to head farther into the park to the Delicate Arch viewpoints and then come back to the arches you can sit/climb on. I thought the girls might enjoy that as a grand finale. We drove out to the shared parking for the Upper and Lower Delicate Arch viewpoints. Everyone was stopping at the lower viewpoint and calling it a day, but we went for the upper viewpoint. This was a longer hike and a bigger climb, but nothing compared to the 3 mile hike out to the actual arch itself (which there was no way my family was up for in this heat!). The hike itself was 1 mile round trip, though my watch had it as slightly longer than that from the actual parking lot. There is a lot of climbing of stairs, as it is called the UPPER viewpoint for a reason. However, I thought the view was better and worth the climb. Squid and Wormy weren’t in agreement.

After climbing back down, we drove back through the park to get to the Windows Section of the park. I couldn’t seem to convince anyone in the car with me to explore the “Fiery Furnace” viewpoint (not the trail itself!)….they seemed to think everything so far had been a Fiery Furnace, so they had a hard time believing a stop there was necessary. I gave in, and guided us to the Windows and Turret Arches. When Hubby and I had been here last, this was our favorite section of the park. The arches are huge, and the trails take you into the arches. Some of my favorite photos of my husband and I from that trip came from this area. The girls were hesitant at first, but they loved it after we got going.

We stopped at the North Window arch first and enjoyed the view from sitting on the arch itself. We had somehow managed to lose the crowd (I say that as though it was like Disney World or something…it was nowhere near that bad…just a clump of people to avoid). We had a lovely view looking out over the park.

Next, we decided to skip South Window Arch, as the clump of people had caught up to us and were headed that way. Instead, we hopped over to Turret Arch. The arches are all labeled on the path, so you can easily pick and choose which way to go. It’s also a bit of a loop, so you can also change your mind and jump back to an arch you skipped really easily as well. The whole trail is 1 mile, with a few stairs. If you choose to explore Turret Arch, there is a bit of climbing up some rocks to get into the arch, but the view (and the feeling of conquering an arch) is totally worth it. That arch is my favorite.

After the fun of these arches, it was back to the parking lot. You’re even treated to a beautiful view of the Garden of Eden section of the park on the way back to your car. My family was starving by this point, so we went into Moab for dinner, and head off to set ourselves up for our next adventure for tomorrow.