Start Location: Moab, UT
Ending Location: Arches NP
Miles Today: 59
Trip Miles: 1215
States Visited: 4
National Parks Visited: 1
Low Temp: ° F
High Temp: ° F
Min Elevation: '
Max Elevation: '
Route Map:
Utah Parks 2026 Day04
Today
was our first National Park visit of the trip and it was Arches
National Park. We have been to Arches several times on previous trips
but it's still impressive. Arches is only about 5 miles north of Moab
so we got there quickly. I was worried that there might be a line up to
get into the park but there was only one vehicle ahead of us when we
got to the entrance. At one time you needed a reservation for the park
but maybe that's just before school starts and families need to be
home. As it was we saw very few kids and one of the parents we met in
one of the hotel hot tubs had his kids there but they were home
schooled so had a lot more freedom. We didn't really have big crowds at
any of the parks we visited this trip.
As you can see, there
is no temperature and elevation graph today. The GPS and sensor that
provides those features are located on the motorcycle and not able to
be moved. I used the GPS on my phone and the Ultra GPS Logger App for
the map of our path and, since I carried it all of the time, it also
logged any time we were off the bike like when we hiked. In the
upcoming days I think I will use both so we can see elevation gains and
temperature changes.
Once we got to the park, we stopped at
the Visitor Center to view the video about the park - a definite for
all our trips. After the video we drove to the end of the park road
with a plan to work our way back. The end of the road happened to be at
the Devil's Garden Trailhead which we planned to hike. This hike is
about 0.9 miles and goes to Landscape Arch - one of the iconic arches
in the park. The trail actually goes on from there but we were both hot
and tired and the trail went significantly uphill from there so we
turned around at that point.
After our hike to Landscape
Arch we turned around and started working out way back where we stopped
at several viewpoints and then took the side road to Delicate Arch also
one of the iconic arches, in fact, it is the symbol for the park and
many other places in the area. There were several viewpoints and we
chose the lower viewpoint. There was an upper viewpoint and another
trail right up to the arch but required significant climbing - not sure
how we would carry them but we definitely need hiking sticks for our
next trip.
We also stopped at Panorama Point which actually
has bleachers for folks to sit and view the night sky with no
artificial lights anywhere around. There is also a device to help you
identify stars based on the calendar date.
Next we drove
to the Windows Section of the park where we did another short hike to
the North and South Window as well as Turret Arch.
Finally
we got a picture of Balanced Rock also an iconic image of the park.
There is also a Phallus Pillar which we somehow managed to miss - maybe
next time.
Somewhere
along the way, we also stopped for a nice lunch and a short rest. All
in all a great start for our trip. Tomorrow we head for Canyonlands
National park.
