The Amazing Utah Parks Part 1

Utah is fortunate enough to have 5 National Parks and I got to visit each one! They are all in the southern Utah desert and I first I was expecting them to all be pretty similar, but I was totally wrong. They are all very different parks with very different stories, but they are each very beautiful and fun to explore.

Arches NP

Arches National Park was designated to protect the beautiful sandstone arch formations the park is named for. My first day at Arches was pretty windy. And it was also cold, so I was a little discouraged to go out hiking. Fortunately, Arches NP has many overlooks and viewpoints that I could drive to. Just driving through the park is amazing, especially for someone like me who was so unfamiliar with the desert landscape. The red rock formations are awesome, even the ones that didn't quite make it to arch status. So the first day I followed the main road, stopping at all of the view points. I also did shorter trails off the main road: Balanced rock, Sand Dune Arch, Broken Arch, and Skyline Arch. They were all great, but Skyline Arch really stood out to me. I don't think its a super popular or talked about arch, but I really liked the easy trail to it and found its story interesting. It became its current size and shape because a boulder fell off it and crashed down below. The trail leads to the crash site and you can see exactly where it fell off. That and how the arch is set up high, made Skyline Arch really neat to me.

The second day at Arches was my big hiking day. I started off driving out to the trailhead at Devils Garden. I hiked out to Landscape Arch, the biggest in the park, and along the way stopping at Pine Tree Arch and Tunnel Arch. Landscape Arch is 290 feet across and really amazing to see. Then I kept following the trail to Double O Arch, while stopping at Partition Arch and Navajo Arch. The trail out to Double O Arch was really fun. I got to climb all over and across big rocks. At some points I got turned around or had to make my own trail because of some trail marker confusion, but luckily, there was someone else hiking out there too and we could help each other. After I got back to my car, I headed down to Wolfe Ranch and Delicate Arch. Delicate Arch is the most well know arch in the park. It's even on Utah license plates. So, I was really excited to get to it. The trail starts at Wolfe Ranch, which is a 19th century cabin and corral along the wash. After passing that, the trail starts heading up the cliffs. The whole hike to the arch is uphill. Its really cool climbing up the rock faces and along some canyons. It's pretty exhausting going up, I got out of breath a few times, but it is so fun and the view of the arch at the end is so worth it. The trail ends at a "bowl" where the arch is and you can climb in and get up close. You can touch and feel the arch, and just wander around it. The hike back down was easier on breathing, but harder on my knees. Still really cool climbing on the rocks though. After that I went to the Windows area of the park. I hiked around Turret Arch and the North and South Windows. They were really pretty to see as the sun was setting. The last arch I saw was Double Arch, another well known one. That was a short hike up to the neat formation. To end the day, I parked at an overlook and waited for the stars to come out. This is a really well known area to see a clear night sky. Once it was dark, I was so amazed by how many stars there were. I had never seen a sky like that before, it was a great end to a great day.

Canyonlands NP

Canyonlands - Island in the Sky District is about 30 miles from Arches. Like Arches, it is in the high desert, so somewhat a similar landscape and flora and fauna, but Island in the Sky is a mesa between the Colorado and Green Rivers, which makes a very canyony landscape. That's not the best description, but there's no easy way to describe the views. There's a lot less hiking in this park, but there are many overlooks to the canyons. In addition to the overlooks, I did a one mile hike to Mesa Arch, which is a large arch that opens up to the canyons, which made a great view. Then I hiked up what was called Aztec Butte. The hike led to some ancient pueblo granaries and up the butte, which again offered unreal views. The last hike started at the Grand View Point Overlook, which has the most panoramic views of the canyons below. The hike led to the edge of the mesa, so I could really look down and around and enjoy being on an island in the sky. This park just really had me in awe. I have never seen views so amazing before.

So overall, I was extremely impressed with the parks around Moab, UT. I stayed in a really fun hostel, and got to meet some really neat people from all over the world. The parks are great to explore and they really help you appreciate how beautiful the country is and how important it is to get out and see these places, they really help you put life into perspective. While visiting these parks, I noticed many people from out of the country visiting too. So our public lands are so interesting and inspiring, people come from thousands and thousands of miles away to see the unique American landscape. That made me proud and reinforced the fact that these places need to stay protected.

Please browse the gallery for my pictures at the parks.