2024 Arches National Park

The last part of our adventure before heading north to Canada, was Moab, Utah. The first place we wanted to see was Arches National Park. Without a timed entry pass, people can enter the park before 7:00am. So, we got there by 5:45am. The view was stunning with the sun rising behind the landscape.

On our way to Delicate Arch, we stopped to take pictures of many named rock formations and arches.

The hiking trail to Delicate Arch starts by going passed the Wolfe Ranch Cabin and Ute Indian petroglyphs. This was the easy part of the hike since it was still on flat land.

The rest of the hike to Delicate Arch is 3.2 out and back miles and climbs 480 feet. Let’s just say I think Jeff was trying to kill me! The path up was pretty steep and a lot of it was on slick rock. In this picture, you can see the area circled is the parking lot. At this point we were about halfway there!

As we pushed forward, there was also some climbing up and over big rocks. We were almost there when we found ourselves walking along an approximately 3-foot-wide shelf. Surprisingly it wasn’t scary since it was a narrow ledge path that slanted inward toward the wall and not the edge which was a significant drop off of at least several hundred feet.

We got to the end of the path, and there it was! The most amazing and rewarding prize of any hike we have taken. Right in front of us there it was! The awe inspiring, iconic Delicate Arch of Arches National Park. We sat along the edge for quite a long time just taking it all in.

The hike down was rather anti-climactic yet easier coming down. The saving grace of leaving that sight was knowing we were about to do another off-road trail. We had no idea how difficult this one eventually would be.

We started on Salt Valley Road which was just a sandy and gravel road that wasn’t difficult. We took the turnoff onto Tower Arch 4x4 Road. The sign said “rough 4X4 road”. We had no idea how rough it would be, but Jeff navigated our Jeep through all of the obstacles for several miles along the way to Tower Arch. Again, we found ourselves isolated from anyone for miles. We enjoyed the tranquility and solitude while recovering from our strenuous hike.

We then made our way toward the Eye of the Whale arch (no picture for this) which ended up being another 10 miles of rough 4X4 challenging obstacles that were worth every minute of the ride. We got to see things in the park that many people don’t get to see and experience.