An inside look at Arches National Park, and some of the cute creatures that live there.
Welcome to my first (of hopefully many) national park features! I’ve decided to kick things off with my favourite US National Park that I’ve visited to date - Arches National Park.
Let me begin by telling you that the photos in this post do not do this park justice, in fact, I don’t think any photos do. To truly appreciate the scale and natural beauty of this park, you must visit and explore it – I promise it is worth every second.
First, let’s start with a few facts about Arches National Park:
- Arches is located in the state of Utah, just a few miles outside of Moab
- The park features over 2,000 natural stone arches (crazy right?! )
- While it seems desolate, Arches is home to many animals that have adapted to the harsh desert climate – like this cute little lizard
- The forces of erosion and sedimentation created the unique landscape of the park (sorry some sciencey terms are necessary here )
- The park features many petroglyphs like these, carved by the Ute Indians and found at Wolfe Ranch (because who doesn’t want to see some desert petroglyphs?! )
If you want to learn some more cool facts about Arches National Park, click here.
Now, lets get into the nitty-gritty of my trip through Arches. Originally, my fiancé and I planned on spending one day exploring Arches, however within an hour of starting our adventure we quickly decided we would need more time and wound up spending an entire additional day in the park (and trust me we could have spent even longer! ).
Here are a few of our must-do’s within the park:
1. Park Avenue
This is the first must-see attraction in the park (for many reasons). Please do not miss this stop! The two mile round-trip hike is relatively flat, easy to navigate and TOTALLY WORTH IT! The trail takes you through the bottom of a canyon where you can truly feel the massive size of the rock formations around you. My fiancé and I were in complete awe during this entire hike, and it’s where we met the cute lizard pictured earlier (who doesn’t want to see cute little lizards?!).
2. Balanced Rock
Yep, this stop in the park is as cool as it sounds. Balanced Rock is literally a natural phenomenon whose name does not lie! Check it out:
You don’t even have to leave your car if you don’t want to in order to see this beauty, however I obviously recommend you do. Pull over and spend a minute in awe of this crazy rock formation!
3. Delicate Arch
Well, you obviously can’t go to arches without stopping to see some of the crazy beautiful stone arches that are there. This is hands-down my favourite part of our visit to Arches – and it might just be because it took a bit of work to get to!
I know what you’re thinking… ew, work? Isn’t this supposed to be a vacation? Trust me when I say that Delicate Arch is worth every step on the 1.5 mile uphill journey it takes to get to it. Just look at it:
4. GyPSy Guide
What the heck is a GyPSy Guide? Well, let me tell you that it is my absolute favourite travel companion (sorry Troy, I promise you're a close second ). Check it out here.
It is essentially an app with a built-in, GPS-based, tour guide, and it is awesome! We love these guided tours so much because they allow you to explore places like a local! Just start your tour, drive along and let GyPSy Guide tell you all the best places to stop and explore. It is a must-do for Arches!!
Just so you know, your girl does not benefit in any way by recommending this app. I just love it so much that I HAD to share it with all of you. Try it out on your next trip and let me know if you love it as much as I do!
That concludes my first national park feature! I hope you enjoyed reading a little bit about Arches National Park – heck, maybe you’ve even added it to your travel bucket list!? I promise you WILL NOT be disappointed with this park. I honestly fell in love with the natural rock formations and can’t wait to go back some day.
If you made it through and finished this blog post then you were either actually enjoying yourself or you were hoping for more photos of cute little lizards (this would have been me too, don’t worry ). Either way, thank you! Please show your girl some love by liking, commenting or sharing this blog on your social media.
Until our next adventure,
Comentários