2016 Road Trip - Arches National Park

The first park on our tour of Utah was Arches National Park. We spent two nights at Devils Garden campground. The camp site was very scenic and we had some great views of the night sky, but it was also very hot, usually around 90 to 100 degrees F. This made for some less ambitious hikes, but fortunately many of the sites could be reached via short hikes.

We did a loop hike from the campground to see Tapestry Arch and Broken Arch. The kids loved climbing on the rocks, looking a prickly pear cacti and seeing the desert critters. Though the hike was less than two miles it seemed a bit epic due to the heat and we went through almost a gallon of water during the hike.

We did shorter hikes and stops at many of the other natural formations in the park including, Delicate Arch, Balanced Rock, Double Arch and Skyline Arch. Rachel and I also hiked through Park Avenue which was a canyon like area through some of the larger rock formations.

Night time at the camp site offered a whole new experience. The visible stars were plentiful along with a view of the Milky Way. Various critters also came out at night including huge moths, kit foxes and small scorpions. It was good there were things to see at night as it didn't cool down enough to comfortably sleep until after 11 pm.