Arches National Park

Written on Sunday May 15th: Last night we had a celebratory dinner because Kyle found out he passed his Plant Pathology final with an 83%! He got a B in the class. We indulged with a steak dinner at “the best steak house in Richfield”, Steve’s Steakhouse and honestly, it was amazing. The place was packed, every person in town was having dinner there, the service was extremely friendly and the food was delicious. So if you are ever driving through Richfield, Utah – try it out! We left Richfield this morning about 9am, showered and refreshed. We made it slooooowly (a major headwind combined with climbing several thousand feet in altitude = 40 mph, flashers going & semi trucks passing us… but we keep saying it’s good for 2 reasons #1 we can really enjoy the scenery when going 40 mph and #2 you can take photos out the window without having to pull over, seriously) over many large mountains and arrived at Arches National Park about 12:30. We were told that the best arches were at the end of the park, so we headed for Devil’s Garden Trail head, which was supposed to have the most arches in the whole park. We stopped for a photo op at Balancing Rock.

Devil’s Garden trail was popular to say the least, but we got some great photos and found some parts of the trail less traveled. The rock formations are unique and individually impressive.

Begining of Devil's Garden Trail

Kyle standing under Landscape Arch

Landscape Arch

Partition Arch (as you approach it)

Partition Arch

Me standing at the base of Partition Arch

Partition Arch

Both windows of Partition Arch

Standing in Partition Arch

Partition Arch

Navajo Arch

Navajo Arch

I am not sure what this rock formation is named

but I thought it looked like files in a file cabinet

Double O Arch

Double O Arch

Inside the bottom O of the Double O Arch

"Finger" rock formations

And our goal for tonight was to find free camping… and we did! Less than 30 miles north of ArchesNational Park is an area a few hundred yards off the main road and there are at least a dozen RVs/toy haulers and several people camping in tents. So we found a spot for our selves and made camp.