Trip to Arches National Park

Nov 24, 2006:

If you haven't been to the Arches national park yet, you should. There are simply no words to describe the awe that someone feels when they visit this place for the first time. Arches national park is in Utah about 1000 miles from Sunnyvale, CA. We started on Friday and drove on 101S, 152E, 5S, 46E, 99S, 58E,15N past Las Vegas and stayed overnight at Cedar City, UT - a distance of about 600 miles. This is an ideal place to stay the night, since the drive from this point to Arches National Park is 300 miles of absolutely breathtaking scenery.


We started off early in the morning from Cedar city and drove up along 15N and then on 70E. There are several very scenic stops on the way and look especially breathtaking during the early hours after sunrise.

We took 191S to Moab and had an early lunch here. Moab is the closest town and to Arches national park and the only place where you can get any food or place to stay since you won't find these at Arches. Arches national park can get extremely hot and quite un-condusive to strenous hikes in summer and gets quite a bit of snowfall in the winter making quite a of trekking trails untractable. This was the thanksgiving weekend and perhaps one of the best times to visit the park, consequently as expected, there was queue at the entrance.

By the time we reached the park entrance it was about little before noon and given that this was the thanksgiving day weekend. As soon as you enter the park, the scenery simply takes you by awe. The colossal red rock formations stand like immense statues carved by nature over millenia. If you have seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you will probably immediately recognise that the valley of the crescent moon was shot at Arches National Park.

The first natural rock formation that you see after entering the park is the three gossipers - three immense rocks shaped like standing people. There are several formations to be seen as one drives through the park. The petrified dunes are formations that look like sand dunes. Perhaps the most famous formation is the Balanced rock - a large rock delicately balanced on the top of another rock about 130 feet high.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the arches national park are its hikes to the delicate arch and the double O arc. The trails are a bit strenous and require you to be in somewhat good health. The trail path is marked by small piles of stones (similar to pitthu in India) and one is supposed to follow this trail of piles.

The scenery of the valley on the path to the delicate arch is nothing like any other place on Earth and successfully keeps you from feeling the exhaustion of the hike. The first sight of the Delicate arch completely stuns you. Its impossible to believe that the 50 feet gigantic formation it is not man made. It is many times worth the strenuous hike.

The hike to the double O arch is more strenuous, more adventurous and many times more spectacular. On the way to the double O arch lies the worlds longest natural arch - the fabulous 300 feet long landscape arc. The path the the double O arch involves a bit of scaling on the rocks and walking by the edge of some precariously steep cliffs and some fantastic views. The Double O Arch is a natural formation with two arcs one on top of the other - a small one spanning 21 feet and a much larger one above it spanning over 70 feet. To show the scale here is a photo of the two of us sitting in the smaller arc. After crossing through the double O arch there is small climb to the top of the hill that can provide an amazing view of the double O arch. By the time we started on our return journey from the double O arch it was almost sunset. We hurried back on the hike since it is definitely not advisable to hike on this trail after dark. By the time we reached back to the foot of the trail it was quite dark and the sun had set.

The sunsets from the park across the skyline of the cliffs are amazing. Overall this was one of the most memorable trips we have been on.