Our first big stop in the USA was the famed Arches National Park in Utah. And boy were we impressed! Arches NP has over 2000 natural stone arches and pinnacles. The incredible red colour of the rock makes for some stunning photos, especially at sunset.
Sand Dune Arch
We spent three nights in Arches NP exploring the many unique rock formations. We hiked around formations such as Skyline Arch, Double O Arch, Broken Arch and, of course, The famous Delicate Arch.
Broken Arch
We spent three nights camped at Devils Garden Campground. This campground is close to a range of trails such as The Devils Garden Trailhead, Broken Arch, and Skyline Arch. The trails here are great for most fitness levels and children, with limited elevation and easy to moderately rated. There are even some trails that have been paved.
Balanced Rock
Balanced Rock is another of the famous formations in Arches National Park. And if you're into photography then this is a great spot to do astro time photography. It's an easy 500m (0.3mile) loop trail. The beginning of the trail is wheelchair accessible and stops at a viewpoint that also gives you a view of The Windows and the La Sal Mountains. The remainder of the trail circles around the Balanced Rock formation.
The Windows
Sunset at Delicate Arch was a definite highlight of our visit to Arches NP. We hiked the 4.8km (3 miles) out to the arch. The first half of this trail is well defined, but overall it is rated as difficult on the NPS website. As you can see in the last photo the viewing point is quite steep, and a narrow ledge needs to be traversed to reach this point. As someone who has a fear of heights I can tell you the ledge is not for the feint of heart. But it's so worth it when sunset hits. And golden hour turns The Arch an almost fluro red.
Delicate Arch
The Delicate Arch Trail is not to be confused with the Delicate Arch Viewpoints which are rated as easy on the NPS website. The first viewpoint is wheelchair accessible, while the second viewpoint is an easy 800m (1/2 mile) walk further. They both give you a view of the famous arch from a distance.
Delicate Arch at sunset
As mentioned, we spent three nights in Arches National Park and we were able to visit everything on our list. We did visit in the off-season and luckily didn't have to book a site but this national park gets extremely busy so bookings are recommended.
All images in this post were taken by and remain the Copyright of Bree Plater unless stated otherwise.
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If you'd like to learn a bit more about the photography featured on our page you can read an interview with did with Photofeed here.
