Grand Circle Utah - Arches National Park

 From Salt Lake City, we head south to Arches National Park with a quick stop in Provo to check out the Brigham Young University campus.  The most notable building was again the library with its airy glass atrium, with a view of the snowcapped Wasatch range behind the university. 

With a lunch break in Provo, we arrived in Moab mid-afternoon, allowing us time to check in at our airbnb and still have time to head into Arches National Park in time for the golden hour.  We have a National Park pass but the gates were not staffed after 4 pm and it was free for all, so it turned out to be a fairly busy time in the park with a run for limited park spaces at key sights.  We were awed by the magnificent red rocks right from the park entrance and from there it was just one WOW after another.

This impressive spread was what we first saw above the park entrance

A short distance from the entrance was this panorama of what seemed aptly named "Park Avenue".  It was totally stunning and took our breaths away.  The magnificence of this expansive view was indescribable.  This image in no way does it justice - you have to be there to feel the awe!

One side of Park Avenue with its own explanatory sign as to how these rocks were formed.

Across the street, the La Sal mountains were also awe-inspiring

We made another stop at Courthouse Towers, glowing in the golden hour light, then we head back into town for dinner.  It's been a long day on the road.

The view looking down from the park entrance

We returned the following morning, gawking at the view of the rocks at every turn.  Thanks to the park website which identified sights that are best photographed in the morning or afternoon, we were able to control our ADD and focused on the ones for the morning.  The Double Arch was one of them and it was chosen because it was an easy 0.6 mi "stroll" from the parking lot.  And was it ever a spectacular sight!

Double Arch - but you have to see the whole rock formation (below) to grab the magnificence and scale of what we were experiencing.  

Double Arch and its attachments

Love the lines!

Here is ET standing beside a dwarfed elephant with its trunk up

Along the scenic drive is a section named "The Great Wall" - it wasn't signed so we were just guessing this series of images that we saw are part of the wall.  Based on what I saw on Google images, I think we guessed right!

This section reminded me of Egyptian monuments

Layers upon layers of stone walls as far as the eye can see

At Panorama Point, we learned how the rocks at Arches are formed - a result of the action of buried salt.  

View from Panorama Point

In the afternoon, we hiked part of the Windows Trail, apparently considered by some as the "heart beat" of Arches National Park.  It was quite exciting to climb up to the South Window arch and look out at the other side.  But it was impossible to take a shot of the view with the arch even with a wide angle.  This is the best I could do given that I had a second to take the shot since I had to ask a young lady hogging the space to move herself and "give me a second" for the shot.

North Window - not accessible so this is a long shot

Before long, we noticed the light changing and it's another golden hour.  Time is running out but I think we also ran out of easy hikes because some of the hikes were too long or too strenuous.  We realized we can't see all the arches in the park including the much touted Delicate Arch but we had a great day in the park seeing what we could.  It was crowned by these golden hour shots which brought out the deep red glow in the rocks.

This was very close to sunset with the last remaining red reflection from the sun on the rocks.

This is Courthouse Towers seen from the side - a very different rock from what we saw the day before.

Sunset in Arches came earlier than expected - we had to make our way out for dinner and come back for night sky viewing.  At Panorama Point, there were benches set up for a night sky viewing area, complete with Planisphere.  And as luck would have it, there was an unannounced talk that night by the Night Sky Ranger!   What a great end to a wonderful day in Arches!

Night sky viewing benches

Planisphere on site

The Big Dipper and the other millions of stars visible at Arches - a certified Internationa Dark Sky Park