Arches National Park

Tourist Information Centres, aka Visitors Centres, are well promoted and sign-posted in most US towns. At the point of entry to each state, they are wonderfully informative places with free maps and coffee and smiling staff welcoming you to their town and state. The amount of information can be overwhelming. In the case of the one at Dinosaur, we changed our planned route entirely and decided a trip down and around the Parks in Southern Utah was warranted. Hence it was that we headed for Arches National Park and would then loop around through Bryce and Zion NP’s, taking in a number of state parks and passing through National Forests along the way. Utah seems to be overly endowed with natural beauty.

So we headed for Arches National Park and the town of Moab, 450 km’s south of Dinosaur. The roads were great, (we avoided all the Interstates) there wasn’t much traffic and the scenery got bigger and better as we neared the park with towering deep red sandstone ridges lining the road. A quick trip to the Park Visitors Centre to get some information and a map to digest over dinner and then to a campground just out of town for the night. On advice from locals, we were passing through the gate of the park at 7.20 the next morning and spent the next 4 hours exploring Arches National Park, walking some short trails and being amazed at the stunning landforms and scenery.

As we left the park about 11.30am, the line-up of cars waiting to get in stretched for a long, long way, indicating that holiday makers still generally like to sleep in – thank goodness! We hope the photos will give you an idea of how spectacular this place is.