Arches National Park

is a national park in eastern Utah, United States. The park is adjacent to the Colorado River, 4 miles (6 km) north of Moab, Utah. More than 2,000 natural sandstone arches are located in the park, including the well-known Delicate Arch, as well as a variety of unique geological resources and formations.

The park contains the highest density of natural arches in the world. The park consists of 76,679 acres (119.811 sq mi; 31,031 ha; 310.31 km²) of high desert located on the Colorado Plateau. The highest elevation in the park is 5,653 feet (1,723 m) at Elephant Butte, and the lowest elevation is 4,085 feet (1,245 m) at the visitor center. The park receives an average of less than 10 inches (250 mm) of rain annually.

After rolling by for the first time I didn’t expect too much of this park, I hadn’t heard of it before and Capitol reef turned out to be a bit disappointing but mainly due to the fact that I didn’t stay that long.

I checked into the Windham Days Inn in Moab, conveniently located just on the side of the park. A typical American roadside motel, that came with an awesome all you can eat breakfast with bake ‘em yourself hot waffles that made it exceptional, I mean all you can eat hot waffles with syrup, fruit, yoghurt, coffee, bread, deli… compared to the usually quite small and dissatisfying continental breakfast was just great.

Arches itself was absolutely stunning and it for sure is in the top 3 of my favourite parks of the whole trip.

As the name suggests, the main attraction were the natural arches, I.e. brides out of stone that got formed over time through corrosion of the rocks by the elements. The park itself was very accessible by car and I think I spent a good three days exploring it trying to find more and more of the famous arches. My favourite was the double arch, looking through one arch and being able to see another. I did the usual, a few of the popular hikes, drive around, find most of the signature sights, look at stuff and obviously take photos. It was quite cold here as well so I pretty much had to take the hotel. I was very comfortable in the room and the waffle breakfast always waited for me after I returned from my sunrise missions. I absolutely loved it and made sure to stuff myself every morning even though it wasn’t the healthiest option at all. It was a nice change to be able to stay in a hotel room at night for a few nights in a row because it got dark so early and there was just nothing to do in the car at nighttime, just play on Instagram photos and try to sleep as early as possible, which was great for sunrise but overall quite boring, considering it got dark round five to six. That is a lot of time to kill without power and internet.