This is the day we were really looking forward to. It was similar to what we had booked for ourselves a couple years earlier. Arches National Park had always been a “must do” location to visit, and we were finally able to get there. Canyonlands was nice, too, but we were only there a short period. We were surprised how much we liked Dead Horse Point.

Utah

We went further west and left Colorado and entered Utah. The Utah sign was what we saw on license plates throughout the area. We got off the interstate and turned down a smaller highway. We stopped at one area just to check out some petroglyphs.

06/24/22—07/02/22

That highway led us through Castle Valley. We stopped along the Colorado River and took a group photo. We then made it to Lions Park outside of Moab, where we stopped for a little break and walked over a bridge across the Colorado. But we were ready to leave and go to Arches.

It took us 40 minutes waiting in line, but we finally made it into Arches National Park. We climbed a switchback road and began seeing towers, including the Three Gossips below and Sheep Rock. The scenes were like paintings.

Our first stop was Balanced Rock. It’s a 55’ tall boulder sitting on a 73’ tall base. Seth tried to straighten it out a little, but every side of the rock gave a different perspective.

Our next stop were The Windows. We headed towards Turret Arch first, but then went towards the South and North Windows. I climbed down to the South Window and took a photo looking straight up, which is shown below.

The last stop gave us a glimpse of Delicate Arch way in the distance. This is the arch we saw on the state border sign and the license plates.

We had a picnic lunch in the park.

After lunch, we moved over to Canyonlands National Park. Busses were only allowed to visit one stop per day, so Seth chose Grand View Point. It was a wonderful choice, showing out the canyons were carved out of the earth by the Colorado and Green Rivers.

Before we went back to our hotel, we stopped at Dead Horse State Park to get another great glimpse of how the Colorado River carved out canyons.