7 Arches

25 miles away from the northern entrance of Canyonlands lays Arches National Park. It was difficult to grasp the immense change in geological features between the two, even though their close proximity.

We quickly went from canyons as far as the eye could see, to arches around every corner. For the day we decided to head to Devil’s Garden and hike the Double O Arch Trail, making it a loop with the Primitive Trail. On this hike we saw at least 7 arches, all a little different! As we set out on our hike, our first side trail was to see Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch.

Back on the main trail we soon came across the famous Landscape Arch. We were a little disappointed to find out we could not go underneath the arch as we could with several others. In years past rocks have fallen off the arch and maybe soon the arch will cease to exist.

The trail between the next couple arches required a bit of scrambling to reach these gorgeous views of Devil’s Garden.

Soon after we came across Partition Arch and Navajo Arch, where we took a breather and dreamt about climbing some cool rocks.

At the “end” of the trail we gathered with everyone else on the trail to climb through Double O Arch and witness the giant arch stacked atop the smaller arch.

Besides the arches, Devil’s Garden is home to spires and fins. Seen from the main trail, they can be explored via the Primitive Loop that connects back to the main trail.

By far our favorite arch was Private Arch, because as the name implies it was private. We only saw a few people leaving it when we arrived and ended up having the whole arch to ourselves for lunch.

Although the Primitive Loop adds more mileage to the hike, being able to see Private Arch, explore the spires and fins, and seeing fewer hikers, we found the loop to be beautiful and a highlight of the park.

After a long day hiking, hoping to find a campsite relatively quickly and easily, we set out along along highway 128, following the Colorado River. Surprisingly, to us at least, finding an easily accessible campsite, on a Sunday afternoon in early May is a lot harder than we thought it would be. After an hour driving in the opposite direction than we had originally looked, we found an absolute gem of a campsite. Tucked between the canyon walls we watched a beautiful sunset in an almost empty campground!