Day 8, Tuesday March 26th 2024 – Arches National Park

We said we would get up early and get to Arches before noon, but somehow it was after 8AM when we left Outdoorsey.

We really had no good plan for Arches, despite our best efforts, we were not able to book a campsite in the park. Our non-plan was just to show up and wing it from there.

The drive was uneventful with little traffic and the temps rose the closer we got to Arches. About two hours into the trip the temperatures rose to above freezing so I turned on the solar and DC-DC chargers so our batteries would be charged when we got to Arches.

We arrived just before 12N and there was a pretty good line at the gate to get into the park. The sign said it was a 30 min wait from where we were, but in reality, it was less than 20 mins.   

Since we had no idea what we were doing we stopped at the visitor center. There was no line to talk to a ranger, so I did. I told her we could not get into Devil’s Garden Campground but wanted to stay 2 nights, she said there is lots of BLM camping outside the park and we should not have a problem. She also gave us a map with the areas she suggested we visit. This took about 5 mins, when I turned around to leave there was a line at least 10 deep…yikes…. we were just lucky.

As we drove into the park we were just awestruck with the beauty.  We had trouble making or way into the park because we kept stopping to take in the views. This picture has the visitor center behind June, we did not get far. 

We made our way to one of the must see stops recommended by the ranger, “The Windows”, but there was no parking. All the RV spots were taken by cars because there were no empty car spots either. We had been unable to get a site at the Devil’s Garden campground but we decided to just drive there and check it out. 

I pulled in and found the host @ site #35, and knocked on his door. What a nice man, he asked me a ton of questions and then said how many nights, I said two and somehow there was a cancelation on site #42 that fit us perfectly. We were very grateful, it is so much easier when you are in the park. 

The campground is just beautiful but has no amenities except a bathroom.  

There is no cell or WiFi. I did get a radio station, but that is about it.  Poor June is just going to have to talk to me for a few days.

We parked the RV and unloaded the very dirty scooter, since we knew that would solve the parking problem.

We were now 18 miles into the park. We went to one of the closer arches recommended by the ranger, Delicate Arch. It is a 3-mile round trip hike with 500 ft of elevation gain…it had us huffing and puffing but it was well worth it.

On the way back we took a small detour to see the Petroglyphs from the 1500s. I know I am supposed to be in awe of these, but after visiting Europe and seeing what they were doing in the 1500s, frankly it is a bit underwhelming. That being said. they are probably better drawings than I could do today.

After The Delicate Arch we moved down the road for another view, but after we just hiked 3 miles to be at the arch, it was not nearly as impressive from a distance.  

 

As the afternoon got later, the temperatures started going down, but we wanted to get in one more hike, The Windows Arch.  It is about a 1.5-mile round trip hike but not nearly has difficult as The Delicate. 

We also got to see the Turret Arch on the same hike.  The double arches are in the same area but we decided that this can wait.

The temperature drops quickly when the sun starts to get low in the sky, so we headed back to camp, about a 10 mile scooter ride. I was able to hold 35mph even on the steepest climbs with the little red scooter. It is definitely a great way to get around the park.

When we got back to camp it was in the low 40s but we were toasty in the LTV.  I will say there are some hearty families of campers here, people in tents washing their dishes in the cold water sink at the bathroom with little kids in tow. They are experiencing the outdoors…awesome.

We were pretty tired from the hikes and turned in early, with smiles on our faces.