Arches National Park - A Journey Through the Park, Part 1 - The Entrance

Arches National Park is one of the most unique and beautiful parks in the National Park system. The park has over 2,000 known rock arches and some very distinctive rock formations. It is a fantastic place to visit, explore and take photographs. It is also the home to Delicate Arch, Utah's famed rock formation. Every time that I visit I find a new perspective to photograph. This National Park is maybe my favorite and I visit the park as often as I am able, especially since I became focused on photograpy.

See Images of Arches National Park

The park is located in Southeast Utah with the entrance being just a few miles north of Moab. For those that aren't familiar with the area, Moab is well known for outdoor activities such as hiking, mountain biking, river rafting and 4-wheeling. In fact it is frequently promoted as the Adventure Capital of the World. Moab is also where the lodging is located for those not in to roughing it. There are two National Parks just outside of Moab, one is Arches National Park and the other is Canyonlands National Park. I am a big fan of both parks, but for the enjoyment of adding articles to this blog, I have decided to focus on Arches National Park. For the next year I am going to explore the park from the Park Entrance to the upper reaches in the north end of the park and I am going to share my experiences and pictures here with you on my blog.

The entrance to Arches National Park is right off Highway 191. The photo above shows the highway on the right as it winds down into Moab (the area with the green vegitation). The actual entrance to the park is in the center of the photo just above the semi tractor trailer in the photo. It is a beautiful location surrounded by red rock cliffs with the La Sal Mountains at over 12,000 feet to the east. This photo was taken at one of the pull-offs on the road above the visitor center.

I have on several occasions seen Desert Bighorn Sheep grazing on the grasses near the entrance to the park. The sign above is seen near the visitor center.

The Arches National Park Visitor Center is located just beyond the entrance fee booth. You will find many visitors hanging around here where there is important information about visiting the park, souvenirs and rangers to answer your questions. If you have the time, you can watch an imformative movie about the park. Outside there are several spickets for filling up your water bottle or containers, having plenty of water is very important. There are flush toilets located on the outside of the visitor center that are open to the public 24 - 7.

There is plenty of picture taking to be had around the visitor center and when you are there you will usually see someone with their camera out.

The visitor center is nestled below red rock cliffs in a very beautiful setting.

One of the most unique features of the park and one that I enjoy immensely is the drive up the winding road from the visitor center into the park. I don't know of another National Park that has such a dramatic entrance! The photo opportunities along the road are in abundance, from the red rock cliffs and features to the views of the highway leading into Moab, to images of the lights at night. You could spend a lot of time taking pictures in this one area alone and you really haven't entered the park proper yet. Here is a link where you can see my photo of the cars exiting the park at night as they wind down the road: The Cars Exiting the Park Make a Beautiful Light Show

Follow along as I journey through the park exploring and photographing this exceptional landscape.

Arches National Park - A Journey Through the Park, Part 2 - Park Avenue to the La Sal Mountains Viewpoint



After you have traveled up the hill from the entrance, you are met with fabulous sandstone formations along the east side of the road and to the north. In the image above you see the road and Park Avenue in the distance. The next stop on the road is the parking lot for the viewing area and trail head for Park Avenue.

To the east is a flat plane with red rock and the La Sal Mountains in the background.



Park Avenue is one of the first major attractions in the park. The scenery is breath taking and it is a superb location for photography. One could sit and admire the sandstone spires, cliffs and formations all day long. This spot was actually used in one of the first scenes of the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Here you can take beautiful photos at sunrise and at sunset when the sun is at an angle causing the rock to display brilliant colors that contrast beautifully with a blue sky. The photo above shows some of the formations on the west side of Park Avenue, this shot was taken at sunrise.

This is perhaps my favorite view of Park Avenue, looking north toward the slot between the east and west formations. The Park Avenue trail runs down from the parking lot/viewing area, along the canyon floor, then through the slot at the end of the canyon where it meets the road again near the parking lot at the base of the Organ rock formation.

A Beautiful Image of Park Avenue in Arches National Park

The formations on the east side of Park Avenue are unique in that they are somewhat narrow and make for a very interesting skyline. Photo opportunities abound here, the shot above was taken at sunset in June of this year.

Moving on from Park Avenue, the road makes a short run to the east with the turn off to the right for the La Sal Mountain Viewpoint coming almost immediately after you start up the road. The image above is the view looking north just after leaving the Park Avenue Parking lot.

As with pretty much every view point in Arches, the La Sal Mountain Viewpoiont does not disappoint. This location has views of far off Balanced Rock and the Windows area of the park to the North, the La Sal Mountains to the Southeast and Courthouse Towers to the west. The photo above is the view to the Southeast with the La Sal Mountains in the background.

 

 

The photo above is looking almost due north where off in the distance you can see the Petrified Dunes, and farther out is Balanced Rock and the area around the Garden of Eden and the Windows.

The Courthouse Towers are located to the west of the viewpoint. In the image above you can glimpse the Three Gossips, the Organ and part of the Tower of Babel. The road winds down through the towers providing easy access to fabulous views and photography. This area is my next stop in the Journey and has many interesting sites to see.

I photographed this Hot Air Balloon off in the distance with the nearby towers in the forefront. This photo was taken during a stop at the viewpoint in July. I have found that you must keep looking in all directions or you might miss an interesting shot. It proved to be true in this case.

The photo above was taken from the viewpoint on the same day, near the same time and from the exact same spot from where I photographed the image of the Hot Air Balloon. For this photo, I just turned to where I was looking southwest. As you can see, looking in this direction, there were clouds and good lighting making for an interesting image.

See Beautiful Photos of Arches National Park

You could spend a lot of time in this area of the park alone, exploring and taking photos, but Arches National Park has so much more to offer.

Arches National Park - A Journey Through the Park, Part 3 - The Court House Towers

One of my favorite locations in Arches National Park is the Courthouse Towers. This area consists of grand sandstone towers like the Organ, Tower of Babel and the Three Gossips. You can take in the scenery from many spots along the road. This area is breathtaking to say the least. For me personally when taking photographs, I believe that this area is best viewed in morning light, though the evening light can lead to rewarding images also.

I have spent a lot of time in this area. There is such an abundant amount of photo opportunities on a grand scale. The hike that winds down from the Park Avenue Viewpoint terminates near the base of the Organ near the crosswalk shown in the image above. The trail has many different vantage points for photography.

The Three Gossips always make for an interesting photo and are easily seen from the road or the lower end of the Park Avenue trail.
 

If you park at the base of the Organ you can hike around this monolith and take interesting photos from many angles.

 

The photo above was taken from right off of the road and is the view looking south towards park avenue.

The above image is a view of the Tower of Babel that I have seen posted many times. This image was shot just off of the road.

 

Night shots taken in this area can be very interesting if not spectacular, that is if you don't mind staying up in the wee hours of the morning. 

 

 

If you go to Arches National Park, be sure to stop and view the Court House Towers, maybe not the most famous area of the park, but very rewarding none the less.

 

Click here to see my best images of Arches National Park