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.
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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.
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.
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.
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