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.