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 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