Arches & Canyonlands National Parks - UT

The drive across I-70 East from Bryce to Arches was beautiful!  We didn't stop for pics along the way as we were slowly developing a petro situation.  There's a sign that says no services for 110 miles just before you hit the mountains.  Do yourself a favor and gas up - even if your vehicle says 220 miles to empty!  The hills were long and steep and we just made it to Green River, UT with less than a gallon left.  There was nothing in between except many beautiful viewpoint stops - next time!We arrived in Moab, UT early afternoon.  We pulled into Riverside Oasis RV Park which sits on the Colorado river. 

This is a very nice park with lots of trees for shade which really helps in the 102 degree temps! 

After getting setup, we headed into the Arches NP which is less than 2 miles up the road from the campground.  Lots of big red rock scenery:

They don't call it Arches for nothing, there are a lot of arches here.  Some you have to hike to and others are right along the road.  They call this the Windows area (taken from a distance across the petrified sand dunes):

We'll come back to the Windows on a hike another day.  Then we passed by Balanced Rock:

We drove down by the Windows and saw Double Arch:

We also passed by the "I forgot the name of this" Arch:

and we did a short hike in to see Sand Dune Arch:

and another very short hike into Fiery Furnace:

We didn't come up with the name!

On our way back out of the park a storm was rolling in which gave us another nice rainbow to check out:

In an attempt to beat the heat, the next day we got up early and drove all the way through the park to Devil's Garden trail head.  It was only low 80s by 9:30am.  We hiked this 4 mile round trip plus did several offshoots along the way.  One of the first arches you come to is Landscape Arch:

This trail was considered strenuous (and steep drop offs) as it involved climbing up rocks for a ways and traversing ridges with significant drop offs:

Along the way we took a side trail off to Partition Arch:

We also took another side trail to Navajo Arch (this was in a cool shaded area - felt great in the heat!):

Further along the hike the views were incredible and if you look really close you'll see another arch out there:

The trail ended (for us) at Double Os Arches:

Although a coyote passed in front of us one day, there's not a lot of wildlife around here to see but we did spot many of these little guys:

This was a great hike if your up for some climbing, can handle heights and hot temps (low 90s by the time we finished) - brings plenty of water!  Later in the day we hit Canyonlands National Park which is about 30 miles from camp.  This park has 2 parts - we were close by the north section which we drove all through.  Similar scenery as the Grand Canyon only much more red:

There were a few hikes to do here but we decided to just see the park from truck with short walks to overlooks:

There were golden fields with green trees in front of red canyons with large mountains and blue skies in the back ground:

You can see where the Green River (which is brown) passes through the park from this overlook:

Our last day here we decided to go back into Arches NP and hike the Delicate Arch trail.  It's a 3 mile round trip but 1.5 miles straight up with some steep drop offs:

On the way up we passed an arch that when you climbed up to it you could see the Delicate Arch off in the distance:

And from the top you get a great view of Delicate Arch:

On our way back down we ran into another man-eater:

We also detoured to check out the 17th century petroglyphs here:

After this hike we still had enough energy to hike the Windows area.  We immediately veered away from the crowds at North and South arches to check out Turret Arch:

We then took the primitive trail around the back side of South Arch:

There weren't many people hiking the primitive trail even though it really wasn't too strenuous:

Great view of the North Arch from the primitive trail side too:

And as you are coming around the final bend of this hike you get a great view of Double Arch:

On the way out of Arches, we snapped a shot of the Moab valley:

Later that afternoon we took a ride up Scenic Route 128 which is right across the street from the campground.  This was a beautiful drive along the Colorado River with steep red mountains on both sides:

Our destination for this afternoon was Fisher Towers which we found after 20+ miles down this drive, then another 4 mile down a dirt road and a short climb up a hill.    These formations were very cool and unique for this area - Suze spotted them from 10 miles away:

We also had a great view of the surrounding mountains and the Colorado river below:

We have to also mention the Moab Brewery in downtown Moab.  M, Tu & Wed from 4-6 they have awesome .15 cent wings and excellent baskets of onion rings!!!  Overall Arches & Canyonlands parks were a good take.  We would recommend visiting when the weather is a little cooler, October maybe?  River Oasis was a nice campground and a great location for visiting these parks!  We're now off to Mesa Verde National Park in Southwest Colorado for a few days. 

More to come . . .