According to geologists, Arches National Park is over a salt bed which is responsible for creating the arches, spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins and eroded monoliths.

This salt bed was deposited across the Colorado Plateau 300 million years ago when a sea flowed into the region and eventually evaporated. over millions of years, residue from floods, winds, and the oceans that came and went blanketed the salt and the debris was compressed as rock.

Our visit to Arches National Park

At the Arches National Park in Utah we saw huge rock formations in the shape of arches that were formed millions of years ago.

Our visit to the Arches National Park lasted one day only and we needed to spend at least two days there (if not more) to enjoy every little bit of the park.

We arrived very early in the morning and that was a good decision as we avoided the lunchtime rush and we went from viewpoint to viewpoint by car and eventually hiked a few trails to see some of the most important and famous rock formations in the park.

The map provided by the visitor center clearly indicated the distance from one viewpoint to another and how many miles of trekking was involved for the places not reachable by car. The total loop takes about 45 minutes if you don’t stop (18 miles), but of course it took us a few hours more to visit the park.

On the route that we took we saw the rock formations at these viewpoints:

La Sal Mountains Viewpoint

The Organ and the Courthouse Towers Viewpoint

From the Courthouse Towers Viewpoint we enjoyed the view of the Tower of Babel and the Three Gossips

Sheep Rock

Petrified Dunes Viewpoint

Balanced Rock

Near the Garden of Eden we spent more than two hours walking and having fun.

We took a nice stroll through and around the Turret Arch and the North and South window arches and under them, in their shadow, we could feel a fresh breeze which was very rare that day.

Ruth visited the Doubled Arch, as it was too hot and Noah needed to rest a little.

Sand Dune Arch entrance

Skyline Arch

Ruth also walked the first section of one of the trails leading to one of the most emblematic archs in the park. The trail was easy and the walking pleasant … finding even some small animals in the midst of rock 🙂

The Landscape Arch is one of the longest natural arches in the world.

Pine Tree Arch

Tunnel Arch

Tapestry Arch

Fiery Furnace Viewpoint

Delicate Arch from the Upper Viewpoint. From the viewpoints beauty and grandeur of this structure of rock in the middle of a plain seen … If we return to Arches National Park definitely we do the tour for a closer look. We believe it is one of the most worth visiting.

Arches National Park is definitely a place to visit, although we would have preferred to go on a cooler day.

Next stop, Monument Valley!