Moab - Arches National Park

Left Zane Grey just before 8:00 and pulled into Spanish Trails RV Park at 4:00 including losing an hour to the day light savings time change crossing from Arizona into Utah.  Lori says that you gain an hour cause the clock jumps ahead and I say you lose an hour cause you never get to use that hour.  We have had that debate for years.  Lori is wrong.  

Spanish Trails was recommended to us by Mark/Jan and its a nice little park but located right next to the highway and our spot is closest to the highway and the front entrance.  Hwy 191 is the only highway for miles and all the traffic comes through here.  Cars, Trucks, RVs, and lots and lots of highway tractors.  And all of them seem to use their exhaust brakes despite a sign telling them not to.  A big sign at the entrance advertises free Wifi.  Guess you get what you pay for cause the wifi is all but non existent at our site.  I have found that the lounge in the office does have a good connection so any posting I do will be done from their big comfy chairs. 

Day 1 we headed through Moab north on 191 about 5 miles to Arches National Park.  Must have been an accident somewhere on the north end of town cause it was stop and go traffic and took us almost an hour to get through town.  

We bought the Annual National America the Beautiful pass for $80. which is good to the end of April, 2020.  We plan on visiting Arches one more day and then on to Canyon Lands which is also a National Park plus we can use it next year so we should get our money’s worth.  Senior US Citizens get to buy the pass for $80 but its a lifetime pass.  Thats up from $10. in past years.  Canadian Government should take note.   

The nice thing about Arches is that the main road traverses the length of the park with pull outs, viewpoints and side roads leading to short hikes and points of interest.  Most of the hikes we went on today were a mile or less in length and most fairly easy to navigate.  2 days should allow us to navigate most of the hiking trails and see most of the viewpoints.  

The scenery is of course amazing.  So many great views packed into a small area and the snow covered peaks of the La Sal Mountains provided great contrast for all the red rock, sand and desert greenery.  

The drive from the visitors centre up into Arches

Looking into the park you can see the snow covered mountains in the distance

This little guy just caught his dinner

Lots of arches

A number of years back my parents were here and had a similar picture taken.
I think the actual arch they were at was the Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park.
We hope to get there later this week. 

Same picture with 2 different effects.
Mystic above
Below B&W with a little blue added back into the sky

I left the people in this pic just to show the massive size of the arch.

A double arch. Note the little figures at the base of the arch.
Look like ants

Delicate Arch.  We were some distance away.
It was late in the day and we were too tired
for the 3 mile round trip hike up to the arch. 

A shot from the front of our trailer.
Its a great view out back too.
I will try to get a shot of that in a later post. 

It was a great day and I am looking forward to Day 2 which will be a visit to Dead Horse Point State Park.