Arches National Park!

This was our 3^rd trip to Moab. Our first trip was in 2014 where we camped for the weekend with our son Forrest and his family, our second trip was in 2015 where we spent a few days visiting our friends Dino and Lisa. This time….we were alone.

After leaving Lake Powell we spent the night at Sand Island BLM Campground in Utah. This was a nice little park with several big rig sites right along the river.

We arrived at OK RV Park in Moab the next day. This is the campground where Dino and Lisa worked for two seasons and once we mentioned we were friends of theirs we were given the royal treatment! Given the best spot in the park, a welcome basket that included caviar, Champaign and chocolate covered strawberries, free passes to the spa and turndown service every night. Well, maybe not but the owners and their former co-workers do miss them.

At $20/night with Passport America this is a great little park to stay at for a few nights.

We were staying 2½ days/3 nights so we thought we would get a couple of hikes/jeep adventures in but between the chores and rain we only ended up getting one adventure in. But what an adventure it was! Friends John and Pam have been here multiple times so we searched their blog for the ultimate hike. After reading several of their posts and texting back and forth we chose two hikes in Arches National Park; Tower Arch and the Fiery Furnace ranger led hike if we had time.

We had never been to Arches so we were looking forward to the visit. There are over 2,000 arches in Arches National Park. I am happy to report that only have about 1,995 left to see! Needless to say we have many visits ahead of us if we plan on seeing any more.

At the Visitors Center we discovered that the Fiery Furnace hikes were not starting for a couple of weeks so we just got our Passport Book stamped and off we went! The Tower Arch trailhead is in the northwest corner of the park meaning we had to drive almost the whole length to get to the trailhead. Perfect opportunity to see the varying landscape within the park!

We had originally planned on taking the 3.5 mile roundtrip hike to the arch but while reading the trail description on the way to the trailhead we discovered that there is a jeep trail that leads to another trailhead only .3 miles from the arch. The description said that it was a rough jeep trail requiring 4 wheel drive, high clearance and was often impassible after rain storms. Looks like the perfect opportunity to do a combo adventure!

When we left the main road onto the jeep trail it was smooth sailing for the first mile or so. We thought this was going to be a piece of cake and we would be at the .3 mile trailhead in no time. We soon learned at we were wrong……very very wrong. What started out as a 25mph gravel road quickly turned into a 1-5mph rock crawl.

The road started out pretty smooth

Then it got rough.... these pictures just don't do it justice

Headed up!

View from the top.....with the road leading off

On a difficulty scale of 1-10 I would give 5 or 6. There were no real pucker moments but it was rough and you had to go very slow and pick your spots or you would find yourself hung up. There were several times Barb got out to take pictures and was walking faster than I was crawling over the rocks. We spent the next hour and a half in 4 low crawling up and around obstacles as we made our way to the trailhead. It was a blast!

There were views in every direction!

Tower Arch is just to the right of the Jeep

Once we got to the trailhead we could see Tower Arch right in front of us. The challenge was getting to it. There is a sign that tells you to stay on the marked trail which we had no problem doing for a while until it lead to a slick rock section where the trail totally disappeared. After a little trial and error we found the right trail and soon we were at the arch!

Which way to the arch?

Barb and I split up and did some solo exploring. I went up behind Tower Arch.....

You can see Barb in the lower right corner (blue dot)

....while she went to the right where there is another smaller arch that is worth exploring.

If you look really close you can see me on a ledge in the middle under the arch

The second arch in the area

When we met up an hour or so later back at the jeep we found that our .3 mile hike had turned into a over 2 miles of hiking and exploring.  We wanted a different jeep trail on the way out. This trail led south 9 miles and west another 7 before it intersected highway 191 outside the park. There are several areas of soft sand so only north/south travel is recommended on this road. After going through it and seeing the tracks left by those trying to go north, I don’t know how you could ever do it.

Along the way we passed Eye of the Whale arch, another one we can cross off our list!

After exiting the park (after about mile 4 of our westerly leg) we found ourselves in the Willow Springs boondocking area. We had wanted to check it out to see if this is somewhere we would want to stay on future trips. It was packed! Kids, 4 wheelers, dirt bikes…doesn’t anyone work or go to school anymore? It must have been spring break at school or something. There were a few spots that our rig would fit but if it is always this crowded we will pass.

The yellow line shows our route for the day. We entered on the south end and exited to the west

We got back to OK RV Park at about 4pm meaning our entire trip took about 6 hours. This is about our limit for leaving the dogs alone so it worked out well.

The next day it rained almost all day so we read, did some laundry and walked the town just to get out and about. Being cooped up in the rig that third day cut into our adventure time and made this trip to this area seem short. Time to move on and make our way north!