Arches National Park wasn’t even part of the plan. We were driving from Ouray, Colorado to Salt Lake City, Utah. At Salt Lake City, we scheduled a guided city tour to help us tour the city without getting lost. From experience, city tours help us a lot especially when we have no first hand knowledge of a new place.

The road signs just kept on showing up every few miles and it kept getting bigger. I was about to totally ignore it when I was asked, “Do you want to drop by Moab? We have, I think, enough time to get to Salt Lake City.” The park wasn’t even mentioned but I knew that was the reference of the detour. I didn’t bat an eye when I responded with a resounding – yes!

The line of cars wasn’t long but it was enough to get me worried. Do I get exposed to COVID19 here?

It pays off if you read about the rock formations at the park before you see it. They are so massive and impressive! The also look similar! We stopped at the La Sal Mountains viewpoint. I can describe the view as a bird’s eye view of the towers.

The next stop was a closer view of the Courthouse Towers. The Organ, the Tower of Babel, and the Three Gossips can be viewed from different sides of the parking lot.

The scenic route brought us closer to the arches as we headed further. We saw from the map that there were several arches that can be viewed but the Double Arch was the most accessible.

We knew that there were more arches and rock formations that can be viewed. It required some hiking and more time. We decided to breeze through the rest of the scenic route and resumed our travel to Salt Lake City. In hindsight, we could have planned for it better and spent more time at the park. However, the spontaneity of the visit added to the excitement of the experience.