"Arches National Park"

   Arches National Park became a National Monument in 1929 and a National Park in 1971. I highly recommend reading Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire before your trip to Arches. Abby gives an exciting first-person account of the park during years of National Monument status. Desert Solitaire also deals with the issues that all our nation’s public lands face, not only overcrowding and use, but the exploitation of the environment’s oil and mining resources.

   Arches was the first major road trip of the 2025 season. Since Arches National Park is incredibly popular, camping inside the park requires reservations to be made six months in advance. Otherwise, there are many options in the Moab area, But I highly recommend staying inside the park particularly if you enjoy the shorter hikes. I found that there is enough exploration to be done just from the Devil’s Garden Campground. Reservations were so difficult that I sat by the computer already logged onto recreation.gov only to just barely reserve a spot for the days that I wanted.

   For me the park holds an unbelievable beauty that I believe is not duplicated anywhere in the world.