Arches and Canyonlands Parks

Between January 15th and January 17th, 2005 I took a trip to Utah to visit and hike in Arches and Canyonlands national park. Winter is a good time to visit the parks as there are few tourists, reasonable prices, and the temperature makes for nice desert hiking. The three pages linked to through this page contain pictures taken during my stay.

Day 1	I spent the first day hiking every trail in Arches except the trail off the campground that passes by Skyline, Broken, and Sand Dune Arch. I ended at Tower Arch at dark and walked the jeep roads back to the car to make an 11 hour day of mostly hiking but also a fair amount of driving.
Day 2	I spent the second day hiking all day through the Needles area of Canyonlands National Park. I hiked a large loop ending with a seven mile road walk to hike over 12 hours.
Day 3	I spent the first half of the third day in the Island in the Sky area of Canyonlands National Park. I then drove back to Salt Lake City for the flight home in the afternoon. I only managed about 6 miles of hiking on the third day as compared to a little over 30 on day 2 and around 25 on day one.