Arches National Park, UT

Arches National Park in Utah was our first stop during our 3 day drive from Phoenix, AZ to West Lafayette, IN. When I say "we", it was my parents and me: Aditi had already flown back to Indianapolis to start working on searching up her apartment and completing her admission formalities at IUPUI.

We camped at Arches on the night of the 13th. Having seen and trekked through Grand Canyon NP, we were amazed at the beauty at Arches: it was far more stunning than GC for sure. While the Grand Canyon hits you with its sheer size and spread, Arches amazes you with the intricacy and grace of the carvings brought about through an incredible confluence of the forces of nature (or water, wind and a whole load of salt!). The Visitor's Center is exceptional and has a nice amphitheater with a 20 minute film showing you how the Arches park was formed and continues to form. The restrooms were much better than the ones in Arizona. Arches seems to be doing a lot better financially.

We did not have enough time to do justice to this place, but then that has never really been achieved anywhere we have gone. We ended up driving through most of Arches on our way out early in the morning and Papa caught some nice pictures in the rising sun, including the one above. What followed as we left Arches was an incredible drive along the Colorado river and some vineyards along the way. The drive through Utah and most of Colorado was splendid too. Those three states: Arizona, Utah and Colorado must be among the best places on earth and the US is so fortunate to have stumbled upon them in the new world.

That brought an end to a fabulous summer in the west. Now it's back to Indiana and an impending winter. Our Honda has been a real angel through the past 3000 miles taking us to places we never thought we would go.


Click here to see more pictures from our trip to Arches!