Speaking Of Traffic
Hey John! How timely of you to mention something about traffic at Arches.
Funny you should bring that topic up …
This is traffic backed up trying to get into Moab/Arches … which is still a few miles down the road from this viewpoint. At this time, Arches is restricting access and traffic backs up. Town can be a zoo at times … although I’m not really sure when it’s not a zoo anymore.
I lived in Moab almost 50 years ago (???). It wasn’t quite the tourist place then. This road was two-lane, I-70 was being built; US6 was the main (only) EW highway. I was in town for 3 months or so working with an oil survey team out on the San Rafael Swell. Good job, nice country, paid portal-to-portal as well 🙂 Didn’t go with them when they moved on (to Texas). Sometimes I wonder …
Anyway, I wasn’t caught in this traffic for more than a few hundred yards to a cut-off. There’s at least one decent road I usually take on the back side to avoid all this if I’m going into the park. It’s a bit out of the way, much red clay/sand surface, can be treacherous remote desert driving although usually passable with 2wd.
Don’t go out there if it has rained, is raining, or will rain.
First saw Arches in 1992, before travel magazines and Sunday newspaper ‘travel sections’ declared it to be ‘one of the undiscovered gems of the National Park System’ and became everyone’s ‘gotta-go-to’ place.
Was back there in 2012, still not too bad, but by 2017, lines at the entrance were back out to the highway.
Somehow we missed Canyonlands in 1992, I didn’t realize it even existed till I read ‘Desert Solitaire’.
Yeah, DT, the traffic is thick at the entrance of Arches, and quite similar at the main entrance to Canyonlands. When we attempted to enter Canyonlands at the main entrance, there was an hour and a half wait, they even put out signs along the road to the entrance telling you how long the wait is to get in based on where you are in line. Ugh! Fortunately, my Lovely Melis pulled out our Gazetteer and found a rear entrance to Canyonlands. No lines, and when we drove in we only saw about a dozen other cars. Granted, you may not see the sites that the main entrance offers, but you still see sites that are inspiring. The rear entrance into Zion is also the better entry to that national park. I can’t off the top of my head recall the name of the state park close to Canyonlands; Dead Horse or something to that effect; but that was a great place to visit also, though there also were crowds there, but no line to get in.