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Arches National Park Pictures, utah, USA

The North Window at sunset, Arches NP, Utah. And these are natural, unsaturated colours, in case you were wondering! Click on the image for more Arches photos.

On the BugForce's grand tour of the Grand Circle - SW USA's best National Parks - we found two outstandingly alien, fabulous and accessible parks, Bryce and Arches.
Both these parks are busy, primary tourist targets and neither permit mountain biking or off-road driving, so locals or travellers with more time or differing inclinations may prefer other places or to spend more time in fewer places.

We couldn't decide our favourite. Arches requires a vehicle and a fair amount of driving from site to site whereas a good pair of legs would suffice in Bryce. Bryce also has a useful shuttle bus in high season and a good number of camping/lodging locations inside the park, near the main feature, the amphitheatre, but Arches only has one campground inside.
Arches, however, has an excellent, young and lively town nearby - Moab - offering good dining and all sorts of wacky experiences in the two other huge, adjacent parks, Canyonlands and Sand Flats Recreation Area, including the USA's best mountain bike trail - Slickrock - totally mad 4WD and ATV trips, white water rafting and so on.

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Visually the two parks are on a different scale. Bryce goes for the packed and pointy, melting-rock look in spectacular colours from two viewpoints, above and below. Arches offers equally eccentric shapes, but bigger, and in dramatic individual settings with plenty of open space and endless angles. Both have well marked trails lasting from half an hour to several hours, to and around the incredible sights.

SW USA Pictures: Zion Canyon | Bryce Canyon | Routes 12 & 24 | Capitol Reef | Canyonlands |

Moab and Sand Flats RA |Monument Valley | Canyon de Chelly | Grand Canyon

Yosemite NP | Death Valley NP | Joshua Tree NP | SW USA Parks Map | SW USA Travel Guide

Arches Photos USA © Julian Loader