Hi wave,

Glad to hear you discovered Arches and Moab, although it's not exactly a "hidden gem". You should plan another trip there, you can spend a week and still not do/see it all!

Happy travels

Arches is fantastic, but next time in the Moab area go to Canyonlands too!! It is also awesome.

As Dayle wrote Arches isn't exactly a "hidden gem". However, as she also wrote you could spend at least several more days there.

Canyonlands, Dead Horse Point, several more excellent hikes in Arches in addition to Fiery Furnace, Rte 279, Rte 128 (Fisher Towers), etc, etc.

As you wrote, the Delicate Arch hike is uphill and quite tiring if this is your first day in elevation on this trip (as it was mine).

Like your photos. They brought back memories.

Which route did you take from Moab to Bryce and what did you do in between.

Thanks for the report.

Arches has always been one of my favorite parks - the hiking is amazing! So glad you enjoyed it. Bryce is incredibly scenic too! I'm also curious which route you took between Moab and Bryce.

We'd love to go back and explore more of Arches and maybe even rent bikes in Moab. The trail system there (at least that we could see from the road), looked great!

Since the visit at Arches was an unplanned stop, we wanted to get to Bryce in time to explore some of the rim trails before dark, so we went 191 back to I-70 and then Highway 89 straight to Bryce. We did meet some folks in Bryce who suggested we stop at Capitol Reef National Park on our next visit, although we don't really know much about that park.

Bryce was spectacular...I'll have to post a trip report on our visit!