Utah’s red-stone garden
Utah’s Arches National Park “serves up a visual feast,” said Dan Blackburn in the Los Angeles Times. More than 2,000 natural stone arches dot the desert landscape here, and “there is so much to see that just one or two visits, or even three or four, don’t do the park justice.” You’ll recognize some of the area’s red sandstone formations even if you’ve never been: The Delicate Arch, the 900-foot Fisher Towers, and the forbidding Fiery Furnace are frequently featured in movies and commercials. (At nearby Dead Horse Point State Park, you might even recognize the site of the famous last scene in Thelma & Louise.)Well-maintained roads traverse the terrain, but Arches is “very much a hiker’s park,” a place to explore on foot. Summer brings crowds and 110-degree temperatures, so try to get here in the fall, winter, or spring. At sunset, “the red rock begins to glow,” and any worries you’re carrying will be “swallowed up by the grandeur of the scene.”
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