Christmas in Arches 2021

Christmas Day | Saturday, December 25, 2021

It’s Christmastime again, which means that it’s also time for our annual Christmas in Arches visit! This year we were already staying at a hotel in Moab on Friday and Saturday nights since the holiday fell on a weekend, so I thought it would be a good idea to get up early on Saturday morning for our traditional hike to Landscape Arch. This way we could watch the first light of the day strike the arch at sunrise while we made sure it was still standing after another year. Afterwards I planed to do a little backcountry hiking and exploring around Courthouse Wash and Willow Spring for the rest of the morning and afternoon. Here are some photo from our day in Arches National Park!

Landscape Arch, Christmas Sunrise 2021

Shark Fin

Devils Garden Morning

Landscape Arch Trail

Brontosaurus Fin

Ring Arch

Disappearing Petroglyphs. Maybe one day I will actually run out of new petroglyphs to find in Arches…

Middle Petroglyphs

Sheep on a Patch

An old shack near Willow Spring.

Exploring Sandstone

Wash Wandering

Lower Willow Spring Wash near Courthouse Wash

It had rained quite a bit the previous day so there was a lot of water around.

Walking the sandstone with the La Sal Mountains on the horizon.

Dirty Potholes

After exploring new parts of the backcountry I returned to Balanced Rock and the Petrified Dunes area to take a few photos at sunset before returning to town for the evening.

Balanced Rock View

Balanced Rock

Mount Tukuhnikivatz was looking nice with a fresh coating of snow.

Snow on the La Sal Mountains

Ham Rock & Garden of Eden

Mount Mellenthin at Sunset

>> Christmas in Arches 2021 Photo Gallery