Christmas in Arches 2024

Moab Area Rock Art XLVI | Tuesday – Wednesday, December 24-25, 2024

After spending the last two weekends hiking around Moab, I returned again for my annual Christmas visit to Arches National Park like I do each year. Unfortunately, Diane had to work the holiday again this year so I was on my own. Since I got out of work early on Tuesday I was able to spend a few hours on Christmas Eve searching for some new petroglyphs before spending the night at the Devils Garden Campground inside the park. Although the weather forecast had been predicting rain and/or snow overnight and into the morning, aside from a few brief sprinkles overnight no precipitation ever materialized and the sky was mostly clear when I woke up on Christmas morning to start hiking to Landscape Arch for sunrise. These are my photos from yet another Christmas in Arches!

The sky was pretty overcast on Christmas Eve as I drove through the park, but I stopped at the Park Avenue Overlook for a view and photo anyways.

Since I have never camped within Arches National Park before, I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to do it at least once, so I grabbed a campsite at the Devils Garden Campground and wandered around the fins behind camp at dusk.

I arrived at Landscape Arch at dawn on Christmas morning and caught a slight alpenglow on the sandstone. Although the sky above was clear, there were clouds on the eastern horizon that blocked the actual sunrise this morning.

Shark Fin

After sitting below Landscape Arch until after sunrise with the sun still blocked by the clouds on the horizon, I decided to continue up the trail a little ways so I could visit Navajo Arch. As soon as I reached Navajo Arch the sun came up over the cloudbank and lit up the sandstone fins.

I returned to Landscape Arch for a photo in the light and even caught the crescent moon above.

Here’s a view from the Devils Garden Trail as I made my way back to the trailhead.

Brontosaurus Fin

Fin & Clouds

Skyline Arch

This is a view of the southern tip of The Great Wall which I wandered across last year.

 

I spent much of my Christmas visit to Arches National Park this year searching for new petroglyphs and revisiting a couple sites that I hadn’t been back to in many years. These are some of the photos of what I saw.

Fremont Panel

Buttons

I saw quite a few circles, targets and shields. Many of them were very faded.

Little Petroglyphs

Fading Sheep

Medallion Anthropomorph

Big Face Panel

Overlooked Panel

The Shields Site

Hidden Warrior

I visited a couple boulders that had some very old petroglyphs on them.

This one looks like it might be the bottom of a Barrier Canyon Style figure.

Two Horses on a Boulder

Bear Paw Boulder

I really like the bird found at the bottom of this boulder.

Medallion Anthropomorph II

>> Christmas in Arches 2024 Photo Gallery