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Christmas in Arches 2025

Arches National Park | Wednesday & Thursday, December 24-25, 2025

Christmas is here again, which means that it’s time to return to Arches National Park for our annual Christmas tradition. Although Diane is still not supposed to do much hiking right now, she wanted to join me for some easier hikes in the park since she missed out on the past two years because of work, so we planned to spend the holiday hiking some of the easy and popular trails in the park that we usually pass right by. After getting out of work early on Christmas Eve, I stopped home to pick up Diane and we made our way over to Arches around noon. While we have enjoyed hiking in mild temperatures on Christmas a few times in the past, I don’t think we have ever experienced 60 degree temperatures (pushing close to 70 on Christmas Eve) like we did this year. It sure didn’t feel very much like Christmas this time!

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Saddlehorn Trails at the Colorado National Monument

Heart of the World | Wednesday, January 1, 2025

This year for New Year’s Day I actually decided to go in to work instead of heading out to the local backcountry for just a day trip in the middle of the week since I have a busy spring coming up and need to conserve some of my PTO for then. But after spending a day alone in the office and getting a lot done I still wanted to get out for my first hike of 2025, so after leaving work I headed up into the Colorado National Monument to start working on my Heart of the World project by hiking some of the shorter trails located around Saddlehorn and the Visitor Center. Once I arrived at the parking lot for the Visitor Center I followed the Canyon Rim Trail to the Book Cliffs Shelter and then continued on the Window Rock Trail to the campground. I then made a short detour to the top of Saddlehorn before returning to the trailhead and hiking the Alcove Nature Trail. It was a nice way to spend a couple hours after work and get in my first hike of the year!

Christmas in Arches 2023

Moab Winter Weekend | Saturday – Monday, December 23-25, 2023

After spending last weekend exploring the sandstone fins on the east side of the Colorado River in the Sand Flats Recreation Area, it was time for me to head over to Arches National Park for the extended Christmas weekend. While I usually only spend Christmas Day in Arches and then bounce around the desert canyons surrounding Moab for the rest of the holiday weekend, this year I wanted to spend the entire three days within the park. Unfortunately, Diane would not be joining me this year since she was scheduled to work all weekend and on the holiday, so I would be on my own. I left home early on Saturday morning and drove straight to Arches National Park through a consistent rain the entire way with some fog in the lower lying areas.

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Across The Great Wall at Arches National Park

Saturday, February 18, 2023

I was originally planning to spend all three days this holiday weekend in the Bears Ears region, but a winter storm had come through earlier in the week that dropped some snow in the area, so I figured I had better postpone that trip for a little while since the roads would probably be a melting muddy mess. Although we got a fair bit of snow in Grand Junction from the same storm, it looked like Moab was mostly spared from new snow, so on Saturday morning I decided to head that direction for one last day trip this winter before things really start to get busy down there. I went to Arches National Park so I could finally do a hike that I’ve been thinking about for many years, which would be to hike across The Great Wall. I’ve driven below The Great Wall may times over the years and thought it was finally time to hike across the top of it for a closer look!

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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!

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Tag: balanced rock

Christmas in Arches 2025

Saddlehorn Trails at the Colorado National Monument

Christmas in Arches 2023

Across The Great Wall at Arches National Park

Christmas in Arches 2021