Arches and Park City

After stopping over in Grand Junction and having some pretty amazing pizza at Pablo’s PIzza (butternut squash, creme fraiche, carrots and brussel sprouts and some other delicious ingredient I’m forgetting) after a visit to the Hot Springs, I went south to Arches National Park well rested and recharged.

Arches had a dusting of snow before I visited and the roads were clear and it was a beautiful place to visit in the winter. Microspikes for the win again - they made traversing the icy trails feel easy and was able to get some beautiful photos of sites I’d seen in the summer but definitely appreciated more in the winter with minimal visitors. I highly recommend visiting in the winter. I didn’t take the Delicate Arch trail so can’t speak to if the incline along the rock face was ice covered or clear, but can only imagine it was just as beautiful as some of the other sites I was able to see.

The thing I hadn’t expected was understanding the route to Park City from the detour to Grand Junction and Arches. Just past Green River, it was a turnoff onto a two-lane highway that went almost all the way to Salt Lake City. It was a heavily traveled road but once I was within about 50 miles of Salt Lake City, the entire landscape felt extremely monochromatic - white sky, flurries, white fields, and grey rock face intermittently along with grey roads. It was the same feeling of flat white conditions on overcast ski days. I was grateful when I made it into Park City and was a little overwhelmed by the sheer force that is Sundance when it descends on the town. I knew it took over but hadn’t experienced it until this year, more on the time in Park City in a future post - definitely a complete 180 from the quiet and solace in Arches.