Drifting Around Arches

February 20, 2026

After a mostly sunny day spent around Dutch Flat, the following day Chris and I hiked around Arches National Park in the snow. I checked the weather forecast the day before and Price had a greater chance of snow than the Moab area did so going south seemed like the right move. We awakened on Friday morning to zero snow, but as we drove to Arches there was more and more snow on the ground. WIthin the park there was a few inches, and the wind the night before created some drifts a foot deep, and it kept snowing for the first few hours we were there. We first hiked along some cliffs, looking for rock art and checking out several alcoves. There wasn’t much to see there: the possible remains of some sort of structure, a few sharpening grooves, and a metate.

Hiking through snowy hills

Yucca and a large juniper tree

Remains of a possible structure

Tilted rocks

Alcove exploring

Sharpening grooves

Holey alluvium

Metate

Walking the cliffline

A little side canyon had some water and slush starting to flow through it. We hiked up it, and when we came to a point where we had to jump across the water to go farther up, Chris decided to wait there and send me ahead to see if it was worth making the jump with his bad knee. It must have been warming up quickly because the water was flowing more as I ascended. I left Chris behind longer than I’d expected, as I kept climbing hoping to get a glimpse into a pair of alcoves. I reached a point with a steep slickrock climb that would be easy when dry but I didn’t dare attempt it wet. The alcoves would have to wait for another day, and I hurried back down to join Chris again. That was the end of our exploration of this set of cliffs, and we were never very far from the road so we headed straight back toward it and then walked the road back to the truck. One place where we’d walked directly in the dry wash on our way up was now deep water, way too wide to jump across–I think it must have backed up behind a dam of snow and slush.

Rocky alcove

Empty alcove

Accumulating water and slush

Yucca below a sandstone tower

Tiny waterfall

Is that an arch?

I do believe it is an arch!

Sandstone pillar

Double alcoves

Natural arch

The snow stopped and the sky began to clear just as we finished the first hike, and we ate a quick lunch in the truck. I hadn’t made any more plans for the day so we just drove around and did some sightseeing and short hikes wherever we felt like stopping. We visited Panorama Point, Lower Delicate Arch Viewpoint, and Devil’s Garden Trailhead. Then we hiked and scrambled around quite a bit near Salt Valley Overlook. We were looking for a small petroglyph panel that I’d once read some sketchy secondhand directions to, and at first I was just going by my recollection of those directions. The snow made things slippery and, at one point when Chris was ahead of me and out-of-sight, I came across a spot where he’d apparently slipped and fallen down and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the scene. After we felt like we’d exhausted all the possible locations and returned to the truck, I realized I had just enough cell service there to find the info on my phone. Even after refreshing my memory, those directions still didn’t make much sense so we gave up. On our way out of the park we stopped at the visitor center because Chris wanted to buy a few souvenirs, and there I noticed a really, genuinely stupid sign about the removal of the Denis Julien portion of an exhibit. We drove back to Price and, since Chris had to get back to northern Utah the following day, we made some plans for a quick trip the following morning.

Snow-covered benches