Reflecting on our experience in Arches National Park

Today we’ve reached the end of our month-long volunteer service here in Arches National Park. We’ve been reflecting on the experience … and it’s been pretty awesome!

This was our first time as campground hosts. We liked alot of things about the role. The Devils Garden Campground is a beautiful place to “work”, with abundant arches, fins, mountains and desert views. Here are two of our favorite views from the campground, looking east toward the La Sal mountains …

… and looking west to the fins at the Devils Garden trailhead …

The campground is also remote — at the end of the 18 mile park road, it gets very quiet each evening. We loved the autonomy the NPS afforded us — along with the other volunteer host couple, we ran the campground. It’s a nice feeling to help campers enjoy their experience by providing a clean, quiet campground, answer their questions about the park, talk about the trails, and just have good conversations; and it’s immensely satisfying to be able to help those late-arriving campers, who have no reservation, find a walk-in spot — it makes them so, so happy! We were fortunate to meet really nice, really interesting people from all over the country and around the world.

We got to spend an entire month living in one of the most iconic national parks. How great was that?! We were outside every day, and even some nights! We hiked all the major trails in the park, some twice (Delicate Arch, the Windows, Devils Garden primitive loop), and some numerous times (the Broken Arch trail). The highlight for us was being in the Fiery Furnace! We saw different weather — snow in the first week of April and 80 degree temps by the 3rd week, gusty winds and then calm mornings, full sunny days and days when clouds yielded rain and snow that evaporated before reaching the ground. And we observed this desert environment come to life, greening up everywhere with plants blooming from the spring snow and rain.

For example, here’s a Harriman’s yucca (Yucca harrimaniae), aka the Spanish bayonet …

… and a Claret cup cactus (Echinocereus triglochidiatus) …

We have been blessed to have spent this time in Arches National Park!

Where will our national parks adventure take us next?