On Wednesday, February 15, 2023, after a morning and early afternoon of touring rock art sites and after a late lunch, Sean and I set our sites on return to Arches National Park. Although we’d been inside its boundaries at the Courthouse Wash Panel a couple hours earlier, now it was time to drive on up into the heart of the Park. And although it was just wet down in Moab, up in the slightly higher elevations of the Park were experiencing a true snow squall.

We started on up into the Park at ten minutes after three. It was not snowing at the entrance.

We switchbacked up the familiar road, and it started to snow very lightly.

We bypassed Balanced Rock and the Windows for now, heading for the end of the road at Devils Garden. We did, however, stop for a few photos of the Cache Valley and Delicate Arch in the distance.

Even on such a snowy afternoon we could discern one intrepid hiker under Delicate Arch.

We reached Devils Garden at 3:45pm. Sean had dozed a little bit in the warm Jeep as the winding, undulating road carried us to its end. There were maybe half a dozen vehicles there.

It was snowing more atmospherically than insistently, but it was very cold. We were sort of shocked at how much colder it was than it had been down in Moab.

Here again, we saw some parking lot Ravens. We wondered if they were the same that we’d seen the year before. It’s likelier than not that they were.

We hadn’t been back to the hotel all day. And I needed to use the pit toilet at the trailhead. It was a cold and windy experience. Not pleasant.

We had thought about checking out Broken Arch and Sand Arch, the only two major arches that we hadn’t seen the previous year. But it was too cold. It was also beginning to snow harder, so we decided that we should probably begin to make our way back out of the Park.

Despite the cold, it was a thrill to see such a different mood of the Park than we had the previous year. So we paused along the way for photos.

By 4:15pm, it was getting dark and the wind was picking up, blowing snow across the road. We were glad we were in a Jeep.

We did turn off and head toward the parking area for Double Arch and the Windows, though. The snow was too atmospheric to risk missing out on some cool photos.

Usually the view in the photo above would boast the La Sal Mountains in the distance. Not that afternoon.

It stopped snowing as we approached the Courthouse Towers and Park Avenue areas of the Park. There was also less snow on the ground here than further in.

We exited the Park at a quarter after five. It had been a frigid and moody return to Arches. But we were only halfway through our trip, so we certainly had time to visit the Park at least once more before flying home.

On the way back to the hotel, we gassed up the Jeep and also stopped to pick up some tomato soup and oyster crackers.

Back in our suite at the Radcliffe, I finished reviewing a draft proposal while Sean watched an episode of Cunk on Earth remotely with Jimmy. Then we had a cozy dinner of grilled cheese and ham sandwiches and tomato soup.

Afterward, I soaked in the bath. Then before going to sleep, I researched our next day’s adventures, heading south to Natural Bridges and Bears Ears National Monuments.