When we planned this trip, we debated at length whether we should go visit the Arches National Park or not. The question was not if Arches National Park was worth seeing, but it was whether in adding 4 1/2 hour + 4 1/2 hour drive to go to Arches and return, we were doing too much in too short a time. In the end, we decided to visit the Arches National Park. This turned out to be a good decision.
Of course, Arches National Park was worth seeing as expected, but a pleasant surprise was the drive from Zion National Park to Bryce Canyon National Park, and then from Bryce Canyon National Park to Arches National Park through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the Dixie National Forest.
We exited the Zion National Park along the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway. The first part of the highway was a typical mountainous road winding through the Zion Canyon offering beautiful views of the massive canyon walls.
The highway then consisted of the historic 1.1 mile long Zion-Mount Carmel tunnel.
Once we exited the tunnel, the terrain changed. Instead of the towering canyon walls, we encountered a more approachable flatter mountainous range.
The flatter terrain together with the fact that one could get unobstructed views of the mountain range (there were barely any trees) made a hike irresistible. We embarked on an impromptu 1.5 hour hike on the rocky terrain. It was akin to a group of soccer lovers finding a soccer field, and playing an impromptu match. We climbed, strolled and collected rocks! Because of the flatter terrain, we covered a lot of ground.
Just as we thought that the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway was among the best drives we had ever done, we hit the scenic byway 12 on our drive to the Bryce Canyon National Park. We drove through (literally right through an arch of) the Red Canyon. Red Canyon with its bright red hoodoos is a lesser known cousin of Bryce Canyon. It had its own visitor center, but in the interest of time, we did not stop there.
Once we were done with Bryce Canyon National Park, we continued our journey along the scenic byway 12. At this point, we knew there was more to come. Byways in Utah were not called scenic for no reason! True enough, the drive was through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. With rocky terrain on the side, unobstructed mountain views (there were barely any trees), views of valleys from various view points and winding roads, it was quite a reward.
Scenic byway 12 took us all the way to the Capitol Reef National Park. Guess what? To get to Arches National Park from the Capitol Reef National Park, we had to go on another scenic byway, Route 24. In addition to the red colored cliffs common to this part of the country, scenic byway 24 went through some unreal looking mountains colored gray and greenish gray. Where were we? What was this place made of? If the soil of Capitol Reef National Park was a Mars-scape, these grayish hills were a moonscape.
Past these multi-colored hills, Scenic byway 24 continued through the seemingly never ending Dixie National Forest. We enjoyed views of a distant lake and beautiful pockets of coniferous trees under a mild drizzle of rain.
In the end, when we reached the Arches National Park, we had driven these pristine byways, the experiences on which were just as good as, if not better than, the Arches National Park itself. In fact, they were so good that we thought next time, we should spend 2-3 days just on this drive itself taking more time to explore the places along the way.