Road Trip West 10, Arches National Park

Draft, Under Construction

Richard Rathe April 2026 (Birds, Flowers, History)

We entered Arches National Park about 8am the next day. This was a great time for photographing the rock formations in the southern part of the park (near the entrance). Our plan was to take a leisurely drive north—exploring along the way—until we reached the Devil's Garden area. This is the majority of the notable arches are.

While we were walking back to the car after visiting the Skyline Arch this incredibly iridescent blue bird appeared! I just had time to snap these low -res photos with my phone. Within thirty seconds it was gone. The inset photo does not do the color justice—it was intense rainbow blue. I think we were just lucky to be directly sunward where the actual iridescence was maximized. I tried to key it out and I'm fairly certain this was either Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay based mostly on distribution maps, or a far-flung California Scrub-Jay based on appearance.