Overview
About La Sal Mountains Viewpoint
Why stop
- A broad panorama connects Arches’ red-rock towers with the La Sal range.
Heads up
- The draw is the wide view, not a close-up visit to one arch.
Map
Where it is
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Arches Tour Guide
Your drive to La Sal Mountains Viewpoint, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Arches National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Arches audio tourRecorded for this place
La Sal Mountains Viewpoint“Up ahead is La Sal Mountains Viewpoint, where red sandstone towers stand against the much higher mountains beyond. Give it five minutes if you’d like a sense of the whole landscape.”
Plays as you drive up to La Sal Mountains Viewpoint in the Parkwolf Arches Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Park Avenue Viewpoint
- Courthouse Towers Viewpoint
- Moab Fault Viewpoint
- Courthouse Wash Trailheads
- 35 audio storiesacross Arches’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Bighorn Sheep, Pronghorn, Raven, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 28 trails, 41 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“I can’t believe how helpful this app is and how interesting the information is for each highlight along the Arches Scenic Drive! This is the first park I’ve used it in.”
Guide
More about La Sal Mountains Viewpoint
A quick stop for the whole landscapeLa Sal Mountains Viewpoint is a roadside overlook a short distance inside Arches National Park.
La Sal Mountains Viewpoint is a roadside overlook a short distance inside Arches National Park. It looks across the red sandstone towers toward the La Sal Mountains beyond the park. Stop here for the broad view and a quick sense of how Arches fits into the surrounding country; if you want to study one arch up close, save your time for the trails farther along the drive.
Read the panoramaThree Gossips, Sheep Rock, The Organ and Courthouse Towers make up the nearer red-rock skyline.
Three Gossips, Sheep Rock, The Organ and Courthouse Towers make up the nearer red-rock skyline. Farther back, the La Sal Mountains rise beyond the desert; Balanced Rock and the Windows Section sit on the distant horizon. Follow the layers from the low sandstone foreground to the taller mountains to take in the scale of the view.
You can stay on the pavementThe paved parking area and sidewalk give you the same main view without stepping onto the…
The paved parking area and sidewalk give you the same main view without stepping onto the slickrock bench. The bench is uneven underfoot, so treat it as an optional closer vantage. Winter snow or ice can make the rock slippery. Pets may stay in the parking area but aren't allowed on the slickrock bench.
Go for the lightThe view works well at sunrise or sunset, when changing light brings out color and shadow in…
The view works well at sunrise or sunset, when changing light brings out color and shadow in the sandstone. For a photo, include some of the nearer towers with the La Sal Mountains behind them; that layered composition shows more than a tight shot of the red rock.
Why the mountains bulgeThe La Sal Mountains are laccoliths: magma pushed up beneath the overlying rock layers and…
The La Sal Mountains are laccoliths: magma pushed up beneath the overlying rock layers and bowed them upward. From this overlook, their high, rounded forms sit behind Arches' much lower sandstone towers, giving the view a quick lesson in how different geologic forces shaped the region.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Arches
14 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
10 sightingsPronghornMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
610 sightingsRavenMost seen around 9 AMSighting map
188 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
51 sightingsPrairie DogMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
15 sightingsCoyoteMost seen around 6 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Arches. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
