Arches National Park

Enjoy a journey into a wonderland of red rock formations and beautiful arches located just north of Moab, Utah which is a mecca for the outdoors life.

Utah

2013, 2018, 2012

About The Park

Arches is another of Utah’s phenomenal national parks. All of Utah’s national parks are in southern Utah, all carved in sandstone and all are different - each is uniquely beautiful in its own way. Arches is famous, obviously, for its preponderance of arches - over 2000 of them have been cataloged.

After you have stopped the visitor center you climb up a road that curves up and into the park. The road is about a 15 mile one-way drive with pullouts along the way where you can view the parks arches and other features. There are easy, short walks to some arches close to the road.

There are also numerous trail heads and parking areas for viewpoints along the road. Each is interesting in its own way and you can make the decision to stop or not based on your available time and agenda.

Wildlife

The park is home to black bears, coyotes, skunks, bats, elk, foxes, bobcats, badgers, two species of ring-tailed cats, pronghorns, and cougars. There are also bald and golden eagles, owls, many other types of birds, rattlesnakes and a variety of reptiles and amphibians.

Lodging

There’s no shortage of lodging options in Moab. All of the major chains have a presence and the town is interesting and fun. Lots of restaurants, tour companies, a vistor’s center where you can get information on everything in the area and plenty of outfitters should you forget something.

Red Cliffs Lodge
Sorrel River Ranch Resort and Spa

Two fine lodges northeast of Moab are the Red Cliffs Lodge and, a few miles further down the road, the Sorrel River Ranch Resort and Spa. They are beautiful places in very scenic locales. Both are on scenic highway 128 which, even if you don’t stay at either of these places, highway 128 is worth just taking a drive 20 miles or so down the road. We’ve stayed at both. The Red Cliffs Lodge is 14 miles east on highway 128 and the Sorrel is 3 miles past it. The only downside is that it takes about a half hour to drive those miles back to highway 191 which is where you have to get to if you want to go to the national parks or the town of Moab itself. Both lodges have dining on the premises but if you want to go into Moab for dinner you wind up taking the trip up and down highway 128 maybe a bit more than you’d like to.

Hiking

Park Avenue

A short drive down the park road from the entrance is Park Avenue which is named for the long sandstone formation that has the appearance of a line of buildings. You can hike through it, it's about a mile down to where it meets the road again, and since you probably have only one car, which is parked in the parking area, you have to hike the mile back to get to your car. Ideally if you are with friends and have two cars you can both drive down to where the trail meets the road and leave one car, drive back to the trail head, do the hike and then go get the car that you left at the trail head.

Windows Trail

Just past the Balanced Rock, which is pictured above, is a turn off to the Windows Trail section. The hike out to the Windows is a loop and is only a mile. The rock is estimated to weigh 3,577 tons – 7,154,000 pounds.

Delicate Arch Hike

A few miles down the road is a turnoff which leads you to the trail head for the Delicate Arch hike. This is one of the more spectacular hikes that you can take in any national park. It's about a 3 mile out-and-back hike through terrific scenery with a great finale. If you have the time and can do an easy 3 mile hike it shouldn't be missed. You can read more about this hike on this website and view the photo gallery using the link just below the photo gallery page link.

Delicate Arch View

There is also a shorter hike to the Delicate Arch View where you can see Delicate Arch in the distance. There's a lower and upper viewpoint. It's the same hike. The upper viewpoint just goes further and gets you that much closer. You see the arch as it stands on the edge of the sandstone plateau. If you took the Delicate Arch hike, and took pictures standing in the arch, you knew you were on a ledge. From the viewpoints you can see just how big the drop-off is. Don’t think that, just because you hiked out to Delicate Arch, there is no reason to take the viewpoint hikes if you have the time.

Landscape Arch

At the far end of the road is the Devils Garden area. There's a nice hike out to Landscape Arch which with a 290 foot span is the fifth-largest arch in the world. It's an easy 1.6 mile round-trip. In the past 25 years sections of sandstone ranging from 30 to 70 feet have dropped from the arch and the park service no longer allows people to walk under the arch.

For the more ambitious you can continue on and hike a loop which is about 4 miles and passes a few more beautiful arches. This hike is rated difficult due to rocky footings and some ledges with drop-offs.

Fiery Furnace

There is also a Ranger guided hike into the Fiery Furnace. You have to make arrangements for this at the visitor center. This hike takes you through a maze of sandstone spires. I don't recall how long the hike is but it probably took between one and two hours with stops where the ranger would talk about what you are seeing. One of the good things about this hike, especially if you there in the summer or the day is very hot, is that it is all in the shade and very cool. The double arch pictured above was taken in the Fiery Furnace.

Off Road Driving

The one back country drive that I took in Arches was along the Salt Valley Road. The entrance to this road is near the Devils Garden and it travels about 10 miles across the Salt Valley and eventually back to Highway 191. It's a good graded road that can easily be done in a stock SUV. Of course any back country road can be impassable when wet and should be avoided under those conditions.

Arches National Park Photo Gallery

Arches National Park - Delicate Arch Hike

Other Resources

Arches National Park on the National Parks Service website - NPS.gov

Arches National Park - Wikipedia

Landscape Arch Hike

Landscape Arch - Wikipedia

NPS - Firey Furnace Hike

Other National Parks and National Monuments Within a Day’s Drive

If you are visiting Canyonlands National Park then you are probably staying in Moab, Utah. These distances are from Moab.

Canyonlands National Park A vast and incredibly scenic wilderness is about 5 miles north of Moab and also about 20 miles south.

Mesa Verde National Park Home to ancient cliff dwellings set into a beautiful mesa is about 140 miles south and about a 2 plus hour drive.

Capitol Reef National Park This spectacular fold in the Earth’s crust is 153 miles east and about a 3 hour drive if you take the interstate. A far more scenic trip would be to visit Natural Bridges National Monument on the way to Capitol Reef which would add 100 miles and another 2 hours plus whatever time you spend touring Natural Bridges.

Colorado National Monument A dramatic red rock canyon is only 125 miles to the east and about a 2.5 hour drive.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park This spectacular canyon is 75 miles east of the Colorado National Monument.

Petrified Forest National Park Home of the Painted Desert and 225 million year old petrified logs is 300 miles south and a 4 hour drive and goes through scenic Monument Valley.

These national monuments are on Navajo Tribal land and are as worthwhile to visit as any national park.

Monument Valley Tribal Park is about 140 miles south and about a 2 plus hour drive. This is a place that you’ve seen in any number of Hollywood westerns.

Canyon De Chelly National Monument is about 203 miles south and about a 4 plus hour drive.
*N*P*Z*

Photos