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Delicate Arch Hike

The Delicate Arch Hike is one of the most beautiful hikes you can take anywhere. It is a relatively easy walk through incredible scenery to the arch that has become a symbol of Utah

Arches National Park, Utah

2003, 2008, 2012

Hiking to Delicate Arch - A perfect 10 hike

The hike to delicate arch in Arches National Park is one of the most beautiful easy hikes in the national park system. It’s an out and back hike of roughly 3 miles. We’ve taken this hike twice and I wouldn’t hesitate to take it again - it is just that good.  The scenery is magnificent and just gets better and better. The trail is well traveled and gets a lot of traffic. The second time we took it was during the week and there were only about a half dozen people out at the arch so it was easy to get pictures standing under the arch without someone else’s Aunt Edna in the picture.  

Delicate Arch has become the symbol of Utah. In many places it’s on their literature and anyone who’s traveled out west has probably seen pictures of it somewhere. It’s even on their license plate.

As you near the end of the hike to the arch your walking on a ledge which is about 4 feet wide and a significant drop-off.  Fortunately the trail is slanted in toward the wall so that you don’t really get the feeling of being in danger which, with a likely fatal drop-off to your left, you might otherwise feel that you were. Certainly it is a trail that, if you are traveling with small children, you don’t let them out of your grip.  

The arch itself is a stunning site. It sits on the edge of a large flat area with stunning views behind it.  The pictures on Utah’s promotional literature don’t do it justice because, without something like a man standing beneath it, you don’t really know how large it is. At 65 feet tall it is a rather imposing sight. You also will notice how eroded it is at one point and understand why it is called ‘delicate’. Like all arches it is destined to fall one day and, when it does, all of us who have come to love it will feel the loss.

Delicate Arch Viewpoint - An alternative

If hiking 3 miles is too much for you there’s another hike called the Delicate Arch Viewpoint hike.  This is much shorter hike and also gives you a beautiful view of the arch.  The difference is that you don’t get right up to the arch on the overlook hike. You’re looking at the arch from across a sandstone chasm, but it’s a gorgeous view nevertheless.  What you will also see is the magnitude of the drop-off should you, having hiked out to the arch, have taken a picture underneath it. The rain water funnels down through the arch and the edge is rounded so, standing underneath it, one can’t see how steep the drop-off is leaving people oblivious to it. Most people would not get that close to an edge that drops several hundred feet if they knew it was there.

Delicate Arch Hike Photo Gallery

Other Resources

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

Delicate Arch Hike - NPS.gov

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Updated 02/11/23 7:04 PM

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