With many national parks implementing some form of timed reservation policy due to their growing popularity, it can be a challenge when planning your trip if you don’t know exactly which day you’ll be in said park, or be able to accurately predict the weather on any given day in advance, and then to hope you “win” a reservation for the day and time slot you desire can all be a real crapshoot.
We’ve learned it can be advantageous to just get up early and arrive at the park before the timed reservations are required (or show up late in the afternoon after the reservation period has ended for the day), and then we’re able to avoid the whole thing and we can typically go by our own schedule.
So, that is what we did for our second visit to Arches National Park during our Moab trip. Our first visit was a quick stop on our roadtrip to Colorado in August 2022. Just long enough to drive through part of the park and hike to Delicate Arch. But our friends, Chad and Shannon, had never been in Arches yet, and this time around, we had all day to explore.
Delicate Arch Hike in Arches National Park
We got up super early, headed from our vacation rental in Moab to the entrance gate of Arches, and made a beeline for the Delicate Arch trailhead, which is the busiest trailhead and most popular hike in Arches, so the lot can fill up quickly if you don’t arrive early. Plus, it gets hot in the midday sun, so early morning is overall more desirable.
I absolutely love the drive through Arches National Park. The rock formations are unique, massive, larger than life, and I was excited to get to do a bit more hiking amongst these formations today.
Before 7:00 a.m., we’d reached the Delicate Arch trailhead and wasted no time beginning the uphill climb.
Even though this was my second time hiking to Delicate Arch, I was still looking forward to the fun hike there and for Chad and Shannon to see it with their own eyes. And for me to be able to see it again. The arch is an isolated remnant of a bygone fin.
Something we did not see the first time we hiked to Delicate Arch was a wedding couple getting photos taken at the arch.
We asked, and she did not hike up there in her dress, and she was wearing hiking shoes, not dress shoes or high heels. The couple was from New Hampshire and they enjoy traveling and hiking, so they decided to get married in the Moab area and have wedding photos taken in Arches. Then, by coincidence, we bumped into this couple again, sans wedding attire, on another hike on this trip.
On the hike back from Delicate Arch, the early sun and blue skies made everything even more striking.
Upon our return to the trailhead parking lot, we saw a line for the bathroom that had probably 50 people in it, so the hike was definitely starting to get busy. We were glad we got their early!
| Delicate Arch Hike | |
|---|---|
| Total Distance | 3.24 mi |
| Total Time | 1:33:30 |
| Total Ascent | 1,296 ft |
| Max Elevation | 4,862 ft |
Delicate Arch Viewpoint
Then we continued over to the Delicate Arch Viewpoint, something we hadn’t done on our previous visit to Arches. It’s a short, but an ascending trail to a view of Delicate Arch from a distance. I would say, if you’re able to physically complete the hike to Delicate Arch, that one is worth the closer vantage point. This distant view doesn’t do it justice.
Devils Garden Trail Hike in Arches National Park
Our next hike in Arches National Park: Devils Garden Trail. This is a neat hike because you can choose various routes to view several different arches. None as spectacular as Delicate Arch, in my opinion, but they were impressive in their own right, and again, the overall landscape was so interesting as we wound around its display of sandstone fins.
Hike to Landscape Arch
The first destination for our Devils Garden hike was Landscape Arch. This is probably a second quintessential arch in Arches, behind Delicate. Landscape Arch is one of the world’s longest stone spans, stretching 306 feet, yet only about 11 feet thick at its center. In September 1991, a 60-foot-long, 11-foot-wide, 4-foot-thick slab of rock dropped from the underside of the arch’s thinnest part (just to the right of the center of the arch).
Hike to Navajo Arch and Partition Arch
After Landscape Arch, we decided to hike up to Navajo Arch and Partition Arch, which required ascending a steep section of sandstone slickrock – a fun but slightly nerve-wracking experience.
Then we reached the Navajo Arch, which didn’t look all that impressive from the initial angle, but if you moved under it and looked out and through it, its uniqueness became a bit more apparent.
Following Navajo Arch, we continued on to Partition Arch, which was cool because of the view through the arch down to the valley below.
After leaving Navajo and Partition arches behind, we had to descend the steep sandstone slickrock section, which was another slightly daunting challenge.
Hike to Pine Tree Arch & Tunnel Arch
Once we safely descended, we took the trail spur that headed over to Pine Tree Arch and Tunnel Arch before making our way back to the trailhead parking lot.
| Devils Garden Hike | |
|---|---|
| Total Distance | 4.01 mi |
| Total Time | 1:54:59 |
| Total Ascent | 479 ft |
| Max Elevation | 5,531 ft |
The Windows Trail Hike in Arches National Park
After leaving Devils Garden, we proceeded to the short, 1-mile loop, The Windows Trail.
| The Windows Hike | |
|---|---|
| Total Distance | 1.25 mi |
| Total Time | 00:38:19 |
| Total Ascent | 177 ft |
| Max Elevation | 5,250 ft |
Park Avenue Trail Hike
Our final hike in Arches National Park, before closing out the day by stopping at the visitor center, is Park Avenue Trail.
The Park Avenue hike was somewhat other worldly. Once we descended the natural stairs to the floor, the massive rock formations towering far above us and the swirl-patterned canyon bottom beneath our feet was a sight to behold.
At this point in our day, even though the Park Avenue hike was short in total distance, climbing the stairs back to the parking lot felt like a major undertaking, but we made it.
| Park Avenue Hike | |
|---|---|
| Total Distance | 1.62 mi |
| Total Time | 00:51:11 |
| Total Ascent | 295 ft |
| Max Elevation | 4,521 ft |
I think all of us were looking forward to dinner after all this hiking, but first… a stop at the visitor center!
At the end of today, we felt we thoroughly explored a majority of the highlights in just one day and we truly enjoyed hiking in Arches National Park. Tomorrow, we will dive into Canyonlands National Park for an epic sunrise hike.
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