Arches National Park

Overview

Driving through hundreds of miles of the Colorado Plateau region (the 4 corners of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico), you can’t help but contemplate how vast and beautiful it is, and how erosion has created such different terrain. There’s about 20 national parks and monuments in the Colorado Plateau preserving these natural formations.

Arches National Park is a short drive from Moab, just 30 miles from Canyonlands National Park, and 1hr from Indian Creek (Bears Ears National Monument).

You can see most of the park in 2 days assuming there aren’t hordes of people during the busy summer season. Our favorite time to visit National Parks is fall into winter, when there’s hardly anyone in the parks and the temps are perfect for hiking.

arches national park north south windows
North and South windows

The Geology

There’s over 2000 arches, though only a handful are easily recognized from popular photography. And while the color and texture of the soft red sandstone is very reminiscent of Zion and Bryce Canyon, it creates different formations. In Arches NP, there’s a layer of softer Entrada Sandstone on top of harder Carmel Sandstone. The 8-10in of rain a year seeps through the Entrada layer, and pools on top of the Carmel layer, slowly eroding the Entrada layer from the bottom, eventually forming arches (great video).

arches national park turret arch
Turret Arch

Camping

There’s one campsite, Devil’s Garden, with 40 sites in Arches NP with water and flush toilets, but no showers. Most people camp in Moab, just 10mi from the park entrance, and make day trips in. Indian Creek, an hour away, is another option–it’s all BLM land, primitive camping with no water and only pit toilets, but very well maintained.

Amenities: Showers, Cell Service

Check out http://discovermoab.com/shower.htm to find a shower.

We got spotty cell reception in the park. We picked up Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile at various places and in some spots in the Devil’s Garden campground. The Visitors Center has free Wi-Fi.

Park Avenue Viewpoint

arches national park park avenue viewpoint
Park Avenue Viewpoint. It’s what I imagine walking into a temple of the gods feels like. The thin, stacked rocks creating the walls takes your breath away.

Delicate Arch

Our biggest surprise was Delicate Arch, perhaps the most famous and well-photographed arch. You almost always see it head-on, taking up the entire frame, and I’ve never seen photos that do justice to the surrounding landscape. I didn’t expect it to be so surreal. The arch sits at the lip of a smooth, angled sink/toilet bowl, with tall fins and canyons flanking the backside.

arches national park delicate arch with bowl
Delicate Arch sits on the edge of a toilet bowl. You never get this perspective in popular media!
arches national park delicate arch
Delicate Arch with Canyonlands and Moab in the distance.
arches national park view behind delicate arch
View with Delicate Arch behind you

Double Arch

The other hotspot for arches and perhaps second well-recognized from photography is the Double Arch.

arches national park double arch
Double Arch
arches national park parade of elephants
Parade of Elephants from Double Arch. With a better angle to the right and in front of the pillar, they actually look like elephants. The arch creates the trunk of the following elephant.
arches national park double arch up close
The southern span of Double Arch soars 112 feet (34 meters) above ground level. It is also the second-longest arch in the park, at 144 feet (44m) across.
arches national park double arch looking straight up
Looking up from inside Double Arch. Would be awesome to get milky way or supermoon shots from under here!
arches national park double arch lookout
View toward parking lot from under Double Arch.

Devil’s Garden Trail

You can see most of the iconic arches from roadside overlooks and 1-3mi round trip, mostly flat walkways. The longest hike is about 7.5mi of the Devil’s Garden Trail, which as a bonus starts at the campground.

arches national park landscape arch
Landscape Arch from the Devil’s Garden Trail, about 1.5mi from the trailhead. At 306 feet wide it’s the longest arch in North America.
arches national park devils garden trail
The full Devil’s Garden Trail loop includes about 4mi of a primitive trail marked by cairns, and takes you through awesome landscape.
arches national park devils garden trail
Primitive trail. It’s “primitive” in that you’re not on 3-foot-wide tourist paths, but you’re fine in good hiking shoes.
arches national park double O arch
Double O Arch from Devil’s Garden Trail. See the green shirt under the second O!
arches national park devils garden trail at sunset
Traversing Devil’s Garden Trail at sunset.
arches national park devils garden trail at sunset
Devil’s Garden Trail near Navajo and Partition Arches.
arches national park devils garden trail
Nearing end of the Devil’s Garden Trail.

Nearby

Check out my other articles on destinations in the Moab area:


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