Arches National Park is a spectacular destination that is simply bursting with an insane number of gorgeous sandstone arches. Over 2,000 arches dominate the landscape here, making this the greatest concentration of rock arches in the world! From the enormous Double Arch (shown above) to the insanely picturesque landscape (shown below), this is one national park that you won’t want to miss!
Update – A Timed Entry Ticket will be needed to enter Arches National Park from April 3 to October 3, 2022. Tickets can be booked on Recreation.gov and they are on a first-come, first-serve basis beginning January 3rd 2022 at 8am.
Arches National Park
But, what if you only have one day to see this amazing national park? Where should you go? What are the best hikes? And how should you organize your time so that your family can get the most out of your visit? This is where I’d like to help.
Where is Arches National Park?
Arches National Park is located in eastern Utah, with its entrance just 10 minutes north of the city of Moab. This is the best town to stay in when visiting.
Arches National Park Map
Arches National Park (Best Hikes & 24 Hour Itinerary)
The best piece of advice I can give anyone for visiting Arches National Park in the summer, is to visit really early in the morning and/or in the evenings when it is cooler.
Our family chose to separate our “One Day in Arches National Park” by seeing the front part of the park on the first evening, when we arrived, and then the second, back, part of the park the next morning. This could easily be switched to seeing everything that I list below into a morning adventure, with a break during the mid-day heat, and then ending with an evening adventure at Arches.
Below is the Itinerary that we used & loved for our own family.
We arrived in Moab in the afternoon, checked into our hotel, grabbed an early dinner and headed into Arches National Park.
Many people arrive in Moab in the afternoon, after a day of traveling, and don’t even think about heading into Arches National Park that night. But this is the best time to visit, not only because it’s cooler, but also because the early evening hours is when the sun lights up the beautiful red rocks. And it’s gorgeous!
For our family, our day originally began at Capitol Reef National Park. We then stopped for lunch at Goblin Valley State Park. After lunch we continued on to Moab and arrived at our Moab hotel around 3:30pm.
Where We Stayed
While visiting Arches National Park, our family stayed at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Moab. This was perfect for our family. It is super close to the entrance of Arches National Park, they have good sized family rooms, the breakfast is free (which really helps save money when traveling with kids, not to mention the insanely good cinnamon rolls) and they have a laundry room (which our family was really needing at this point in our trip.) So if you are looking for a place to stay near Arches National Park, check this hotel out.
Heading to Arches National Park
After refilling our water bottles (and our amazing collapsible water bottle, which is my favorite hiking item for Utah), we grabbed a quick and early fast food dinner and headed 10 minutes down US-191 to Arches National Park.
We entered the park at 5pm.
Traveler Tip: On the day we visited, a Thursday in June, Arches National Park was extremely busy and we heard that they closed the park to additional visitors at 7pm that night. So if you are traveling during the summer, make sure you try and arrive on the early side of the evening like we did to make sure you can get in.
Fees
Entrance fees for Arches National Park are $30 per private vehicle
(or they are FREE if you have a 4th Grader!)
Our son Bryan was in 4th Grade when we visited and he absolutely loved getting us into Arches National Park for Free. Find out more about this amazing program below.
Visitor Center
After the Entrance Gate, you will pass the Visitor Center. Here you can stop by to get oriented & possibly pick up a Junior Ranger book for your kids before heading into the park. (The Junior Ranger program is free and is absolutely amazing for kids aged ~4-14. In this program they will complete an age appropriate portion of a booklet, learn all about the national park they are visiting and then they will earn their very own badge, becoming a Junior Ranger!)
Once you leave the Visitor Center, head into the park and you will now be on Arches Scenic Drive.
Arches Scenic Drive
Stop 1: Park Avenue Viewpoint
Park Avenue Viewpoint is the first pullout you’ll come to on Arches Scenic Drive. This viewpoint will be on your left. Here, rich red rocks tower into the sky and it’s very impressive. This is a great introduction to the fantastic landscape that lies ahead.
There is a 1 mile one-way trail here that leads to the Courthouse viewpoint. But Arches Scenic Drive goes to this same viewpoint as well so our family did not hike this. Instead we wanted to save our kids legs and energy for other hikes, further into the park.
Stop 2: La Sals Mountain Viewpoint
The second viewpoint you’ll come to is the La Sals Mountain Viewpoint. This is on the right side of the road and this is my favorite non-arch landscape view in the park. In this picture you can see “Three Gossips” on the left and “The Organ” on the right. You’ll get a closer view of these formations at the next stop, which is Courthouse Towers Viewpoint, but I happen to like this further away viewpoint better.
Stop 3: Courthouse Towers Viewpoint
At the Courthouse Towers Viewpoint, you’ll get an appreciation for how massive and unique some of these formations are. They’re huge! (Remember, this is also where the 1 mile hike from Park Avenue Viewpoint goes to. But if you hike here, you’ll also have to hike back.)
From Courthouse Towers Viewpoint it is a 10 minute (5.4 miles) drive to the next stop, Balanced Rock.
Stop 4: Balanced Rock
Balanced Rock is a really fun formation that really looks like a rock is being balanced on this pedestal! This formation is right next to the road and the parking lot is on the right side. Once parked, there is a 0.3 mile walk that you can take to its base. I recommend taking this walk because this unique rock formation looks so different from the from the parking lot viewpoint (see picture above) than it does from the trail that goes alongside its base. (See picture below.)
Personally I’m a big fan of the side view that this short trail lets you see.
How to get to “The Windows Section”
After Balanced Rock, you’ll get back onto Arches Scenic Drive, where almost immediately there will be a spur road off to the right. This road is the Windows Road. Turn right here and take this road all the way to the end. Here you’ll find some insanely fantastic arches in “The Windows Section.”
At the end of the Windows Road, there is a long parking lot. You can park here, or if it is full you can continue around the corner and park in the lower parking lot. The upper parking lot gives you quick access to the North and South Window Trails as well as the trail to Turret Arch. If you have to park in the lower parking lot, around the bed, you will have quick access to the phenomenal Double Arch. And in between these two parking lots there is a bathroom for your convenience. Honestly it doesn’t matter which parking lot you park in because you can get to all of the arches in this area from either one.
Stop 5: The Windows Section
When we visited, the first parking lot (on the right) was full but luckily we found a spot in the second, lower parking lot.
After parking, we decided to see the Double Arch first, since it was closer. From the lower parking lot it is a short 0.5 mile roundtrip walk to Double Arch. This is the tallest arch in the entire park and you can walk right underneath it!
It’s absolutely spectacular!
Double Arch
To give you an idea of just how big this arch is, take a look at the tiny people in the bottom of the picture above. This double, gorgeous arch is simply massive!
After staring up at this incredible, natural masterpiece for a while and reveling in its beauty, we then walked backed towards the parking lot, stopped at the bathrooms near the upper parking lot and then walked up towards “The Windows.”
The walk to see The North Window Arch, The South Window Arch and Turret Arch is about 0.7 miles roundtrip. (We did not take the Primitive Trail here and just walked on the main trail.)
The North and South Window Arches
There are many ways that you can walk the path to these three arches. We chose to walk on the path towards the Turret Arch first. We then walked to the South Window and then to the North Window on the way back. The picture above is from the trail on the way to Turret Arch where you can see both of the Window Arches at the same time.
Turret Arch
Our first arch to walk under on this Windows path was the Turret Arch. This is a really unique arch and it was a lot of fun to climb under.
But, to be honest, one of the biggest thrills for us at this arch was the amazing fellow traveler that we met who loved photography. He took the picture below of our family sitting in the Turret Arch and then showed us what settings he used on his camera so that we could “try” and take shots like this as well! He was such a talented photographer and I’m so happy we started chatting along the trail. This picture is amazing!
South Window
Next we walked to the South Window. Here, there is a great spot to take some really fun photos, like pretending to hold up the arch! Our kids loved posing for this one!
The North Window
Our last stop on this walk was the North Window which was a beautiful arch as well. (See Below) To me, if you are looking for a short, easy walk to some absolutely beautiful arches, this “Windows” section of Arches National Park is where you’ll want to head first.
After seeing The North Window we headed back to our car and were off to see Delicate Arch. To get to the Delicate Arch Trailhead you will drive back down the Windows Road and turn right onto Arches Scenic Drive. You’ll take this road for 2.5 miles and then turn right again onto Delicate Arch Road. After 1.2 miles on this road, you will be at the trailhead to walk to Delicate Arch.
Stop 6: Delicate Arch
The trail to Delicate Arch is 3 miles roundtrip and it crosses sandy and slick rock in places. This trail is also extremely busy. On the day we were visiting it was 102 degrees Fahrenheit at 7pm (in June). We really didn’t want to walk for 2 hours in that kind of heat and so we decided last minute to go to the Delicate Arch Overlook instead. (This is a 1 mile drive past where the trailhead parking is.)
At Delicate Arch Viewpoint there is a lower viewpoint and an upper viewpoint. The lower viewpoint is an extremely short and easy walk. Here the view of Delicate Arch is pretty far away.
Delicate Arch Upper Viewpoint
We decided to walk to the Upper Viewpoint next. Now since we had been planning to walk to Delicate Arch itself, I had not looked up any information about this viewpoint. Instead we just set off, and for being labeled a “viewpoint” it was a much harder walk than I was expecting. First it is 0.6 miles roundtrip and almost the entire walk to the viewpoint is uphill! Maybe it was because it was late in the day or the fact that it was 102 degrees with no shade, but this walk was a lot harder than I had been expecting.
But when we got to the top, the view of Delicate Arch was wonderful!
Now I must confess, the picture above was taken with a pretty decent zoom lens, but the picture below is how we actually could see it. Even being this far away, Delicate Arch was still pretty amazing!
We stayed here at the Upper Delicate Arch Viewpoint for quite a while, simply watching the red rocks surrounding us come alive as the sun began to set.
But since we didn’t want to get caught out here in the dark, we began heading back down the trail about 30 minutes before the actual sunset time.
After visiting Delicate Arch Viewpoint, we headed out of the park and back to our hotel for the night.
To Recap:
- We entered Arches National Park at 5pm.
- Stop 1: Park Avenue Viewpoint
- Stop 2: La Sals Mountain Viewpoint
- Stop 3: Courthouse Towers Viewpoint
- Stop 4: Balanced Rock
- Stop 5: The Windows Section with the North and South Window Arch and Turret Arch
- Stop 6: Delicate Arch Lower and Upper Viewpoint
- We left the park about 8:30pm and were back at our hotel only 5 minutes later! (Being this close to the park was so wonderful with tired kids that just wanted to go to bed.)
An Option if you have more time tonight:
- Stop at the Fiery Furnace to see it glow in the evening light. (This is slightly further into the park off of Arches Scenic Drive)
All in all we spent 3 1/2 hours at Arches National Park this evening and we were able to see a ton of spectacular arches!
Day 2: One Morning in Arches National Park
For our family, we woke up really early this second day, grabbed the quick free breakfast at our hotel and drove just 5 minutes to get to Arches National Park. We were in the park at 6:30am! Now I know this sounds crazy early but we heard from people in the park that the day before that Arches had reached capacity at 7am! We weren’t taking any chances.
Devils Garden Trail
This morning we headed straight to the back of the park to the Devils Garden. To get to the Devils Garden area it is a 30 minute drive (17.5 miles) past the Visitor Center.
What surprised me was that on the day we visited, there was a steady stream of cars following us all the way to the Devils Garden at 6:30 in the morning! And the parking lot was quickly filling up! I couldn’t believe it! I was shocked by how many people were in the park this early, but then I realized a few hours later why. The temperature rises quickly here. At 6:30am, it was quite pleasant outside. By 10am, it was really hot!
Devils Garden Trail Map
In the Devils Garden there are a ton of arches to visit. We knew that we wouldn’t be able to see all of them with how hot it had been recently, so we decided to see the highlights first. Then if it wasn’t too hot, we would see more of the lesser known arches on the way back out.
Today our first stop was the famous Landscape Arch.
Once parked at the Devils Garden parking lot, you will then walk to the parking lot’s northside. Here you will find a row of restrooms as well as the Devils Garden Trailhead.
Devils Garden Trailhead
Right at the start, this well-maintained trail cuts between towering red sandstone fins, building the excitement of what lies ahead.
Then the trail opens up and begins to meander through the beautiful landscape of Arches National Park.
Continue on The Devils Garden Trail for 0.9 miles to reach the breathtaking Landscape Arch.
Landscape Arch
Landscape Arch is a gorgeous 306 foot arch that is only 11 feet wide at the narrowest! It is one of the world’s longest spanned arches and I absolutely loved it!
When walking down the trail, Landscape Arch will be off to your left. When you first see it, it may appear slightly camouflaged as it blends into the rock face behind it. But don’t worry, you will soon come to a small junction that will take you to a better viewpoint. Go left at this junction and then in just a few steps you’ll see the breathtaking view of Landscape Arch that’s shown above.
After marveling at the beauty of Landscape Arch for a while, we then walked back to the main trail and headed towards the Navajo and Partition Arches. Yet, almost immediately after Landscape Arch this trail runs into these really cool fins that you get to walk up!
Our kids loved walking up the fins here, but if you have young kids or have a harder time hiking then you may want to stop here and turn around. To get onto the fin you will have to take some pretty big steps up and then the fin itself is slightly steep. Our family did not find this section difficult, but it is slightly more challenging.
When you do get to the top of this fin, the view is outstanding!
After hiking the steep fin, we continued on the trail until it came to a junction. (This junction is only 0.3 miles after Landscape Arch.) Turn left here to go to Partition and Navajo Arches. You will very shortly come to another junction. (Don’t worry, each junction is labeled with signs so you don’t need to worry about getting lost.)
Here the path splits with one path leading to the Partition Arch and the other path leading to the Navajo Arch. We decided to go to Partition Arch first. (This is 0.2 miles one way from this split.)
Partition Arch
I really enjoyed Partition Arch. Here, this beautiful arch creates an enormous rock window, displaying the fantastic scenery of Arches National Park that lies beyond.
Make sure you also walk through this arch to the other side. It’s gorgeous! And there is plenty of room to safely enjoy this fantastic elevated viewpoint.
After viewing Partition Arch, we walked 0.2 miles back to the junction, but now we followed the sign to Navajo Arch. (This is another 0.2 mile one way, easy walk.)
Navajo Arch
Navajo Arch was a really unique arch that surprised me in how much I liked it. This arch almost felt like a cave entrance to me. It was so thick and low compared to so many of the arches we had seen. And when you walk through it, it feels like you are entering into a hidden world.
After visiting Navajo Arch, we returned to the main trail and began the trek to Double O Arch. This is only 0.8 miles from the junction, yet at the time we did not realize what obstacles lied in front of us.
Walking to Double O Arch
To get to Double O Arch, you must walk along the top of a really long fin. This fin (although you can’t really tell from the picture below) is really high up and the fin itself isn’t that wide. At first we thought, we can do this. This is no problem. But the steep drops on both sides of the fin became more and more unnerving as we began walking. And then the wind began. Huge gusts of wind came out of nowhere and I felt like they were going to blow me off this narrow path that we were walking on. Right then and there we decided to turn around and head back. Walking to Double O Arch was not worth our safety.
So unfortunately we did not get to see Double O Arch. But we did get to see some pretty spectacular fin filled landscape before we had to turn around.
Hiking Tip: Please be careful if you decide to hike to Double O Arch. Watch out for strong wind gusts and definitely hold onto your hats here if you try to cross it. And if you have small children, I would not recommend trying to hike this portion of the trail. There are so many other gorgeous arches that you can see safely in Arches National Park that I don’t feel that this would be worth the risk.
Heading Back
After we turned around, we began our trek back to the parking lot, retracing our steps from this morning. We had gone 1.7 miles down the Devils Garden Trail (not including the spur trails to various arches) and so now we had 1.7 miles to walk back. This also meant walking back down the fin that we had walked up earlier.
Walking Down the Fin
Walking down this fin was slightly trickier than walking up it, and 2 of my children (see picture below) felt more comfortable crab walking and scooting down it rather than standing to walk down it. Now if you have a smaller child, this would probably be a good place to make sure you’re holding their hand while walking down this fin.
After we finished tackling the hike down this fin, we were once again on a flat trail back to the parking lot.
Wrapping up our Hike in the Devils Garden
For us, when we got back to the parking lot, it was already past 10am. We had been hiking for over 2 hours and 45 minutes, covered 4.3 miles and the temperature was getting hotter and hotter (it was already 96 degrees.) The blazing sun was relentlessly beating down upon us and we were tired. The scenery was still incredibly beautiful on our way back, but were definitely looking forward to some air conditioning and a chance to rest our legs.
At the trailhead by the parking lot we were happy to see a water refill station. Here we all refilled our water bottles, drank them and refilled them again. We had brought 1.5 liters of water for each of us, but when it’s this hot and dry, more water is always welcomed. By 10:30am we were back in our car and heading down Arches Scenic Drive to make the 30 minute drive back out of the park.
This Ended Our Morning Adventure. To Recap:
- We entered Arches National Park at 6:30am
- We drove 30 minutes to the Devils Garden
- Stop 1: Landscape Arch
- Stop 2: Walk up a really cool fin.
- Stop 3: Partition Arch
- Stop 4: Navajo Arch
- Stop 5: We tried to walk to Double O Arch but had to turn around when walking the windy, narrow fin.
- Our total hike was 4.3 miles and took us 2 hours 45 minutes.
- We drove for 30 minutes back down Arches Scenic Drive and left the park around 11am.
Option if you have more time on the Devils Trail & it’s not too hot:
- Walk to Double O Arch, if you are able to.
- If you are planning to hike the Primitive Trail back, we suggest downloading a trail map before you set out. I’ve read that this trail can be confusing.
- Walk to Pine Tree and Tunnel Arch on the way back to the parking lot. We ran out of energy, but these two arches lie right off the Devils Garden Trail, close to the parking lot.
In total we were in Arches National Park for 4.5 hours this morning. By arriving early, we were able to get a good hike in before it got too hot and we saw a ton of gorgeous arches scattered throughout the Devils Garden.
If You Have More Time in Arches National Park:
- Hike the 3 mile roundtrip trail to Delicate Arch. This is an extremely popular trail in Arches National Park.
- Hike to Broken Arch and Sand Dune Arch. These arches are near the Devils Garden.
If You Have More Time in Moab:
- Visit Canyonlands National Park – Just 10 minutes down US-191, turn left and the Visitor Center is less than 30 minutes down the road.
- Take an off-road tour in Moab! We took a sunset tour on Hell’s Revenge and it was one of the highlights of our trip!
Information for Your Trip
Nearest Airports to Arches National Park
- Canyonlands Field Airport – 15 miles from Arches National Park, with Domestic Flights from cities like Salt Lake City
- Grand Junction Regional Airport – 110 miles from Arches National Park, with Domestic Flights from cities like Dallas, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas.
- Salt Lake City International Airport – 235 miles (3 hour 40 minute drive)
- Las Vegas Airport – 461 miles (6 hours 30 minute drive)
Salt Lake City and Las Vegas are great less expensive options that are also perfect when visiting all of Utah’s Big 5 National Parks on a road trip.
Weather
- Arches National Park can experience wide temperature fluctuations, sometimes over 40 degrees in a single day.
- The temperate (and most popular) seasons are spring (April through May) and fall (mid-September through October), when daytime highs average 60º to 80º F and lows average 30º to 50º F.
- Summer temperatures often exceed 100ºF, making strenuous exercise difficult. Late summer monsoon season brings violent storm cells which often cause flash floods. Roads can close following rain or snow.
- Winters are cold, with highs averaging 30º to 50º F, and lows averaging 0º to 20º F. Though large snowfalls are uncommon (except in nearby mountains), even small amounts of snow or ice can make local trails and roads impassable.
Summer Travel Tip for Arches National Park
Due to the intense heat of summers in Utah (and yet this is when most families have to visit due to school schedules), I recommend visiting Arches in the evening, right after an early dinner, and then again in the early morning. Please note that these are also the busiest times during the summer, so I recommend arriving on the early side of these times in case Arches reaches capacity and has to close to additional visitors.
During the heat of the day is the perfect time to rest and relax back in your air conditioned hotel in Moab or do some fun site seeing from your car.
Now you are all set to visit Arches National Park. I hope you have an incredible time! Please let me know if you have any questions.
Have a Great Trip with Your Traveling Feet!
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