Hiking to Delicate Arch — View of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park

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Desert Magic

If you are planning a trip to Arches, I can honestly tell you that I’m jealous. Out of all of the National Parks I’ve had the privilege of visiting, Arches is my favorite. As of writing this post in April 2023, I’ve been to this park 6 times, which I believe is the most times I’ve visited any single National Park. I’ve watched the park video and read the signs explaining that the arches were formed because the area was first an ocean, and then the salt mixed with denser rock, and the salt later was dissolved by water slowly dripping through cracks in the rocks. But honestly, all I hear is “blah, blah, blah, MAGIC,” and I find that feeling of magic and spirituality throughout this entire park.

Living in MN, how has it come to be that I’ve traveled through this park so many times? Partially, at least, through marriage negotiations. I will go through a Spring Break itinerary with my husband with a primary destination of the Grand Canyon, Zion, Phoenix, etc., and on our last day of hiking I offer a new place to explore within Arches while on our way home. Yes, I know, Chris has reminded me multiple times that Arches is not in fact “on the way home” from of any of these places. It’s usually a one to two-hour detour, plus a day of hiking. But I’ll find something worthy of an equitable trade, and enjoy another day exploring this awesome park.

Throughout these numerous visits, I’ve traveled through all of the main hikes marked on the park map, so this post will give you details of the entire park. Several of these trails are honestly favorites, and I’ve re-traced my footsteps 3 or more times. The typical time that we travel to the park is over Spring Break in March, and I’ve also been once in October. Both are absolutely beautiful months to hike in this park. I’m not sure how hot it gets in the summer nor how much snow the park gets in the winter.

Note that you will see different people in my pictures as I have brought several different family members with me in addition to our family of four, including my parents and four different exchange students. I enjoy this park so much, it’s been important for me to share it with those that I love.

Partition Arch - A spur off of Devil’s Garden Loop

Planning Your Trip

If you are thinking of visiting Arches, the first thing to consider is the park’s Timed Entry. Timed Entry will not cost you anything (other than the fee that you need to pay to enter the park or the annual National Park Pass), but it’s a system that several National Parks have adopted to limit the number of visitors per day, such that all visitors have a great experience and that we ourselves limit the damage to the land that can result from over-crowding. Currently, Timed Entry is required for visiting Arches annually between April 1 and October 31. You can reserve your timed entry through the National Park System by visiting the park’s website. Do this as early as you can to ensure you have a reservation for your preferred day (days) to visit. Or, plan on visiting during one of the months that does not yet required timed entry.

Your second consideration is likely where to spend the night(s). Moab, UT, should be your obvious choice. It’s less than a 30 minute drive to the park and there are several nice hotels and places to eat. If camping if more your style, you have two National Parks in Moab to pick from (Arches and Canyonlands) as well as Dead Horse Point State Park, and there are several campsites in nearby regional parks along the various canyons.

Is Arches a place to take your kids? Absolutely! There are so many rocks to scramble up and explore - a natural jungle gym for kids of all ages!

Third, you may be wondering how many days to stay in Moab. We just got back from a 5 day trip to Moab, and as I said this was our 6th time visiting. There are so many places to explore in and around Moab.

This is my link to a proposed six-day hiking itinerary in Moab, UT. And I have another link to a post that is specific to Canyonlands.

There’s only one way in and out of Arches National Park (unless you have a high clearance, four-wheel drive), so this is a really easy park to navigate once you arrive. Another nice thing is that every trailhead parking area has pit toilets, so if you are travelling with small children, this is a very easy park to visit. See below for my hiking recommendations organized as you drive through the park, and enjoy your trip!

Arches National Park Trails

Arches National Park Map with parking lots circled and favorite trails marked with colors that will be referred to in the below post. Note these colors are just to help me explain which part of the park the trail is in, and when you are at the park, these colors will not mean anything.

I’m going to describe the trails in this park as if you were driving from the entrance through to the back of the park. It is not possible to hike all of the below trails in one or two days. I think you’d need a minimum of three days to hike everything. I’ve got the approximate mileage of each trail listed, the trail’s difficulty, and I’ve noted my favorites (but I have a lot of favorites…). From there, you will need to pick and choose how to put together your itinerary.

Visitor Center

Immediately after you go through the park entrance, the pullout for the visitor center parking lot will be on your right. Arches doesn’t have a lot for interpretive signs throughout the park, so I would recommend stopping to see the main exhibit to understand the basics of how the arches are formed. This is a really small visitor center, so you can plan on 30 minutes or less, unless you want to wait in line to talk with a park ranger or pick up a permit. They have a small gift shop, but I’d recommend driving back into Moab and checking out the shops there, which have lots of Arches souvenirs.

I’ll talk about the Fiery Furnace below, but if you were lucky enough to snag some permits, you will need to pick them up at the visitor center first, watch a short video, and talk with the park rangers. The process goes really quick, and the purpose is to preserve this special land.

The Windows

The first fork in the road will be to the Windows Section. There are some hikes prior to the Windows that I haven’t stopped at. The rocks are amazing, but there aren’t any arches, which is kind of the whole point of hiking here (my biased opinion).

The road ends in a loop with two areas to park. If you can’t find parking, just keep looping around. Either side works to park on, and you can keep your car in the same spot for two hikes - Double Arch and North / South Window / Turret Arch. These trails are marked in the above map in orange.

Double Arch

0.50 miles / elevation gain - N/A unless you climb to the top of the arch base (~150ft)

Double Arch seems to the be exception to the rule that longer harder hikes lead to amazing things. This arch is one of my favorites and is incredibly easy to hike to. So much so, that the hike itself might be a bit of a let down even though the arch is awesome. If you plan on doing some harder hikes, I would recommend saving this one for your last hike of the day, when you are tired, and can appreciate both the short hike as well as the arch itself. If you are just doing short hikes, then start with this one and enjoy the magic of this park right away.

I cannot not visit this arch - I’ve been here all 6 times, usually at the end of my day (as I recommended above). I truly love being under the arch.

*Note, so you aren’t confused - There is a second arch in the park known as “Double O Arch”. Double O Arch is a difficult and long hike in Devil’s Garden.

Family picture with our exchange students under Double Arch

View of the Windows from Double Arch — As you look back towards your car from Double Arch, you will see the Windows

North and South Windows and Turret Arch Loop

1.0 mile / elevation gain - 100ft

Hiking to Turret Arch — Visiting Turret Arch

The Windows / Turret Arch Loop is a really easy trail that leads to beautiful and interesting arches, and this is a hike that everyone can do. If you are planning a trip with longer hikes, this may be a trail that you think you should skip. My advice would be to sneak it in at the end of your day (when you also do Double Arch). There are so many pictures of these arches (in hotel rooms, restaurants, and other places in Moab), that you’ll regret not doing this hike.

Hiking to North and South Window Arches — North and South Windows pictured from Turret Arch

The one downside to short and easy trails is that they are busy. But the arches are plenty big enough to enjoy.

View of Double Arch from North and South Windows

My hikers when they were still “littles”

Wolf Ranch

If you are looking to hike Delicate Arch, you will want to park at Wolf Ranch (marked in yellow on the map at the beginning of this post). Delicate Arch is the arch made famous by Utah’s license plates. The hike up to Delicate Arch is strenuous, but I would label it more on a moderate level than difficult (but that’s likely because I hike a lot). If you want to see Delicate Arch with an easier version of a hike, keep driving all the way to the end of the road. There are two viewpoints. To get to the Lower Delicate Arch Viewpoint, it just requires a 200ft trek with no change in elevation along a paved path. The trail to Upper Delicate Arch Viewpoint is 0.5 miles with an elevation gain of 170ft. Neither viewpoint trail connects to Delicate Arch.

Delicate Arch

3.0 miles / elevation gain - 480 ft

Before you head out along the trail to Delicate Arch, there’s a few things to be prepared for. 480 ft in elevation gain over a 1.5 mile hike might not sound like a lot, but it’s all in one section, so it’s steep. The trail surface as you hike up is on what is known as “slickrock.” When this rock is dry, you’ll feel a bit like a mountain goat, as long as you are wearing good shoes or boots with traction, as you can walk up even steep slickrock with relative ease. When slickrock is wet, it’s incredibly slippery. This wouldn’t be a trail to be caught on when it rains, so, as always when hiking, pay attention to the weather. I have a picture of the slickrock trail below, so you can see both the surface as well as how steep it is.

The sun helps keep the slickrock dry, but it also warms this trail up fast, and as with all trails in Arches, there is no shade. If it’s hot, bring at least 2 liters of water per person.

Lastly, if you are afraid of heights, you will not like this trail. At the top of the hill, the trail circles around to the back before getting to Delicate Arch. The trail is pretty narrow and it drops dramatically. I have a picture of this as well below. There is an even greater drop off right next to Delicate Arch. This isn’t such a big deal though as you can just enjoy the arch without walking under it, and you’ll be fine.

Wolf Ranch at Arches National Park — Wolf Ranch

The trail to Delicate Arch starts next to Wolf Ranch, and then goes past some well preserved petroglyphs known as Rock Panel Art.

Rock Panel Art at Arches National Park — Rock Panel Art

There are lots of pretty views along this trail that have nothing to do with Delicate Arch. The first part of the trail is flat, but the surrounding landscape is not.

Below is the steep slickrock portion of the trail that I mentioned earlier. It feels as straight up as it looks, but once you get to the top, that’s it and the trail flattens back out. One other thing you notice from the picture is the number of people. This is a really popular trail. Expect a crowd the whole way along this trail. This picture is from my first hike up in March 2016. My boys and I were on this trail again during the pandemic in March 2021, and somehow we stumbled upon an mostly empty parking lot. When we got to the arch, there was only one other group of four people. They took our picture for us and then left, leaving the three of us alone at Delicate Arch for the remainder of our visit. That was such a special moment that I likely won’t hike this trail again.

Hiking up Delicate Arch Slickrock — Slickrock portion of the trail to Delicate Arch

While you hike up the slickrock, take a moment to slow down, breathe, and enjoy the incredible scenery.

Views from the slickrock portion of the Delicate Arch Trail

Even before you get to the arch - wow, wow, wow! I’d rank this as one of the best hikes in the country (minus the crowds).

An epic trail comes with some pretty epic drop-offs. This surprised me on my first hike, so I’m sharing this picture. If you have made it this far, and are scared of heights, I’m sure you would be very frustrated. The trail continues for a bit like this. You can see I had my son intentionally walking on the inside of the trail, and that it is wide enough for two people side by side, but still, it’s a long ways down.

Steep drop-offs along the trail to Delicate Arch — Backside of the trail to Delicate Arch (just before getting to see the arch)

There is a large window along the trail. If you look through it, you will see the La Sal Mountains (first picture). Keep peering around the corner of the window (second picture) and this is your first glimpse of Delicate Arch.

First view of Delicate Arch — Same window as above with a different angle - this is the first view of Delicate Arch along the trail

Once you get to Delicate Arch, there is plenty of space to sit down on the flat rock surface and enjoy the view. Expect people to be in your pictures though. These last two pictures are from our March 2021 trip, and I still can’t believe it was just us up here.

Fiery Furnace

If you would like to hike in the Fiery Furnace, it requires a special permit that you will need to purchase well ahead of your visit. Look at the Arches National Park website to determine how early you can purchase your permits, and set an alarm for that date at 8am Mountain Time. Log in to purchase them when your alarm goes off. These sell out fast!

I have the parking lot for Fiery Furnace circled on the map at the beginning of this post, but you’ll notice there is no trail highlighted, nor have I listed mileage or an elevation change. That’s because there is not a formal trail. This is an adventure, and therefore everyone’s trek is going to be different. To keep this part of the park protected, even without a formal trail, there are only certain types of surfaces you are allowed to walk on. This is explained in a video and short Park Ranger discussion when you pick up your permits. Everyone that is included within your hiking party needs to participate in this pick-up process.

Most likely your hike through the Fiery Furnace will be a moderately difficult hike. There isn’t much change in elevation, but there is a lot of rock scrambling and navigating over, under, or through obstacles. You’ll likely need a dose of courage as well, as hiking without a trail leaves you feeling very exposed to the wilderness.

Beginning section of the Fiery Furnace — Entering the Fiery Furnace

Once you have your permit, you will display it on the outside of your hiking bag, and then you are free to explore the Fiery Furnace area.

There are lots of websites you can Google to see learn how to navigate through the Fiery Furnace, as well as downloadable maps. There’s also a Ranger-guided option through the Fiery Furnace that you can select when you purchase your permits. I chose none of these options. I wanted to enjoy this special place with my boys on our Spring Break trip in 2023. I wanted to get lost, figure out how to get unlost together, explore every interesting nook and cranny, and simply just be. This was a little intimidating of a decision to have made at points in our morning, as it was not obvious where to go, or frankly even where to start. But we had a fantastic time wandering, we did make it out, and this was one of the highlights of our trip.

Although I did not have a marked trail, I did have my GAIA GPS app running, which was tracking our steps, so I knew exactly where the car was, and at worst, I’d be able to retrace my steps to get back. We didn’t end up needing to use it, but I did have it running in the background on my phone while we hiked.

Exploring the Fiery Furnace — Getting a little lost in the beginning while in awe of the rock formations

There are small white arrows throughout the Fiery Furnace that detail out a navigation loop. The arrows are not obvious in several locations. We missed the intended beginning, and didn’t realize there were arrows until we figured out we were clearly going the wrong way, and found an arrow pointing us back towards the direction we had come in. I’m not sure what we missed at the beginning, but once we realized there were arrows, finding them was half the fun.

Arrows marking a proposed route within the Fiery Furnace — Subtle arrows mark out a loop that can be followed to explore the Fiery Furnace

Because you can only walk on rock surfaces and sandy washes, there were moments we had to turn around and backtrack. This was one of those places, but it was really pretty even if we stumbled off on the “wrong direction”, which isn’t exactly the right set of words as there isn’t a wrong direction, just a couple of extra steps needed to continue exploring.

We squeezed through several tight cracks in the rocks as we explored.

Sometimes we would follow an arrow down what seemed to be the obvious intended way, and we’d get to the end, and in the opening have no idea where to go. So we would start on the right side and explore. If that wasn’t the way, we would go back and try straight ahead, etc. until we figured it out or found another arrow.

Hiking in the Fiery Furnace — Stunning Hoodoos

Hoodoos in the Fiery Furnace — Lots and lots of incredible hoodoos

Playing here as we explored down a dead end

There are a couple of signs you will see marked “Dead End”. Follow them. You will find arches at the end. Then turn around and head back towards the sign.

Hiking to Surprise Arch in the Fiery Furnace — Surprise Arch - we enjoyed lunch here and didn’t see another hiker back here the whole time.

I’d highly recommend the Fiery Furnace, especially if you hiking with older kids. I can’t put into words how much fun they were having as they navigated through this quiet wilderness full of incredible rock formations.

I had a lot of fun exploring this special place as well!

Sand Dune Arch

If you are looking for another short and easy hiking option, then pull into the Sand Dune Arch parking lot. On the map at the beginning of this post, I’ve marked this trail in green.

Sand Dune Arch

0.4 miles / elevation gain - 0 ft

This trail is fantastic for the youngest of hikers. I think Sand Dune Arch is the most accessible arch in park, and the trail takes you right under it. Plus there is sand everywhere, so tons of opportunity to play. The trail is short and flat, and guaranteed to be a hit with your littles. There’s even some tight spaces to squeeze through and explore.

Slot Canyon on the Sand Dune Arch Trail — Hiking Sand Dune Arch with my parents

Broken Arch

2.3 miles / elevation gain - 60ft

Technically I’ve only seen Broken Arch from the trail to Sand Dune Arch, but if you want to keep going along the trail, you can walk all the way to the arch. My recommendation though, if you are looking for easy hikes, is to see this one from afar, and spend your steps instead travelling to Landscape Arch (see below).

Devil’s Garden

Devil’s Garden is marked in blue in the map at the beginning. Although I marked a loop, I have distances listed out from the parking lot to various arches (and back), as you can always turn around without completing the entire loop.

Hiking to Landscape Arch — Landscape Arch - the largest arch in the world

Pine Tree Arch and Tunnel Arch

0.9 miles (from the parking lot and back) / elevation gain - N/A

The first arch you can see in Devils Garden is Tunnel Arch, followed shortly by Pine Tree Arch. The trail is very easy with no change in elevation. The only thing to get used to is walking along sand.

Hiking to Pine Tree Arch — Pine Tree Arch

Landscape Arch

1.9 miles (from the parking lot and back) / elevation gain - 250ft

Although there is a change in elevation on your hike to Landscape Arch, it’s very gradual. This is an easy hike, although the longest of the easy hikes at almost 2 miles.

Landscape Arch is the largest arch in the entire world, at 290ft across. As such, this arch is on most people’s bucket list when they visit Arches National Park. Despite that, because there are so many options of where to hike in this part of the park, the trail likely won’t feel as busy as Delicate Arch.

Because Landscape Arch is the largest arch, it’s protected, meaning that you can’t get any closer to this arch than I have shown in the above picture. It won’t be obvious how to get a good photo of Landscape Arch if this is your intended turnaround point. Both as you approach this arch along the trail, and as you stand directly in front of it, the rocks behind it make it difficult to show that you looking at an arch. Instead, keep walking a bit further along the trail and view it from the opposite side. Your pictures will turn out better with just a few more steps..

Partition Arch / Navajo Arch

2.9 miles (from the parking lot and back / elevation gain - 470ft

Hiking to Partition Arch — Partition Arch

Out of all of the arches in the park, Partition Arch is my favorite. I came here for the first time while I was in college in Oct 2000, while on a trip with the Rocky Mountain Lutheran Student Movement. I fell in love with this park instantaneously. But I was 18, overwhelmed by absolutely everything, and was simply following where the “adults” (our pastors, as we were technically all adults) were guiding us while in the park. After the trip, I knew that I’d seen Landscape Arch, but I couldn’t tell you what the names were of any of the other arches I saw. And that began to be a problem, as I thought about this particular arch over and over again.

I didn’t come back to Arches until 2014, and I thought for sure that I would see this arch if we simply hiked to Landscape Arch again. I did not find it though, and was stumped as to where it could be. I came back again in 2016, primarily to hike Delicate Arch, but to also keep looking for where this unknown arch might be located. This time, when we hiked to Landscape Arch, I noticed an arch visible on the hill to the right of Landscape Arch. I was hiking with my 10 year old and my parents, and we’d already used up the allotted amount of steps in our day, so this is where we turned around, but I was already planning my next trip back with intent on exploring that arch on the hillside.

So in 2018, here we were again, and this time we were hiking the whole Devil’s Garden Loop, which included a spur trail to explore that arch on the cliff, and (cue dramatic moment music), I found out the arch I’d been picturing so clearly for 18 years is known as Partition Arch.

There is one tight squeeze on the way to Partition Arch. It’s not tall enough to be a slot canyon, but if feels a bit like one.

If you are hiking the Devil’s Garden Loop (rather than simply out and back to Partition Arch), you will need to take a short spur trail. There is a second spur trail to Navajo Arch, which I’ve been to as well, but I must not have taken any pictures of it.

I think the reason Partition Arch is my favorite is that not only can you walk under it, there is a sandy section where you can sit and rest off on the right side of it, completely hidden. The arch is huge, and the view both behind it and through it is amazing.

Devil’s Garden Loop

5.1 miles / elevation gain - 670ft

If you want to see Double O Arch, you might as well hike the whole Devil’s Garden Loop rather than an out-and-back. If you hike the loop and include the above spur trails (as well as Private Arch and Dark Angel) it’s 7.2 miles. I have not yet been to Private Arch or Dark Angel. This 5 mile loop (plus the spur trails mentioned above) was pushing it with a five year old.

My hikers starting off on our loop of Devil’s Garden

If you plan to hike the loop, your question to answer is clockwise or counter-clockwise. The main difference is a bit of steep slickrock. If you prefer to hike up the slickrock, go counter-clockwise. If you’d rather hike down it, go clockwise. We chose up, and picked counter-clockwise (ending the loop at Partition Arch).

Hiking along Devils Garden Loop — These rock formations are known as “fins”

The one strong complaint I have about this hike is that because so much of the trail is over sand and slick rock, which is everywhere, it’s really easy to lose the trail; which we did, multiple times.

The easiest way to solve this problem is to hike with a GPS app. I now use GAIA (AllTrails is another good one), but I didn’t know this piece of advice yet.

Hiking Devil’s Garden Loop with my five-year-old

Amazing views along the top-side of Devil’s Garden Loop

If you are hiking counter-clockwise, finding Double O Arch means you’re well over halfway. This is another arch you can walk up to and under if you want to walk a bit further. The loop trail gets you about this close.

My favorite part of this loop hike isn’t Double O Arch, but the views that come afterwards. At this point in the hike, you are up pretty high in elevation in the park. The fins are everywhere, and the trail even goes up and over one.

Views from Devils Garden Loop — Devil’s Garden Loop

The view from on top was amazing!

Hiking Devils Garden Loop — Hiking up one of the fins

On top of the fin on Devil’s Garden Loop

From here, we walked to the spur trails for Navajo and Partition Arch (previously mentioned) and past Landscape Arch again back to the car.

Tower Arch

The last trailhead to explore, and certainly not the least, is Tower Arch. This trail is marked in purple on the map at the beginning. To get to this trailhead, you need to take the sand road just past the parking area for Sand Dune Arch. Because the road is sandy, it isn’t passible if it’s wet. If you are interested in driving out here, simply ask about the road conditions to Tower Arch at the Visitor Center. As long as the road is dry, any type of car should be able to get to the trailhead.

Tower Arch

2.60 miles / elevation gain - 525ft

My first comment on this hike is that on a busy day in March, there were zero cars in the parking lot. We did see one other hiker as we were leaving Tower Arch, but his car was not in the parking lot, so he must have come in on the 4x4 road, which results in a shorter hike. We did not see anyone else. If you are looking for a “secret” hike in the park, I feel like this is it. The road was pretty easy to drive on, and it was a reasonably short ride (about 20 minutes from the Sand Dune Arch Parking Area). The Park Ranger smiled when I asked if the road was drivable. I don’t think they tell people about this trail.

Hiking up the Tower Arch Trail from the trailhead

The majority of the elevation gain on this trail is at the very beginning. Once you get to the top, you go down a bit, and then there’s a much smaller second hill. There’s no slick rock to hike on, just sand. I felt like this was a moderate trail from a difficulty standpoint.

These are the beautiful rocks that will be off on your right side once you are at the top of the hill. The formations are so unique.

Off on your left, as you walk down the hill, will be these rock formations known as the “Marching Men.”

Hiking past Marching Men on Tower Arch Trail — “Marching Men”

There were several small undisturbed sand dunes along this trail, which are beautiful to observe the ripples from the wind.

Tower Arch Trail was easy to follow despite it not having much traffic. There are rock cairns marking the entire way.

The trail wraps around to the other side of the rock formations that you saw on the way. Tower Arch is just starting to be visible on the right.

Views along Tower Arch Trail — Hiking along Tower Arch Trail

The best part of this trail is the very impressive Tower Arch, but the surrounding scenery takes a close second. Third is the complete lack of people.

View from Tower Arch Trail near the arch

You can stop here, but I would recommend a small bit of rock scrambling to enjoy the view from under the arch.

Best Secret Hike in Arches National Park — View from under Tower Arch

Other Hiking Options

If you are looking for more hiking suggestions, please check out my below map with additional posts linked to the pins.