Arches National Park – Review

It’s time to talk about Moab’s crown jewel and a license plate inspo: Arches National Park.

What is it?

Arch Madness!

Fast Facts:

Location: Southeast Utah, just outside of Moab

Founded: 1971 (previously a National Monument from 1929)

Size: 119.81 square miles

Cost: $30/car; $55/year¹ (Just buy the $80 America the Beautiful pass if it is in your budget – full access to every national park for a year). From April to October, you also need to reserve a permit here, at an additional $2.

Arches: over 2000²

Visited: 2023

The Ridley Review:

The Eastern part of the United States, despite all the worst efforts of industrialization to turn it grey, is largely colored green in the Spring and Summer and white in the Winter. The color red? Forget about finding that anywhere on the landscape. Entering Utah for the first time felt like landing on Mars: I had no idea that a place could be that intense a color. The whole landscape as far as the eye can see: red.

Arches is located right next to a sizeable town by Utah standards, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it. The rapid rise in elevation once you enter the park feels like a road to a whole other world. The second smallest of the 5 Utah national parks, Arches prioritizes quality over quantity. Loads of arches, the gorgeous La Sal Mountains providing a backdrop, and enough stunning vistas to melt even the hardest hearts.

Arches was the first Utah National Park I visited, and what a way to pop that cherry! Arches is small enough to be covered in one day, but large enough to leave an impression for years after. It’s hard to find anything to dislike: it’s just an awesome place to spend a day.

The Utah license place takes inspiration from the park’s most well-known arch: Delicate Arch. The arch is as spectacular as advertised, but the crowds can be immense, and folks end up waiting in line to take a picture with it. In order to spend some quality alone time with an arch, you may need to stray off the beaten path a bit; Partition Arch is my favorite hidden gem.

The Layout

Arches is small (by Western national park standards) and rhombus shaped. Unless you have a 4-wheel drive vehicle and like to rock out on unpaved roads, there is one way in and out. The most well-known sites can be reached on the Park Road and it’s two branches.

Transportation

You are on your own here: driving is most common, but the Park Road is very bikeable as well. Just get your legs ready for a steep incline to start off your trek.

Activities

Hiking, biking, rock-climbing, and even BYOH horseback riding are the most common activities.

Roads and Gas

There is but one paved road in the park, the aptly named Park Road. Accessible via State Route 191 from the North or South and bordering the town of Moab, it is very easy to find. Note that you need a permit for a timed entry during the peak season (see above). The entry time is somewhat loose, as a long line forms at the entrance stations and you can arrive a little before your entry time to compensate for the line that awaits you.

You can hit all the major sites via the Park Road. From the entrance station and visitor center, it takes you to Devils Garden at the far end of the park in 18 grand miles. Two branch roads take you to the Windows section of the park, containing many famous arches, and the Delicate Arch, the most famous arch.

From the West, two unpaved roads allows access for 4 wheel drive vehicles, but note that the one at Willow Flats is VERY rough and prone to flooding.

Rating:

The Utah 5 are all truly bucket-list items. Spend a night in Moab and visit for one day if you can.

Food & Lodging

Food

No food, but Moab is an arch length away from the park.

Lodging

Hotels

Zilch.

Camping

We got one campground – Devil’s Garden – located at the end of the 18-mile long Park Road. It has bathroom facilities and costs $25/night. Reservations must be made during peak season (March 1 – October 31) here. First come, first serve is the name of the game in the offseason.

Hikes and attractions:

Hikes

Balanced Rock Trail – Short and sweet, this cool little trail takes you to a rock defying physics while perched precariously on top of another rock. Trailhead right off the main road, just shy of the Delicate Arch road intersection.

Windows Trail – 3 for the price of 1: this trail takes you to North and South Window arches and the Turret Arch. An oddity is that most of the trail is well-maintained and packed with hikers. Just taking this section is 0.7 miles out and back, but there is a far more sexy option: do the full loop trail around the Windows. The back stretch is barely trod and you can get some a solitude from the masses with the same spectacular views.

Double Arch – as seen in the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the Double Arch lets you get up close: you can go under the arches and get a sense of the scale these bad boys pack.

Sand Dune Arch – cool little arch tucked away in a sandy cove, which makes it unique compared to others in the park. Easy and close to a picnic area/bathroom, which makes this hike very popular and thus it is hard to get alone time (and good pics) with ole’ Sand Dune.

Skyline Arch Trail – I don’t recommend this one. You get just as good of a view from the road – the trail only takes you to the base of the rock formation the arch sits on, so you don’t get much of a view.

Devil’s Garden Trail – now this is where the rubber (soles) meet the road: a beefy, occasionally treacherous trail involves climbing some boulders on a loop that takes hikers to no less than 8 spectacular and different arches if you take all the branch trails. The trail starts on a straight away before becoming a loop after a mile or so; I took a left turn and climbed the offshoot trail to Landscape, Navajo, and Partition Arches. I can’t recommend that enough: Partition Arch, through which you get an astonishing view of the desert beyond, is worth the price alone.

Delicate Arch Trail – saving the best and most famous for last. The sense of anticipation makes this a legendary hike: the people that made the trail designed it in such a way that the hiker doesn’t actually get so much as a whiff of the arch before rounding the final bend. After hiking over open, shade less rock for over a mile, you are rewarded with one of the most scenic views in any national park. The only downer? You and 100ish new best friends had the same idea. The amphitheater where the arch sits gets hella crowded, so you may be waiting for photo ops for a while. Just soak in the incredible view of the La Sal Mountains in the background and the massive sandstone arch just feet from you. Bring LOTS of water on a sunny day, especially in Summer. There is legit no shade and it gets HOT going uphill.

Other Activities

Rock Climbing – register here. Plenty of routes available, but check the NPS site to see openings. Permits are free but must bring your own gear.

National Park Rankings

1. Yosemite National Park
2. Olympic National Park
3. Zion National Park
4. Mount Rainier National Park
5. Bryce Canyon National Park
6. Arches National Park
7. Canyonlands National Park
8. Crater Lake National Park
9. Indiana Dunes National Park
10. Shenandoah National Park
11. Capitol Reef National Park
12. Acadia National Park
13. Redwood National Park
14. Pinnacles National Park
15. Cuyahoga Valley National Park

A note: as with all reviews to come, this will be updated upon any re-visit to the park. Feel free to comment or send in your own reviews or recommendations and we will get it added here!

1. https://www.nps.gov/brca/planyourvisit/fees.htm ↩︎
2. per NPS. ↩︎