Arches National Park, utah
Attractions Guide

Arches National Park is home to the largest concentration of natural arches on Earth, along with many other unique rock formations surround by picturesque scenery and red rock.

As you enter the national park you'll first encounter the highly educational Visitor Center. Continue along the incredibly scenic road through the park, stopping at Park Avenue, which is named for the steep sheer cliffs resemblance to a city skyline. You can take in great views from the parking lot or hike through this canyon as far as you like, the Park Avenue Trail has a round-trip distance of 2 miles (3.2 km).

The next viewpoints you can stop along your journey through the park include the La Sal Mountains Viewpoint followed, the imposing Courthouse Towers Viewpoint, and the strange Petrified Dunes Viewpoint. All of these viewpoints look out over different regions of the otherworldly high-elevation landscape of this beautiful national park, so stop at as many as possible.

Next you should stop at the astounding Balanced Rock formation, which requires a very short walk to see up-close. The Balanced Rock is one of the most iconic sights of Arches National Park despite not even being an arch. Be sure to walk around for different perspectives of this delicate natural formation, which will surely fall someday.

Now continue to one of the park's two highest concentrations of natural formations, including the North and South Windows. These two side-by-side arches are named windows because they provide stunning views overlooking the beautiful landscape, with the option of easily walking/climbing up into the windows if you like.

You can see the the North and South Windows along with the Turret Arch via the 1 mile (1.6 km) round-trip The Windows Trail.

Adjacent to these arches you'll find the breathtaking rare Double Arch. The trail to reach this unbelievable massive arch is only 0.5 miles (0.8 km) round-trip. Along this hike you can admire the stunning Parade of Elephants formation.

Next you can drive up to Panorama Point for sweeping views over this beautiful landscape, and then drive to the trailhead for the park's most famous arch, Delicate Arch.

There's a few different options for seeing the iconic Delicate Arch, with the most accessible being the Lower Viewpoint next to the parking lot, which views the arch from afar set amongst striking scenery.

For a closer view you can head to the Upper Viewpoint and take in views of a majestic canyon while looking out at the arch (0.5 miles/0.8 km round-trip), or hike the full 3 mile (4.8 km) round-trip trail that leads directly to the arch. It's highly recommended however to see the arch via the longer trail as the distant viewpoint doesn't do the arch justice. Additionally the arch may collapse in the near future, due to erosion and its truly delicate nature, so see it up-close while it still stands.

If you hike up to the Delicate Arch, it's highly recommended do so around sunset, to witness the the beautiful red and orange shades that light up the arch. Ideally you'd want to arrive at the arch one hour before sunset, and then sit down and relax while watching the amazing spectacle.

Afterwards you can stop and take in more amazing views at the Salt Valley Overlook and Fiery Furnace Viewpoint, with the latter overlooking quite an incredible and complex landscape.

Next you might consider seeing the smaller Sand Dune Arch, which sits in a little canyon and can be accessed via a short walk. This walk is surprisingly difficult in shoes however, as the trail consists of fine deep sand, so you might want to do this walk barefoot.

Before reaching the Devil's Garden at the end of the road, you might want to take a very short 0.4 mile (0.6 km) round-trip walk to see the Skyline Arch. This is one of the park's more impressive easily-accessible arches, which can even be admired well near the trailhead.

At the very end of the road is the area of Arches National Park with the high concentration of arches, known as the Devil's Garden.

Within the Devil's Garden is one of the park's most famous arches, the gorgeous Landscape Arch, which is located next to the much smaller Partition Arch. Along the approximately 2.3 mile (3.7 km) round-trip trail to the Landscape Arch you can take short detours to see several more impressive arches, including Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch.

You can extend this to a hike of approximately 4.5 miles (6.8 km) round-trip to see the mesmerizing Double O Arch much further into the Devils Garden, and another 0.8 miles (1.3 km) round-trip to get up-close to the striking Dark Angel formation. You can actually admire the Dark Angel from afar before descending down to the Double O Arch if you don't wish to hike any further.

Another popular option is to do hike the entire Devil's Garden Loop, which descends down into a scenic and much more remote area with additional arches, such as Private Arch, Black Cave Arch, and more. This entire route is approximately 7.8 miles (12.6) round-trip, and is quite challenging with a significant elevation gain over 1,000 feet (300 m) in an already high-elevation environment. Despite the difficulties, this route is quite amazing and provides much privacy, as very few people choose to do this hike.

Just outside of Moab you should strongly consider the 2.3 mile (3.7 km) round-trip hike to see the stunning Corona Arch and adjacent Bowtie Arch. The Corona Arch is among the most amazing and famous arches in Utah and is massive. Be sure to walk underneath the arch to view it from the other side, from which you can admire the arch's most photogenic angle.

The hike to the Corona Arch is also quite scenic and interesting, even passing by over an old railroad track carved into a canyon.

If you're approaching Moab from the south, you might consider a significant detour from Highway 191 to visit the Needles Overlook along the way. Due to its extreme remoteness, the Needles Overlook offers far-reaching and breathtaking views overlooking a vast and complex network of canyons, located within the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.

From the Needles Overlook you can truly appreciate the grandness and scale of the many winding canyons created by the Colorado River, which stretch on for miles and miles.

The detour from the highway to visit the Needles Overlook requires about 70 extra minutes of driving. If you're visiting Moab from the north, you should visit this overlook later when you're heading south to your next destination, as it's even located quite far from Moab.

Approximately 30 minutes south of Moab along the is the stunning Wilson Arch, which can be admired from the roadside pull-off. This arch also offers the option of taking a very short hike to stand under it. Be sure to briefly stop at this arch along your way up north to Moab, or after leaving Moab if you're heading south. The Wilson Arch is located north of the road you would take to reach the Needles Overlook.

A bit further north up the highway from the Wilson Arch is the Hole N the Rock, a roadside attraction which features all types of interesting outdoor art pieces you might briefly admire.