Our Favorite Hikes and Arches:
- Delicate Arch Trail, 3.2 miles, elevation gain 629 feet, moderate
- Double Arch Trail, .6 miles, elevation gain 95 feet, easy
- Landscape Arch Trail, 1.9 miles, elevtion gain 252 feet, easy
- Windows and Turret Arch Trail, 1.2 miles, elevation gain 154 feet, easy
Hikes we missed but plan to do in the future:
- Fiery Furnace and Surprise Arch Trail, 2.1 miles, elevation gain 492 feet, moderate – this hike requires a permit and a good offline map
- Devil’s Garden Trail, 7.9 miles, elevation gain 1085 feet, hard – this hike does require climbing some slick rock
Our Visit to Arches National Park
Arches National Park was our second favorite place while visiting Utah. Arches is an amazing national park with lots of cool hikes to various arches. The park currently enforces a timed entry reservation system to limit the number of people entering from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Although you can purchase tickets months in advance, the park releases some tickets the day before, and we had no issues securing passes the day before our visits. You can purchase a timed entry pass on Recreation.gov.
We spent a couple of days in Arches National Park, hiking and exploring arches. Our favorite hike in Arches is the Delicate Arch Hike. The hike is three miles and considered strenuous. You will need water on this trail, especially during hotter weather. However, reaching and posing under the Delicate Arch makes this hike memorable. Do not forget to check out some amazing petroglyphs at the beginning of this trail.
During our visit to Arches, we also hiked Double Arch, Windows and Turret Arches, Landscape Arch, Broken Arch, and Sand Dune Arch Trails. Our favorite arches, besides Delicate Arch, are Double Arch and Landscape Arch. The short hike to Double Arch was worth seeing this amazing arch. We enjoyed plopping a squat underneath this striking arch while we cooled down. People climb up the interior of this arch and sit and reflect.
We had plans to hike the entire Devils Garden Trail. We hiked to Landscape Arch. However, after Landscape, the trail goes up the rock to Double O Arch. Some people hiked up the rock with no issues. However, after starting this portion of the hike, we decided it was not worth falling or hurting ourselves. So, we hiked back down the rock and decided to be content that we had seen Landscape Arch.
Besides completing the Devils Garden Trail, we also plan to hike the Fiery Furnace when we return to Arches National Park. You must have a permit for this hike. You can accompany a Ranger-guided tour or apply for a self-guided exploration permit. Per our understanding of the Fiery Furnace hike, it is easy to get lost on this hike. There are many possible paths, dead ends, and no GPS. This will be a compass and offline downloaded map hike when we return.
Boondocking at Moab, Utah
While visiting Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park, we boondocked in the truck at a designated campground in Mill Canyon. Per the Campendium app, it is Gemini Bridges Road Designated Campsites GPS 38.7114, -109.7271. The designated campsites are past the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Track campground. The pictures in Campendium show fifth wheels and travel trailers. However, we did not drive up towards the rock to check out this camping, but instead drove down further on a very bumpy Cotter Mine Road to a designated site with only the truck. The road is rough and we would not take our travel trailer to the campsites further on this road. We did enjoy waking up the view of hot air balloons in the morning at this boondocking!