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The Best Hiking Trails in Arches National Park, Utah

A family friendly hiking guide,for Arches National Park. Stay in Moab, the gateway to the park. It’s $30 to enter or get yourself an ‘America the beautiful pass’ for $80 you can get these at https://store.usgs.gov/pass/index.html or at the entrance, it will save you a lot of money if you’re visiting multiple parks. After research, these hikes were picked, most are relatively short hikes due to the temperature being about 40C at the time and we were guzzling water and in need of an air conditioned car quite regularly. Luckily, a lot of trails are quite short to visit Arches main attractions. You can refill your water bottle at the visitor centre, campground or Devils Garden trailhead. All hikes listed vary in level and are rated according to the National Park Service. Here's our road-trip route which includes Arches NP.

As you enter the park, you’ll be provided with a map. Enter what feels like another planet, as the red sandstone surrounds you. It won’t be long till you come across a trailhead which will lead you to a unique formation in Arches, as it's home to the largest concentration of sandstone Arches anywhere in the world. You’ll find Arches is very popular and a lot of its landmarks quite busy, but you’ll understand why.

Get a leaning tower of Pisa style photo at balanced rock, see the heart of the national park in the Windows section where a large concentration of Arches can be found in close proximity, look through the Windows Arch for more stunning rock formations. My favourite, Double Arch due to its vastness, but let's not forget Landscape Arch on the Devils Garden trail, the longest Arch in the world. It will puzzle you, how is it still standing? Can it collapse any second? It looks like it will. Well, scientists are monitoring it, they have been for years, it last saw rock fall in 1991. Arches aren't permanent, new formations are constantly being created in the park and old ones are breaking, so go see it before it's too late. Due to its fragility, you won't be able to get right up close like many of the other Arches on offer in the park.


Delicate Arch is one of the most famous views in the National Park, there are several ways to see this particular Arch from different angles and distances, a 100 metre walk to a lower viewpoint, a strenuous put short walk to see the Arch from the upper viewpoint looking over the valley or a longer hike to see it up close.


There are a number of top viewpoints in the park that don’t require any hiking:

  • Courthouse towers viewpoint

  • Petrified dunes viewpoint

  • Fiery Furnace Viewpoint

  • Park Avenue Viewpoint

  • Lower Delicate Arch Viewpoint


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