3-Day Guide to Arches National Park
Hello Arches, it’s finally nice to meet you! Lying just north of Moab, Arches National Park is home to over 2,000 natural sandstone arches. The park has gained immense popularity within the last couple years that they’re requiring an additional entry requirement - timed entry passes to be purchased before arrival. Lucky for you, I went through the prep before arriving so I’ve got some great tips to share.
BEFORE ARRIVAL
Select specific dates that you’d like to visit Arches.
Once your dates are selected, check out the NPS website here to figure out when your reservation date goes live (which is 3 months before arrival).
Once the reservation date goes live, book your desired time slot you’d like to enter the park. You can book anytime until your desired arrival, however, your specific time slot might be taken if you choose to wait. My recommendation: book your time slot as soon as your date goes live to have the best chance at securing your preferred slot.
NOTES:
Time slots range from 6am - 5pm daily with a 1 hour arrival slot (see what we did below for a better understanding).
If you choose to arrive at Arches before 6am or anytime after 5pm, you do not need to purchase a timed entry slot and can enter the park without one.
There are a limited number of tickets per entry time slot.
OUR PLAN
We planned to hike Arches in July. According to NSP website, our reservation date listed to go live was April 1st at 8am MDT. I went online, selected 3 dates we planned to hike Arches and then selected our desired time slots for each day.
Our time slots + dates: 4pm-5pm Wednesday, 7am-8am Saturday, 9am-10am Sunday. TIP: The earlier you arrive, the better. The desert heat later in the day can be unbearable, plus you beat the crowds going earlier.
YOU’RE READY TO HIKE ARCHES!
If you made it through your checklist upon arrival, you should be ready to enter the park with your timed entry pass(es) and begin your adventure! NOTE: You do still have to pay per vehicle to get into the park. The timed entry passes are an additional cost this year to stagger how many people can enter the park at one time. If you have the America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreation Land Pass that’s even better! Don’t know what that is? Check it out here.
WAYS TO KNOW YOU’RE ON TRAIL
In the desert, there are no tree markings so the trail is labeled differently. Here are a couple indicators to note:
Green markings on the ground every few feet
3-4 stacked rocks - whether they’re bigger boulders or tiny rocks stacked on top of one another (photo shown)
An aisle made of rocks
Stairs/steps
TIP: Download the trail you’re planning to hike on All Trails or take a photo of your trail at the trailhead map before starting your hike.
DAY ONE - BALANCED ROCK, DOUBLE ARCH, THE WINDOWS + TURRET ARCH
All of these ‘tourist’ trails were incredibly short so we hit quite a few in one day! We drove to essentially the ‘middle’ of the park to hit a loop of scenic rock formations - Balanced Rock (0.3 miles RT), Double Arch (0.5 miles RT) and The Windows (Primitive Trail) + Turret Arch (1.5 miles RT). These hikes would be great to bring your family/children to as they’re not strenuous. After completing, check out Panorama Point Overlook and Park Avenue Overlook before heading to Moab for lunch!
DAY TWO - DOUBLE O ARCH TRAIL
This was our favorite trail we’ve done so far! What’s great about this trail is that there’s lots of other trails/paths connected to it so you could make this a 1 mile hike or all the way to 7.8 miles if you choose to do the entire loop. We picked right in the middle doing the Double O Arch Trail (4 miles RT). NOTE: This trail consists of extensive rock climbing/uneven surfaces so advise carefully. The rock climbing was a good majority of this hike and was an absolute BLAST, but if you’re scared of heights, I do not recommend.
Along the Double O Arch Trail you can detour to see Landscape Arch (pictured below), Navajo Arch, or Partition Arch. If you continue past Double O Arch, you could also see Dark Angel + Private Arch.
DAY THREE - DELICATE ARCH TRAIL
Hi, Delicate Arch! (aka the most popular hike/arch at Arches National Park.) Wow, this hike was a trek. This trail was 3 miles roundtrip and uphill the entire way. The tagline of this trail should be ‘high risk, high reward’ because it definitely takes your breath away hiking it as well as seeing the arch itself. Delicate Arch was SO big, I wish these photos could actually do it justice.
Unlike the trail indicators I listed above, this trail was marked with pink flags once you arrived at the top of giant hill.
NOTE: We did this hike on a weekday and it was still so incredibly crowded. I can’t believe I managed to get a couple shots without people in them, #skill. No matter what day or time, expect people to be there and a line to get a photo next to the arch.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Grab an early morning or early evening time slot to hike because the sun/hot weather can take a lot out of you
Wear or bring a bucket/canopy hat because it really helps provide shade
Drink TONS of water - Mike + I each had a big water bottle + we had 3 more in a mini cooler in our backpacks
Layer the sunscreen
Have a blast!
Looking for more recommendations in Utah? Check out my articles on Moab, Canyonlands National Park and Capitol Reef National Park + Goblin Valley State Park.
Zion + Bryce Canyon are coming soon! I can’t wait to hear about your adventures at Arches National Park!