arches-utah-national-park

Plan Your Visit

Arches is an extremely popular and fragile desert park. Advance planning is not just recommended—it's required.

Timed Entry System is Required

Action Required!

From April to October, a **Timed Entry Reservation** is required to enter the park during prime hours (typically 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.). These are booked on Recreation.gov and are released three months in advance in monthly blocks. They sell out very quickly. A small number of next-day tickets are released at 7 p.m. MDT the night before.

Choosing Your Season: Mind the Heat

The Iconic Arches

With over 2,000 documented arches, the park is a showcase of geological artistry. These are the must-see formations.

Delicate Arch

The icon of Utah and the most famous natural arch in the world. This freestanding, 60-foot-tall arch is perched on the edge of a sandstone bowl. Reaching it requires a strenuous 3-mile roundtrip hike with no shade. It is a legendary location for sunset photography, but be prepared for crowds. An alternative is to see it from a distance at the Lower and Upper Delicate Arch Viewpoints.

Landscape Arch

Located in the Devils Garden area, this is the longest arch in North America, a thin, delicate ribbon of rock stretching over 300 feet. It is reached via a relatively flat and easy 1.9-mile roundtrip trail. The sheer fragility of this arch makes it a breathtaking and humbling sight.

The Windows Section

This area contains a spectacular concentration of large arches and is one of the most scenic spots in the park. Easy, short trails lead to the massive North and South Windows (together known as "The Spectacles") and the impressive Turret Arch. The area offers incredible photo opportunities, especially at sunrise.

Double Arch

Located just across the parking lot from The Windows, Double Arch is a massive, awe-inspiring formation where two arches share the same stone foundation. It's one of the few places where you can stand directly underneath such a large arch. The trail is short, flat, and accessible to everyone.

Signature Hikes

Hiking is the best way to experience the arches up close. Always carry more water than you think you need.

Trail Comparison: Choose Your Adventure

A Journey Through Time

The story of Arches is a 300-million-year epic of seas, salt, and stone.

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The Salt Foundation

The secret ingredient to Arches' geology is a massive underground salt bed, thousands of feet thick, left behind by an ancient sea. This unstable salt layer shifted and buckled under the weight of rock deposited on top of it, creating faults and domes in the overlying sandstone.

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From Fin to Arch

Water seeped into the cracks in the sandstone, eroding the rock and widening the fractures to create long, parallel sandstone "fins." Over millennia, wind and water continued to erode these fins, carving holes in the weakest spots. Eventually, these holes grew larger until they formed the magnificent arches we see today.