2 Days In Arches National Park

Updated: Jul 21, 2020

Nestled in Eastern Utah near the city of Moab, Arches National Park offers a unique experience that visitors can’t quite get anywhere else. Dozens of arches fill the park, each one a little different than the others. There is limited camping available within the park, but the surrounding area provides a lot of great accommodations. The city of Moab is loaded with all types of hotels and motels. There is also plenty of free land around the park for you to camp, this is known as BLM land. Take a quick drive down the dusty unpaved road and find yourself a place to park and camp. It's a wonderful concept! We used this option to set up our camper van for 2 nights while only being 10 miles outside of the gate to Arches. We spent 2 wonderful days hiking, exploring and staring in awe at the enormous arches and rock formations.

Day 1: 12 miles of hiking and 8 arches

We started our day early in order to get into the park a little after sunrise. Arriving early secured us a good parking spot and an early start on the Devils Garden Trail. The trail name alone sounds difficult and the actual hike lived up to its name. The majority of the hike was a challenge but a fun one.

On the Devils Garden Trail, you get views of seven different arches including: Partition, Navajo, Double O, Private, Pine Tree, Tunnel, and Landscape. The Landscape Arch is one of the more iconic arches in the park and is accessible for just about everyone. A well packed path leads you from the parking lot to this arch for a 1.6 mile round trip hike. Actually, it is more of a walk.

From this point if you choose to continue things get difficult. A steep scramble takes you to a beautiful lookout of two more arches and the surrounding mountains. Continuing this path will take you to the Double O Arch. Along the way there are several viewpoints that provide terrific panoramic views. This arch provides a great opportunity for close up pictures with you actually in them but please remember not to climb on top of the arches. Here, many people decide to turn back around and follow the same path back to the parking lot. This 4.2 mile round trip hike is a difficult one but more than doable for many.

For those with an adventurous spirit, we suggest continuing along the primitive trail to complete the 7.2 (although our mileage measured 8.5) loop. They aren’t kidding when they say primitive trial. Many places it is tricky to locate the exact direction of the trail. However, other hikers and park rangers have scattered the path with stacked rocks that act like guides on your journey. This hike takes you down into the canyon for a hot and sunny walk through the backcountry, but not before you scale up and down different rock formations to get to the bottom. In addition to the challenge of this trail you also get to see another arch along the way. This part of the hike was one of our favorite things we did in Arches National Park.

After about 4 hours of hiking (and picture taking), we made it back to the parking lot to have lunch and reload on water. This hike can be done at all times, but we would suggest an early start here before the temperatures begin to soar. Remember to pack lots of water, the desert heat is unforgiving.

We packed up and drove back through the northern part of the park to get to the Delicate Arch parking lot. If you have seen pictures of Arches National Park it probably was of this isolated and beautiful arch. Along the road to Delicate you pass an area of the park called Fiery Furnace. This is an area of unique rock formations that require a permit to hike. There is a lookout area located here. It is worth the stop if you have the time, but honestly this isn’t a must see attraction in our opinion.

Delicate arch is only a three mile round trip hike, but it will definitely test you physically. You are exposed to the sun the entire time while you hike up a serious incline. DO NOT LET THE DIFFICULTY STOP YOU FROM DOING THIS. Frequent breaks and lots of water will allow just about anyone to make it to the arch. We saw a man well into his 80s get to the top with a little help from some random friendly hikers.

We did this hike throughout the afternoon, but many people arrive an hour or so before sunset. From pictures we have seen it is well worth the trip for sunset, but you will get amazing photos no matter when you go. Make sure you take a few minutes to explore the backside of the arch area. There we found one of our favorite views within the park. After spending about 30 minutes at the top, we made a fast descend back to the parking lot. In total this hike will take about 2-3 hours.

We ended our first day in Arches by doing a short hike to the lower viewpoints of the Delicate Arch. While these were nice views of the arch, once you have hiked to stand next to the arch it was a bit underwhelming. There were others that brought blankets and some snacks and enjoyed this area during the sunset. We decided to leave the park while we still had light to head back to our free campsite and call it a day.

Day 2: 2 miles of hiking and 3 arches

The second day our alarms were set for 4:45am to get in before the sun came up at 5:37am (this was in early June). We decided to view the sunrise from a popular area called The Windows Section. This area features an easy one mile loop to three different arches. The North Window Arch is the most popular for sunrise because the sun shines straight through the arch. You can also get a great view of the morning light shining on the Turret Arch from this spot. We quickly hiked (faster than Megan liked) to get a good spot for the sunrise and we were not disappointed. Once the sun comes up many people quickly leave the area, but we suggest sticking around to soak in the views and take some great photos.

After sunrise we continued the loop to view all arches. This loop can be completed in less than an hour, but we spent about two hours in total in this area. We then drove back towards the beginning of the park while taking in views of Balanced Rock, Petrified Dunes and the Courthouse Towers. All areas that are worth a stop.

We parked at the first stop in the beginning of the park which is called Park Avenue. This area gives you a two mile out and back hike that is relatively easy. The area gets its name from the large rock formations that shoot straight up out of the ground resembling high rise buildings in New York City. The hike actually takes you through a dried up river bed from Park Avenue to the Courthouse Towers. From there you can walk back along the road or turn around and enjoy the same hike in reverse. We went back the same way we came and we strongly suggest that. It is amazing how a hike can look completely different depending on which direction you are going. So why not go both ways, right?

This quick hour long hike concluded our time in Arches National Park. We stopped at the visitor center on the way out. Complete and clean bathrooms as well as water fill up stations are located here which can help any traveler, but especially those of you traveling in a camper van like we were.

We were blown away by the impressive arches and challenging hiking that Arches National Park provided. We caught ourselves stopping frequently for pictures and to take in all the amazing scenery. We highly recommend Arches National Park for any type of traveler from novice viewer to extreme hiker.