Welcome to Travel Tuesday! Wanna see all the things we managed to pack into one day in Arches National Park? Keep reading! :P
One Day in Arches National Park
Park Avenue
Distance: 2 miles (out + back)
Duration: 1.5 hours
Elevation: 320 feet
Duration: 1.5 hours
Elevation: 320 feet
This is a really pretty hike that goes down into a canyon and brings you to the Courthouse Towers. Super pretty views!
Balanced Rock
Distance: 0.3 miles (loop)
Duration: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
As its name suggests and looks very much like a ginormous rock is perched precariously on a pedestal. It stands at 128 feet tall and used to have a friend, “Chip-Off-the-Old-Block,” but sadly, it collapsed back in 1975-1976. Balanced Rock weighs 3600 tons and sadly, eventually will fall as it continues to erode, so go visit before it’s too late! The very beginning of this trail is paved and wheelchair-accessible.
The Windows Loop Trail
Distance: 1 mile (out + back)
Duration: 45 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Duration: 45 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Easy trail that’ll bring you to the North Window, South Window, and Turret Arch. The first 100 yards of this trail are wheelchair-accessible!
Double Arch
Distance: 0.5 miles
Duration: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Duration: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Fairly flat gravelly trail that leads to the base of two ginormous arches that are joined together at one end. (Wheelchair-accessible!)
For whatever reason, I can’t seem to find any of the photos I took for Double Arch, so you get two forming arches instead.
Sand Dune Arch
Distance: 0.3 miles
Duration: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Duration: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
This is a super short + easy hike that has shade(!!!) and has an arch nestled in the sand. (Please don’t climb or jump off of it!)
Broken Arch Loop
Distance: 2 miles
Duration: 1 hour
Difficulty: Easy-Moderate
Duration: 1 hour
Difficulty: Easy-Moderate
This starts at the same trailhead as Sand Dune Arch and goes through a number of rock fins. There is a moderate amount of scrambling involved here!
This post is getting super long, so the other two hikes we did were to Delicate Arch and also a rather thorough-ish exploration of Devils Garden!
Things To Remember:
- Try to walk only on the trails and keep all vehicles/bikes only on designated roads to help protect the biological soil crusts (there are tiny little ecosystems you could destroy with every step!).
- Stay off the arches! Do NOT climb, scramble, walk, stand on, or rappell off any of them!
- Please keep natural features undisturbed. Don’t stack or mark anything.
- How many arches do you think you can visit in a day?
- Which arch would you want to visit most?
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The one rock looks like it’s giving the middle finger haha! Love it =) But also bummed because our van broke down and we couldn’t go to Arches!
haha, it kinda does! :P I’m so sorry that your van broke down! :[ Hope it’s up and running again and that you’ll be able to go visit sometime when the parks are open again!
Oh I love visiting national parks. Haven’t been to a lot in the US yet but this looks like such a cool one!
Oo, I hope you get to go to em’ sometime! :] This was definitely a fun park to explore!
I went camping in Moab in college and it was so fun! I’m looking forward to visiting again and this is a great post I’ll refer back to!
That’s awesome! I’d love to do that next time–it’s such a fun place! :] I hope you get to go back again soon!
It amazes me that things like this exist! I always wonder how that happened or how they were formed. I’ll be doing some road tripping out west this summer, so I can’t wait do see a few of the national parks out there :)
Me too! They’re so fun to explore. :] I hope you have a fun + safe trip!!
Now that I have returned stateside, I’m super excited to head to Arches one day in the future! I miss hiking so much and this was the one NP I never got to see in Utah! Thank you for all the tips on visiting so many places in 1 day.
Yay! Welcome back! :] I hope you get to go sometime–it’s an awesome park to explore!
Farrah recently posted…One Day in Arches National Park
What an amazing collection of walks .. seems like there’s ones to suit every type of hiker’s experience. I love the color of the rocks, these reds are chameleons – and at different times of the day the light hits them differently and the tone and shade of the rocks changes dramatically. That’s the beauty of the desert landscape.
Jay Artale recently posted…Video: Our Workaway adventure through France
There’s definitely a good variety! I’d love to see them at different times of the day so I can try taking photos in different lighting–it was so pretty there!
Such a good day trip, I love the landscape it is so beautiful out there! I need to add it to my state bucket list!
Lyne recently posted…20 Inspiring Tokyo Quotes, Japan
Yay! I hope you get to go sometime! :]
Delicate Arch is the most iconic and memorable arch for me, but I also really enjoyed our 1.6-mile roundtrip hike to Landscape Arch.
Ooo, I really enjoyed that hike too! :] There are so many cool places to explore in that park!