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Road trips: Arches National Park, Utah

Arches National Park in southern Utah with its, pinnacles, towers, petrified dunes, slickrock and its 2,000 sandstone arches is a magnificent tour de force. Famed for the Delicate Arch, the 290 foot Landscape Arch, the teetering Balanced Rock and, more recently, for the tragic collapse of the 71 foot Wall Arch on August 5^th 2008, Arches National Park provides visitors with an amazing display of sandstone monuments sculpted by rain, wind and erosion over the last 100 million years.

 

Established as a National Monument in 1929 and upgraded to a National Park in 1971, “Arches” is located just five miles north of Moab on Highway 191. Arches National Park Road runs for 18 miles directly through the park and ends at the Devil’s Garden Trailhead. There are only two ancillary roads along the way, the first takes you to the Cove of Caves and Double Arch (the jumping off point for the North and South Window trails), whilst the second takes you to Wolfe Ranch (the upper Delicate Arch trail) and the Lower Delicate Arch viewpoints.

 

You should allow at least two days which will give you a brief glimpse of the park, you could split this evenly between driving and hiking. The National Parks Service suggests that you can drive the whole park in about five hours which includes stops at all the viewpoints including the Windows Section, Wolfe Ranch and the Delicate Arch viewpoint. This is an accurate assessment. Depending on the weather, your age, level of fitness and number of children or otherwise in your party it would be possible to hike the Windows Loop Trail, Balanced Rock Trail and Delicate Arch Trail in a day. This would take about five hours. Given the heat (the maximum temperature in the park is approximately 116 degrees Fahrenheit in July) and the real possibility of dehydration, always err on the side of caution when planning your hikes. An old school recommendation is that you carry salt tablets, as well as water, in order to replace lost sodium.

 

Arches National Park is best suited for driving, hiking and bicycling tours. Because of the limited number of 4x4 trails, off-road enthusiasts should head for Canyonlands National Park or Dead Horse Point State Park. Rock Climbing is permitted at Owl Rock in the Garden of Eden section of the park and also at Tonka Tower, the Three Penguins and a few other locations. In most cases these require advanced free climbing skills. Caution, sandstone is not a stable rock!

 

There are 52 campsites located at the Devil’s Garden Campground within the National Park. Sites are $20 per night and both individual and group sites can be reserved in advance. There are a limited number of RV sites and the maximum length is 30 feet. There are a number of RV parks in Moab including an excellent KOA campground which is centrally located for trips to Arches, Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point. There is also a KOA in Green River which is better suited for those wishing to see Sego Canyon, Horseshoe Canyon and The Maze sections of Canyonlands. Green River is certainly not as pretty as Moab, but the driving distances are so great around Canyonlands that you could easily be driving 2-3 hours daily just to see places of interest. KOA’s always have good facilities irrespective of their surroundings so chose your location wisely.

 

Articles in the Utah Road Trip series include: Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park.

 

Arches National Park Map (PDF)

Arches National Park Website

Entrance Fee: $10 per vehicle, $5 per bicyclist.

Camping reservations must be made no less than 4 days and no more than 180 days in advance. There is an additional $9 booking fee for reservations. To make a reservation, visit www.recreation.gov, or call (877) 444-6777, (877) 833-6777 (TDD), or (518) 885-3639.

 

 

For other great destinations in Utah Check out my Destination Utah hub page.

 

© Copyright 2009 Julian L. Gothard. Protected pursuant to the provisions of the Berne Convention. All rights reserved. 

 

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