Arches National Park

Delicate Arch & Wolfe Ranch

Delicate Arch is a freestanding arch shaped like an upside-down U, with an opening 46 feet tall and 32 feet across, bigger than any other freestanding arch in the park. The Delicate Arch Trail, a moderate hike of about three miles round trip, starts at the Wolfe Ranch Parking Lot. Short walks from the lot reach a petroglyph panel and Wolfe Ranch, where John Wesley Wolfe and his son Fred settled in the late 1800s. A weathered cabin, root cellar and corral from their ranch remain. About a mile farther down Delicate Arch Road, a second lot serves the Upper and Lower Viewpoints. The Upper one is a short, easy walk, while the Lower takes even less effort but sits far from the arch. Sunset is a popular time to photograph it, when the rock glows red.

The Windows Section

Few places in the park gather as many arches as this corner, where a short walk can bring you to several of them. The Windows Trail is a one-mile round trip that reaches North Window, South Window and Turret Arch, and you can get close enough to see the La Sal Mountains framed through the openings. Double Arch, made of two spans that meet, lies just across the parking lot. Several easy hikes start here, and the lot serves as the trailhead for these arches. Garden of Eden, Elephant Butte and Parade of Elephants are other named features nearby. The scenery makes this area a good place for both photography and stargazing.

Fiery Furnace

Its name comes from the reddish glow it takes on at sunset, and the Fiery Furnace is a maze of narrow passages between towering sandstone fins. You can see it from an overlook a short walk from the parking lot, but going inside takes more effort. Entry requires either a ranger-guided hike, which runs spring through fall and needs a reservation, or a Self-Guided Exploration permit. Children under 5 are not permitted on either. The hikes are strenuous, with gaps to jump, narrow spots to squeeze through, ledges above drop-offs, and places where you press against the walls to hold yourself off the ground. It is easy to get lost, and GPS units do not work well between the high walls. Small markers flag only one counter-clockwise route, while many other possible paths may lead to dead ends.

Park Avenue

Towering sandstone fins and cliffs rise on both sides of a narrow canyon along the Park Avenue Trail, and the rock walls are often compared to a city skyline. The trail begins on a paved path that leads to the Park Avenue Viewpoint, then drops steeply over rock steps and uneven slopes into the canyon. Along the way you pass the Three Gossips and the Courthouse Towers. Hikers can also walk the trail point-to-point, with someone in the group dropping them off at the start and collecting them at the far end. Starting from the Park Avenue trailhead and finishing at the Courthouse Towers Viewpoint keeps the walk mostly downhill. Watch for potholes, small puddles of water that matter to the desert landscape.

Devils Garden

Narrow rock fins stand across the sandy landscape here, and many of them have worn away into arches. Fins form when rainwater erodes parallel cracks in the rock, and Landscape Arch is the longest arch in North America, spanning 306 feet. At its narrowest, the arch is only 6 feet wide. The trail system totals 7.9 miles and can be hiked in sections, passing eight arches along the way. Hikers can take the short walk to Landscape Arch or the longer, more adventurous Primitive Trail, and Double O Arch is also on the route for those who want more. Overnight visitors can camp at the campground, which has 51 sites among slickrock outcroppings. The trailhead sits beside a parking lot with 160 spaces.