Arches National Park
Getting there
If you’re flying to Arches, there are a few airport options:
- Canyonlands Field Airport CNY is 11 miles from the park entrance (about 30 minutes away) – Skywest and United airlines offer flights
- Grand Junction Regional Airport GJT is 109 miles from the park entrance (about 1.5 hours away) – Allegiant, American, and United airlines offer flights
- Salt Lake City SLC is 230 miles from the park entrance (about 3.5 hours away) – all major airlines offer flights
Spending a morning at Arches
On this visit to Utah, my husband, two friends, and I flew from TPA to SLC in late August. We rented a car and made the 4-hour drive to Moab. This week-long itinerary (view here) included The Mighty 5 National Parks (Canyonlands, Arches, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, and Zion), Dead Horse Point State Park, kayaking, horseback riding, and canyoneering. You can find the full details under Destinations > United States.
Day 1 was our long travel day. Day 2, we visited Canyonlands and enjoyed 2 hikes there, and ended our day with Kayaking in Moab. Day 3 was Arches! We left our Airbnb at 5:15 AM and headed for Arches National Park. We planned to hike the Windows Loop trail for sunrise but when we arrived, we found out they closed the access road for just THAT DAY.
So we kept going and headed to the Delicate Arch trailhead, which we had planned on doing after Windows Loop. Remember that this can happen in any park, so have a backup hike ready!
Some parts of the hike were tricky in the dark but Delicate Arch was absolutely beautiful! After taking pictures at the arch, we found a little nook over to the left and watched the sunrise.
Alltrails stats for Delicate Arch: Length – 3.2 mi; Elevation Gain – 629 ft; Route Type – Out & Back; Difficulty – Moderate
With extra time on our hands, since we couldn’t hike Windows Loop, we asked fellow hikers for any other hike recommendations and landed on Landscape Arch.
This trailhead is very popular, as many arches are easily accessible. We quickly learned that it is a tour bus favorite. But the farther you hike, the fewer people you’ll see. Even with the crowds at the beginning of the trailhead, it was well worth it! I honestly don’t think you could go wrong with any hike at Arches.
Alltrails stats for Landscape Arch: Length – 1.9 mi; Elevation Gain – 252 ft; Route Type – Out & Back; Difficulty – Easy
Additional trails
There are 93 trails at Canyonlands rated 4.5 stars and above on Alltrails:
- 18 with a difficulty rating of Hard
- 54 with a difficulty rating of Moderate
- 21 with a difficulty rating of Easy
With our packed itinerary, we only spent a morning at Arches but you could easily spend a few days!
Next stop, Capitol Reef National Park!
