The Utah Redemption Tour: Introduction to Arches National Park

We certainly started our Utah Redemption Tour with a bang. We went straight to one of our most anticipated national parks. We're not alone. Arches National Park boasts over 1.5 million visitors annually on average, as people flock to see the densest concentration of natural stone arches in the world. The high visitation rate has prompted the park to require timed entry reservations for a few years now, but we visited just shy of the peak season start date. On April 1, timed entries began, and that was the day we left. Either way, we wouldn't have had to worry about reserving timed entry, because we were fortunate to grab a campsite at Devils Garden Campground, Arches' only campground, nestled deep in the park.

The Campground

When we planned our visit to Arches, we knew we wanted to camp within the park boundaries. We love nothing more than having hiking trails right from our campsite, and these wouldn't be our average trails. Some of the park's most famous arches can be found in Devils Garden! I needed to move quickly and book a campsite as soon as reservations opened, and I talked about my process in the last post. Of the sites available for our dates, I eliminated ones that were too small to fit us, and then organized the rest in order of preference. I got our top choice, only was it really the best choice in real life? It wasn't a bad site by any means. No site at Devils Garden is. However, the site was more sloped front-to-back than expected, so we had to extend our tongue jack almost to its max. We had a lovely picnic area nestled among the rocks, but it abutted the parking spot for the site next to ours. We did, however, have a view of an arch!

What, you don't see it? Hang on...

It's probably not even a real arch because it looks like two rock formations, but we take what we can get. Overall, we'd say the campsite was nice. However, when we explored the rest of the campground, we noticed that some of the sites had jaw-dropping views. Like, some of the best views we've ever seen from a campsite. We could only imagine putting our patio down in one of those sites, but we doubt they stay available for long. Turns out, the positioning of our campsite worked in our favor. We were close to the entrance to the campground, which meant several minutes' less driving to some of the park's main attractions.

This campground is definitely not for everyone. The location is great for exploring some of the popular trails in the park. For everything else, you're looking at a hefty drive. It's almost 30 minutes just to get to the visitor center! One day, we went into downtown Moab to grab some supplies, and it took us 40 minutes just to get to civilization. Devils Garden Campground also has very few facilities. The sites have no hookups and there isn't a dump station. There are a decent amount of bathrooms, but no showers. We were happy to have a dishwashing basin right across the street from our site, though.

If you're hoping to explore more of Moab, there are plenty of nice RV parks in town. Because we were nestled so deep in the park, we didn't plan any non-park activities. Considering this was our first visit to Arches, we wanted to prioritize park adventures.

The Crowds

Arches is dense with stone formations, and it is also dense with people. The problem is, everyone who visits wants to see the same things. In most parks where the landscapes are the draw, everything is so vast that people can spread out and still see the wonders before them. At Arches, the overall landscape is extraordinary, but people come for the arches. This means that, even if you're hiking at an off-time with just a handful of people, you'll still likely have people blocking your view of the very things you want to see. These aren't just spectators, either. Many of the arches allow people to climb up underneath them. Great for exploration, bad for getting photos that aren't bombed.

One of the great things about staying in the park was that we were able to easily take our hikes at off-times. We still needed to contend with people, but we found a little more breathing room.

During our few ventures back towards the entrance, we kept close tabs on the lines at the entrance gate. For a beautiful week in late March, we have to say that the lines weren't bad at all. When we arrived with the RV, we had no wait (early afternoon on a Tuesday). When we came back from our resupply in Moab, we also had no wait (mid-afternoon on a Thursday). The longest line we saw was on a Wednesday morning, and this was only about a dozen cars with two lanes open. We didn't dare go near the entrance on the weekend, but the parts of the park we did see weren't that crowded. We wonder if Arches has become a "backwards visitation" park. People advise visitors to "go early, late, and weekdays" so much that eventually everyone starts doing just that. Soon, what used to be the crowded times, like mid-day and weekends, aren't so bad anymore!

We've been to a few parks with timed entries in the past, and it's a delicate balancing act. Sometimes avoiding timed entry means the crowds might be worse because there's no structure. Other times, getting a timed entry is worse than going outside of the hours because it's peak time and lots of people are trying to get in during their entrance hour. In the case of Arches, visiting before the start of timed entries was no problem at all.

The entrance gate lines might have been short the few times we looked, but the parking lots filled up quickly. Once again, this park deviates from most because people all flock to the same few attractions. The Devils Garden trails just outside the campground are where to see multiple arches on easy-to-traverse trails. One of these trails includes the famous Landscape Arch. This parking lot was absolutely massive, but it was almost filled by 9am on weekdays.

Of course, like any park, there are places to get away from the crowds. However, if you're visiting for the first time, you're not going to want to skip the famous arches. Plan to go in off-times as much as possible, and have low expectations in terms of getting any alone time.

The Geology

On our travel day to the park, I wondered how such a small area can have such a large number of arches. Turns out, it's because the park is situated on a large underground salt bed. As with all the sandstone in this part of the country, wind and water easily erode the soft stone, creating the formations. The arches' openings formed because of the minerals embedded in the rock. When the top part of the rock is more porous than the bottom, over time water seeps through the top layers but not the bottom, forming a seam that eventually forms a hole. These rocks have risen up from the underground salt bed, which makes them more soluble. This is why over 2,000 arches can be found within the park's boundaries.

The other reason for all of these arches is a climate that allows for their formation and fortitude. The minerals, including calcium carbonate, allow for the water to drain into the rock and create the seams that begin the formation of the hole. Then, the freezing during winter expands these openings. This process is called frost wedging. Once the arch is formed, its lifespan can be thousands of years. If southern Utah got lots of earthquakes, this could be a different story, as the rock would be too weak to withstand the earth's shift. If the area received too much rain, this too would speed up the erosion. However, without enough rain, there wouldn't be enough water to create the seams that form the arches.

Delicate Arch

Our Utah Redemption Tour invigorated us right from the start. We had a scenic drive towing our RV through the park and into the campground. We couldn't wait to see more. We were surprised at how energized this adventure was already making us, and we wanted to capitalize on the energy. We had initially planned to wait for the weekend to do an early morning sunrise hike to Delicate Arch. Instead, we figured why not go that night for sunset? The end of the hiking trail faces hikers south, looking at Delicate Arch. This means that both sunrise and sunset cast a glow on the arch from the side.

Delicate Arch is not only the most famous arch in the park, but it's become emblematic of Utah (you can see the arch on their license plates) and of the entire National Parks Service (who often use the arch as a distinctive symbol of the national parks). We had been waiting a long time to see this formation in real life, and we knew it would be a big moment. Having it be our very first adventure in the national park made it even better.

There are a few different ways to see Delicate Arch, but to get up close and personal, you need to hike 1.5 miles and climb up steep slickrock to a ledge. Then, follow the ledge where you get a view of another arch, before rounding the corner of the rock wall, where Delicate Arch reveals itself to you. There is no doubt that the hike makes the view even sweeter, but it's not easy. All Trails rates it as moderate. NPS warns visitors that it is "strenuous," as they tend to do to make sure non-hikers understand that this is, in fact, a legit hike. There will be points where your calves burn. You will feel thirsty immediately, especially when the sun is shining. And at the end, your fear of heights might come into play. The ledge leading to the arch is actually quite wide, all things considered. It's about 3-4 feet. However, the natural rock "amphitheater" where you view the arch is steep, so you need to be sure-footed if you plan on walking around up there.

But oh, that arch. Seeing it in person was a poignant reminder of how amazing this life of travel is. Not only is the arch massive, but it seems to be precariously situated on a big slab of rock, with canyons all around it. Lots of the other arches are nestled among surrounding rocks, but Delicate Arch stands alone, like the crown on top of the park.

We took a lot of pictures and carefully walked over to see underneath the arch. Then we sat on the eastern side of the amphitheater, facing the sunset. We stayed until the last bit of sun fell behind the rocks, getting to witness the changes in color on the arch. Hands down the most spectacular adventure we've had so far this year.

Idyllic, yes? Don't worry, we didn't miraculously luck out with no crowds. We shared the views with several dozen of our fellow hikers. Not too bad compared to some of the "Instagram vs. Reality" photos we've seen. Some of the photos were a result of patiently waiting for the one second of time when no one was under or around the arch. The rest of them? Let's just say I put my editing skills to good use.

Fortunately, people were respectful here. Everyone formed a line and waited patiently for a shot under the arch, and for the most part, people didn't linger underneath it. The moments where one person left the arch and another approached were my prime time to get shots like this:

It was a collective experience. We typically enjoy sharing bucket list adventures with other people. We all share the commonality of having a passion for natural beauty. It's when people start abusing their privileges at the parks that bothers us: People climbing where they aren't supposed to, or spending 20 minutes under an arch when other people are clearly waiting their turn. This happened a lot at other arches, but not here.

I snapped a few more photos on the way out, capturing the now muted colors from the fully set sun. Then we made our way back to the trailhead in the last minutes of twilight.

Easier hikes to Delicate Arch will get you more distant views. We took the Viewpoints Trail the following morning. Lower Viewpoint is just an overlook, but if you continue to Upper Viewpoint, expect about a 1/2-mile with some steep sections of rock. If you look closely, you can see all of the hikers in the amphitheater closer to the arch.

The arch viewpoints also yield beautiful scenery in other directions. We learned that all of the green minerals are actually still iron, just less oxidized than the red.

We got our fix of Delicate Arch from up close and afar, but we still had many more arches to see! In our next post, we'll brave the crowds to hike to some of the other famous arches. We'll also share some less crowded trails and hidden viewpoints.