Arches National Park Travel Guide

Find: Hotels, Campgrounds, Hiking, Photos, Maps, Guided Tours, Activities, Weather & Visitor Information for Arches National Park, UT

Arches National Park is truly a magical place, containing the world's largest collection of natural stone arches. A 48-mile (round-trip) paved road winds

through spectacular scenery and leads to most of the park's major features.

Views accessible from the road include the La Sal Mountains, Courthouse Towers, Petrified Dunes, Balanced Rock, Delicate Arch, and the Fiery Furnace. Picnic tables are available at two locations in the park: Balanced Rock and Devil's Garden.

We recommend allowing at least one full day to explore Arches National Park. To make your vacation planning easier, we've included a map of the park and a list of the more popular hiking trails that you won't want to miss. A small campground is available inside the park, with additional camping and hotels in the nearby town of Moab, Utah.

You'll also find a complete list of area guides and outfitters who can help you explore this part of southern Utah safely. Be sure to visit our Arches Nature Photo Gallery for a quick preview of what to expect when you include this national park in your Southwest vacation plans. Check our our visitor information page for the answers to frequently asked questions about Arches.

Arches is also a popular destination for rock climbers. The vertical stone walls offer outstanding adventure for those with the right skills. Climbing is not allowed on any the Park's arches. We recommend hiring a guide in nearby Moab if your vacation plans include rock climbing or rappelling.

The photo above of Double Arch was made after a short walk from the parking area at midday. Nature photography tip: use a polarizing filter, set for less than maximum effect, when shooting at midday. Double Arch is just one of many improbable scenes that make this park special.

Geologic Explanation: Arches National Park lies atop an underground salt bed. Thousands of feet thick in places, this salt bed was deposited across the Colorado Plateau some 300 million years ago when a sea flowed into the region and eventually evaporated. Over millions of years, the salt bed was covered with residue from floods and winds and the oceans that came and went at intervals.

This debris was then compressed by its own weight into rock. At one time this overlying layer of rock may have been more than a mile thick. The salt bed below Arches was pressurized under the weight of this rock and became unstable. Under such pressure, the salt layer shifted, buckled, and repositioned itself, thrusting the rock layers upward into domes.

Faults deep in the Earth contributed to the instability on the surface. The result of such 2500-foot displacement, the Moan Fault, is seen from the visitor center. This movement also produced vertical cracks that later contributed to the development of arches. As this movement of salt shaped the Earth below the surface, erosion at the surface stripped away the younger rock layers.

Except for isolated remnants, the major formations visible in the park today are the salmon-colored Entrada Sandstone, in which most of the arches form, and the buff-colored Navajo Sandstone. These are visible in layer cake fashion throughout most of the park. Over time water seeped into the superficial cracks, joints and folds of these layers. Ice formed in the fissures, creating expandtion pressure on surrounding rock, breaking off bits and pieces.

Wind cleaned out the loose particles and a series of free-standing fins remained. The action of wind and water on these fins causes the cementing material to give way, and chunks of rock eventually tumble out. Many fins damaged in this manner have collapsed. Others, with the right degree of hardness and balance, survive despite their missing sections. These are the famous arches.

Additional Arches National Park Resources

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