The campground was full, the Fiery Furnace hikes for the next two days completely booked – welcome to Arches National Park in the spring. After 20 hours of tag-team driving to reach Moab, Utah, you’d think we’d be disappointed. Not so. Arches is so much more than just one experience; that’s the beauty of the place, as these short hikes attest.

On the trail of a “Delicate” Arch
Pulling into the last vacant parking spot at Wolfe Ranch, we topped up water bottles and joined the largest crowd of the day as we headed past the log cabin and petrogplyhs before starting the climb (480 feet elevation gain over 1.5 miles).

The trail looks deceptively easy as it meanders along a sandstone hill, but it’s not long before the crowd thins and groups start to pull over to catch the shade of a lone juniper. Others seek refuge in the shade of overhanging rock ledges. Water bottles of every shape and description glinted in the sunlight. The final ascent is a carved rock ledge path that saw a few rock huggers before they crested with a view of the arch. Of course the fact that a few of those rock huggers had flip flops for footwear instead of hiking shoes might have had something to do with their lack of confidence.

While the arch is spectacular, no doubt about it, it’s the look of pride and success on the faces of hikers who’ve overcome their fears and pushed themselves to conquer the walk that makes this trek so memorable.

Strolling along to a very fine “Landscape” Arch
On one of our trips to Arches years ago we heard tell that mapmakers mixed up the names of Landscape and Delicate when they put them on the map. I’m not sure if this is really true, but Landscape is mighty delicate-looking! The interpretive plaque at the base of Landscape shows a photo taken by a visitor who caught the most recent, arch-carving rockfall in action. New to us, fences keep visitors well away from potential danger.

Families (with strollers and backpacks and tumbling toddlers) make up a large majority of the hikers on the short 0.8 mile, gravel-surfaced trail (in the process of being resurfaced) to Landscape, but once they reach here, the majority of short-haul hikers turn back.

Skipping off to Navajo, Partition & Double O
From Landscape, we continued along the trail a short distance to the Partition and Navajo Arch junction. Both short side trips provide unique vistas of photo-worthy arches, however it’s after this junction that the trail gets interesting. It climbs along red rock before ascending a sandstone fin with stunning 360-degree views. Dropping off the ridge before Double O, it’s a short, sandy ascent to the lower arch. A quick scramble and we’re up on the backside with a unique look at the two arches, one on top of the other.

Backtracking from 2.1 miles from Double O to the Devil’s Garden trailhead is one option, but the better choice (if you’re up to a little bit of a challenge) is to take the “primitive trail” 2.2 miles back to the Landscape Arch junction. The trail offers a challenge as it climbs and descends several sandstone fins, but it is well-marked with small cairns (rock piles) and even plastic signs that point out that the “trail leaves wash here”! It’s a great stretch that weeds out the crowds without sacrificing scenery.

Arches – a multitude of experiences for all levels of hikers.