The day after visiting Canyonlands National Park, it was time to visit another National Park in Utah – Arches National Park.
When doing some research ahead of time, we saw that there was a hike you can do up to Delicate Arch, one of the two most prominent arches in the park. We therefore left our dog Truffles at the Airbnb we were staying at because the Delicate Arch trail isn’t pet-friendly.
We weren’t sure how much walking would be involved to see other arches, so we decided to hike up to Delicate Arch before seeing anything else to ensure all of us had the energy to do that.
The Delicate Arch trailhead is at the Wolfe Ranch parking lot. We got there at about 12:30pm and the parking lot was almost full, but we got lucky and found a spot.
The parking lot is known as the Wolfe Ranch parking lot because at the start of the trail you can see Wolfe Ranch. This was once home to John Wesley Wolfe who settled there in the late 1800s. There are two homes you can see in the photo below – his original home is on the right and the home he later lived in is on the left.
The original home that John Wesley Wolfe and his son lived in was quite basic as it was a one room house with a dirt floor.
His daughter, her husband and their children subsequently moved to the ranch and were shocked at his living conditions. They persuaded him to build a new home with a wooden floor which is the second home that you can see on the site.
Anyway, back to the hike. The trail continues past Wolfe Ranch and initially heads uphill.
The Delicate Arch trail is 1.5 miles each way and so is only 3 miles round trip (you follow the same trail back rather than it being a loop). It’s not a particularly difficult hike, but it can be strenuous at times as you gain 480 feet of elevation. Towards the beginning of the trail there’s a downhill section…
…only to have to start heading up some slickrock immediately afterwards. Although it’s called slickrock, it’s not particularly slick – well, not when it’s dry anyway. Provided you have footwear with good grip, you shouldn’t have a problem.
There’s no shame in your game if you want to take one or more breathers on the way up. Pausing to catch your breath is also a good opportunity to look back behind you and enjoy the views that you’ll also experience on the way back down.
The trail is well-marked with both trail signs and cairns (rock stacks) directing you. The Delicate Arch trail is also a popular enough trail that you should see which direction you need to go based on where other people are heading and coming back from.
There are some interesting rock formations as you continue up the trail. Some show the different layers of rock, while there’s also a large cave higher up.
As you continue up the trail, you’ll go up another section of slickrock which leads you to a ledge that you’ll have to walk along.
If you look up at this section you’ll see a window higher up. If you feel nimble enough, it’s worth clambering up here as this provides a different vantage point of Delicate Arch. You’ll get much closer to Delicate Arch on the trail though, so don’t worry if this fairly steep clambering doesn’t appeal to you.
If you do go up to that window though, you get an exquisite view of Delicate Arch with mountains in the background and what looks like an inverted dome in front of it.
Back on the trail itself, you continue along a ledge. If you’re nervous about heights, just stay to the right along the rock wall, but it’s a wide enough ledge that you can easily – and safely – have someone walking in each direction.
Once you round the corner, you’re greeted with a great view of Delicate Arch.
Delicate Arch is the largest free-standing arch in Arches National Park as it’s 32 feet wide and 46 feet high.
There’s a natural wall that you need to cross over to get closer to Delicate Arch, but that’s not very high and there are sections that are easier to get over. One thing to be aware of is that it can get very windy up there.
How windy you ask? This windy:
As you might expect, Delicate Arch is a popular place to get your photo taken. Everyone waited patiently and took their turn to get photos.
There’s occasionally a brief interlude where you can get a photo of Delicate Arch without anyone standing beneath it.
People waiting in line are happy to take your photo too.
We’d originally planned to have lunch up by Delicate Arch, but it ended up being far too windy to sit up there for long. We therefore decided to start hiking back down, intending to find a picnic spot along the way, only for it to be extremely windy the entire way!
In the end we gave up on the picnic-on-the-trail idea and hiked back to the car and drove to an actual picnic spot which ended up being pretty windy anyway. On the way back to the car we took a quick offshoot trail which leads to some Ute rock art, carved at some point between 1650 and 1850.
Final Thoughts
If you visit Arches National Park, it’s definitely worth hiking up to Delicate Arch. The three miles round trip can be a little strenuous at times on the way up, but the trail itself isn’t very difficult. The park has both upper and lower viewpoints you can drive to in order to see Delicate Arch without needing to hike to it, but hiking to the arch itself provides the best views and experience.
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