Utah’s Devils Garden trail starts easy and ends somewhere wild: Here’s the latest

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Devil’s Garden’s trail goes from easy to wild

At the far end of Arches National Park, past 18 miles of red rock desert, the road stops and the trail begins. Devil’s Garden holds more natural arches packed into one stretch of ground than almost anywhere else in the park, and you can see as much or as little of it as your legs allow. The trail starts easy, then turns rough, raw, and nearly empty the further you push. Start here and work your way in. Shutterstock

Entrada sandstone carved by water, ice and wind

Everything you see here started as a thick layer of Entrada sandstone laid down millions of years ago. Water crept into cracks, ice pried them open, and wind wore the edges smooth. Walls formed first, then windows, then arches. A prospector in the 1920s looked at the tangle of fins and gaps and called it Devil’s Garden, and the name stuck. Congress made Arches a national park in 1971, but the carving never stopped. The rock you’re standing next to is still changing. Shutterstock

Landscape Arch stretches 290 feet across the sky

About a mile from the trailhead, the path opens up and you see it: a ribbon of rock stretching nearly 290 feet from end to end. Landscape Arch is the longest natural arch in North America, and standing under it feels wrong in the best way. At its thinnest point, the span is only about six feet thick. The trail to reach it is wide and mostly flat, and the viewing area gives you a full, unobstructed look at the whole sweep of it. Shutterstock

A 1991 rock fall gave Landscape Arch its spindly look

In 1991, a massive slab broke away from Landscape Arch while people stood nearby watching. They heard what sounded like thunder before the rock came down. Nobody got hurt, but the fall stripped away a thick section that had once given the arch more bulk. The Park Service closed the path directly under it after that. You now view it from a designated spot at a safe distance, which still puts you close enough to feel the scale of what’s left. Shutterstock

Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch are two quick detours

Before you reach Landscape Arch, a short side trail branches off to two smaller arches worth the detour. Tunnel Arch sits high in the rock wall, a dark oval frame against the sky. Pine Tree Arch opens at ground level with desert plants growing right up around its base. The whole detour is flat and quick, making it easy for anyone to add without much extra effort. Both arches are close enough to step up to and photograph without any scrambling.

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Past Landscape Arch, the trail gets real

Once you pass Landscape Arch, the wide gravel path disappears. The trail climbs onto narrow sandstone fins with drop-offs on both sides, and the footing demands your full attention. Trail markers thin out. The National Park Service flags this stretch as primitive and warns of uneven ground throughout. Fewer people push this far, so the crowds fall away and the desert opens up around you. It’s still hikeable for anyone in decent shape, but it’s a different experience than the easy walk you started on. Shutterstock

Partition Arch frames the park like a picture window

A side trail past Landscape Arch climbs to Partition Arch, and the view through its opening is one of the best on the whole route. The arch is nearly a perfect circle, and through it you can see the lower section of the park laid out below. Right beside the main opening, a second smaller gap sits like a window next to a door. Most people walk past the junction without noticing the turnoff, so you often have Partition Arch almost to yourself. Shutterstock

Navajo Arch is a cool, quiet place to stop and rest

Navajo Arch is thicker and lower than anything else on the trail, wide enough to walk completely underneath. Behind it, a small pocket of rock shelters a quiet, shaded spot ringed by stone walls. Trees grow in the shadow and keep the temperature down, which matters when you’re miles out in the Utah desert. A lot of hikers skip it because the spur trail isn’t obvious. That’s their loss and yours to gain. It’s one of the calmest spots on the whole trail. Shutterstock

Double O Arch stacks two openings, one on top of the other

Double O Arch is exactly what the name says: two openings, one sitting on top of the other. The lower arch is big enough to walk through, and the upper one frames the sky above it. It’s the second largest arch in the Devil’s Garden area, and it comes with a patch of shade that makes it a natural rest stop before you decide whether to keep going. From here, you can already see Dark Angel rising in the distance, a dark vertical smear against the pale rock. Shutterstock

Dark Angel is a lone sandstone tower at trail’s end

Dark Angel rises about 150 feet from the desert floor at the far end of the trail system. Its surface is darker and more weathered than the surrounding rock, and it stands out from miles away along the park road. A short spur leads to the base of the spire, where the scale of it hits differently than it does from a distance. Most people turn around at Double O Arch and never make it here.

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The post Utah’s Devils Garden trail starts easy and ends somewhere wild appeared first on When In Your State.

The extra quarter mile is worth it. Wikimedia Commons/G. Edward Johnson

Wall Arch collapsed on a quiet August night in 2008

Wall Arch stood along the trail for years, ranked among the 12 largest arches in the park. On the night of Aug. 4, 2008, it fell without warning. Campers nearby heard what sounded like thunder rolling under a clear sky, then silence. By morning, what had been an arch was a pile of rubble. Nobody saw it go. Nobody got hurt. The collapse left a gap in the trail where a landmark used to be, a reminder that everything here is still in motion. Shutterstock

Red rock glows at sunrise and the Milky Way follows at night

Early morning and late afternoon are when the light does its best work in Devil’s Garden. Long shadows stretch across the fins, and the red rock shifts from orange to deep rust as the sun drops. When the light goes, the sky takes over. The park sits far from city lights, and on clear nights the Milky Way stretches overhead from horizon to horizon. If you time your visit right, you get two completely different shows in one day, separated by just a few hours of trail. Wikimedia Commons/Gzzz

Visit Devil’s Garden at Arches National Park, Utah

You can reach Devil’s Garden by driving about 18 miles from the park entrance to the end of the main road near Moab. The trailhead parking lot is at the end of Devils Garden Road inside Arches National Park. The trail is open 24 hours a day. Park entrance is $30 per vehicle, and a timed-entry reservation may be required during busy seasons. Check the official website before you go, as reservation requirements and availability change throughout the year. This article was created with AI assistance and human editing. Read more from this brand:

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The post Utah’s Devils Garden trail starts easy and ends somewhere wild appeared first on When In Your State.