Hiking Devil's Garden
ARCHES NATIONAL PARK
May 2007 - 45 photos


On May 10th of 2007, I visited Arches National Park in South Eastern Utah. While at the park, I hiked the trail in the Devil's Garden area and photographed about 10 different arches. The total hike is about 7½ miles when including the primitive loop section. For me it was only 6 miles because I didn't take the loop trail, I came back the way I went. I should have taken the loop because later I found out there are many more arches along that section. The map only showed one so I lost interest. If you are interested, visit Bob's Arches which include 8 more arches on the primitive trail.

The hike varied about 350 feet in altitude, with a lot of ups and downs along the way. The hike turned out to be fairly hard for me by the time I finished, as it was a hot day and the sun reflecting from the light colored sand and hard sandstone was too much. That combined with my being older than I care to say.

For map of Devils Garden, CLICK here

Map;

For GPS map of hike, CLICK here
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Landscape Arch Spans almost 300 feet

Landscape Arch, located in Devil's Garden, has the longest span in the park at 290 feet across and is registered as the longest natural span in the world, as measured so far according to Big 10 Tour.  But it may not hold that record for long, since it is continually sloughing off stone along the bottom side and may soon collapse. So much stone has fallen in the last few years that park visitors are no longer allowed to walk beneath it.

NEW - Another arch, Wall Arch collapsed sometime in the first weeks of August 2008.

There is a very well developed trail as far as Landscape Arch, but after that much of it is on loose sand and slickrock, (hard sandstone worn smooth). Many parts of the trail run across or up and down the sandstone at very steep inclines, yet I found that walking on the sandstone was fairly easy, (think of sandpaper), it holds your feet pretty firmly. The park pamphlets say it's pretty easy except when wet, so I guess that's why they call it slickrock. You do have to walk across some steep slopes and parts of the trail run along the top of sandstone fins with a good drop to either side. These slopes and heights could be very un-nerving for some if bothered by heights. Another thing, because much of the trail is on hard surface, it is difficult to see where the trail goes. The park rangers have put small piles of stones along the way to guide hikers, so you really have to watch for them.

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This is Double 'O' Arch in Devil's Garden,
see the smaller hole below the large one?

   - 45 photos -
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Related Photos

Trip to Arches National Park, 2007
Fiery Furnace Hike, Delicate Arch Hike, 2007 and 2012

Arches park visit, 07
Arches park visit


Fiery Furnace hike, 07
Fiery Furnace hike


Delicate arch hike, 07
Delicate Arch, 2007


Delicate Arch, 2012
Delicate Arch, 2012



I used a Canon EOS 20D, 8.2 Megapixel SLR Camera with a Canon EFs 17-85mm wide angle to 5x zoom and a Canon EF 100-400mm telephoto zoom lens for close-up photos.

Original photos were taken at aprox 3050 x 2000. These photos are set to 750 x 500 for faster loading. You are welcome to look at or download any of the photos. If you use them on any other webpage, please give credit and refer back to me.
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