Hiking | Delicate Arch Hike
Hype:
The delicate arch in Arches National Park has to be one of the most famous arches in the word.
Trail Condition: Class 2 (Trail may have tree roots or rocks jutting out. Navigation skills may consist of following rock cairns and choosing turns at junctions. Elevation gains may be more substantial.)
Time: 1.5 hours
Length: 3 miles round trip
Elevation Gain: 540 ft
Fees: Entrance fee
Recommended Ages:
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 | 4-11 |
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 | 20-49 |
 | 50-69 |
 | 70+ |
Recommended Months to Visit:
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Navigate to 38.735596, -109.520554.
This moderately strenuous trail begins near the Wolfe Ranch cabin, crosses a bridge over Salt Wash, and continues up the long stretch of open slickrock to Delicate Arch. The trail also winds through an area full of chert - a hard, shiny rock used by Native Americans for tools and weapons - and around a short ledge, hugging a steep cliff.
The trail leading to Delicate Arch is 3 miles round-trip and features a 480 foot elevation gain with no shade. The trail is well defined for about the first half mile then steeply climbs up an open slickrock slope. Just before reaching the arch, the trail traverses a rock ledge for about 200 yards. Follow the cairns.
This trail can be strenuous, especially during hot weather. Carry and drink at least 2 liters of water per person.
A short walk up the trail brings you to the Wolfe cabin. John Wesley Wolfe and his son Fred settled on the banks of Salt Wash around 1898. Drawn by the climate, which was drier and "healthier" than their previous home in Ohio, John and Fred spent more than a decade leading lives of solitude and hard work.
John Wesley Wolfe settles here in the late 1800s with his oldest son Fred. A nagging leg injury from the Civil War prompted John to move west from Ohio, looking for a drier climate. He chose this tract of more than 100 acres along Salt Wach for its water and grassland - enough for a few cattle.
The Wolfes built a one-room cabin, a corral, and a small dam across Salt Wash. For more than a decade they lived alone on the remote ranch. In 1906, John's daughter Flora Stanley, her husband, and their children moved to the ranch. Shocked at the primitive conditions, Flora convinced her father to build a new cabing with a wood floor - the cabin you see today.
The reunited family weathered a few more years in Utah and in 1910 returned to Ohio. John Wolfe died on October 22, 1913, in Etna, Ohio, at the age of eighty-four.
Beyond the cabin you can see rock art created by the Ute people depicting a hunting scene with riders on horseback from around the 1700s.
The stylized horse and rider surrounded by bighorn sheep and dog-like animals is typical of Ute rock art. Carved sometime between A.D. 1650 and 1850, these petroglyphs are visible along the vertical wall ahead.
Today, this rock art panel is important to many Native Americans of this region because it was created by their ancestors. Help protect the rock ary by not touching it. Oils from your skin hasten the deterioration of these fragile and irreplaceable cultural resources.
While the human story goes back thousands of years, the geologic story reaches much further. The remnant of rock born about 150 million years ago currently known as Delicate Arch, serves as most travelers' destination. Surrounded by sky and pierced by nature, Delicate Arch stands as an iconic image of Arches National Park.
Closest City or Region: Arches National Park, Utah
Coordinates: 38.735596, -109.520554
By Jeremy Dye
Jeremy Dye, Tara Dye, Savannah Dye, Zac Dye, Bryce Ball,
Total round-trip time for us was 1 hour 32 minutes.
We hiked to the Delicate Arch on April 13, 2012. On the hike were Zac, Bryce, Jeremy, Tara, and Savannah. The parking lot was completely full, so we had to park on the shoulder of the road in the no parking zone.
The trail passes right next to Frame Arch, which is named because you can frame Delicate Arch. It's also called Twisted Donut Arch - no explanation necessary.
And off in the distance you can see another arch to the left. I can't find the name of it anywhere.
It was pretty windy, so we hunkered down under some rocks while we ate some snacks.
By Jeremy Dye
Laura Dye, Jeremy Dye, Anthony Dye, Ondylyn Wagner, Zac Dye, Jeff Wilson, Brianna Wilson,
We stopped in Arches on the way home from Arkansas.
We decided to hike to the Delicate Arch in the evening when it was cooler. Well, it soon got dark, and we didn't have any flashlights. But we forged ahead. Even when the people coming back warned us to turn around. By the time we arrived at the arch, the sun had already set, and it was getting dark. Luckily the trail was easy enough to follow, even in the dark. Where the trail crosses sandstone, rock cairns mark the way.
I remember bats swooping around us on the hike back and looking for rock cairns in the dark. Great fun.
Petroglyphs and Pictographs
Arches
Hiking: