One of the longest freestanding arches in the world is located in Arches National Park in Utah. And if you’re planning on visiting Arches National Park, hiking to Landscape Arch should be one of the hikes on your itinerary. The hike out to Landscape Arch is part of a bigger loop hike known as the Devils Garden, but if you just want to hike to this interesting arch, the trail is straightforward, flat and easy. Here’s everything you need to know about hiking to Landscape Arch in Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah.

Arches National Park – Quick Facts

You must have a reservation to enter the park if you are visiting between April and the end of October. Reservations are required from 7am – 4pm. You can learn more here from the NPS site.

The best time to visit Arches National Park is spring and fall, when the temperatures are comfortable for hiking. Winter can get pretty cold, with chances of snow, and in summer, the crowds and heat can be unbearable!

Where is the trailhead for Landscape Arch?

Landscape Arch is located at the Devils Garden trailhead and parking lot. This parking lot gets extremely, extremely busy and fills fast. If you want to do this hike, you will need to get here early or do it later in the afternoon. I hiked this in early May — we arrived around 9am and I was able to get a spot. But by the time I finished my hike, rangers were turning cars away.

The Devils Garden area is located about 30 minutes away from the entrance of the park:

Landscape Arch via Devils Garden – Quick Stats

Distance: 1.9 miles
Time needed: About 45 minutes
Type: Out and Back
Elevation Gain: 252 feet
Difficulty: Easy. Anyone should be able to complete this hike, as long as they’re able to do the distance. The trail is mostly flat with a few gradual hills.

Hiking to Landscape Arch

The trail starts off at the Devils Garden Trailhead, with a hard-packed sand surface. You’ll walk between large boulders before you come across the first spur trail.

This spur trail leads down to Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch. I thought both of these were worth seeing.

Get back on the main trail and simply follow the signs for Landscape Arch. There are a few small inclines on the trail but it’s very gradual.

As you get closer to Landscape Arch, the trail has much more loose sand. Once at the arch, there are a few different viewpoints where you can take photos of the arch. The arch is over 300 feet long and it’s very thin and delicate. It looks like it could topple over if you look at it the wrong way! And consider this: at its thinnest point, Landscape Arch is only 6 feet wide, yet its supporting a span of 309 feet — amazing! Thankfully, Landscape Arch is fenced off so there’s no horseplay going on here.

At this point, you can call it good, turn around and head back. Or you can keep going…

Beyond Landscape Arch – Devils Garden Loop

As mentioned above, the Landscape Arch hike is part of a bigger hike known as the Devils Garden Loop. Most people, including myself, turn around and head back to the parking lot after seeing Landscape arch. If you’re debating on whether or not to continue on, you can see people scaling the big, slick rock wall that greets you further on in the hike and decide if that’s for you.

The Devil’s Garden trail is a large loop — the whole loop is 7.9 miles round trip (this distance includes all of the spur trails) from the parking lot and will bring you by 8 arches, including the ones we discussed above. But beyond Landscape Arch, the Devils Garden Loop hike gets a bit hairy — the trail gets more primitive, harder to follow and requires some scrambling (which I hate!). Plus, there are a few spur trails along the way to take you to some other formations. If you do this trail, you’ll see the ruins of Wall Arch (which fell apart in 2008), Double-O Arch, and spur trails to Private Arch, Navajo Arch, Partition Arch and Dark Angel — lots to see. If you do the entire loop, make sure to download a map for your phone so you don’t lose the trail — I recommend AllTrailsPro. I personally haven’t done this yet, but it’s on my list.

Any other hikes in Arches National Park to recommend?

Delicate Arch: The obvious answer. If you do one hike in Arches National Park, make it this one.
Fiery Furnace: This one is on my list. You must either acquire a permit for this hike or reserve a spot on a ranger-led tour. If you do it on your own, you might get lost, so be aware.
Skyline Arch: Very short, very easy hike that anyone can do. I wrote about this here.