Devil's Garden Trail, Arches National Park, Utah

The Upper O of Double O Arch, Devil's Garden Trail, Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

This is a very fun hike, with amazing desert sceneries starting from Devil's Garden trailhead. The Devil's Garden Trail, a 7.2 mile trail, contains the largest concentration of significant natural arches in the world. The first mile is on well maintained and easy to find trail, that leads to the popular stop in Devil's Garden trail, the Landscape Arch.

Landscape Arch ( can be seen after 0.9 mile from Devil's Garden trailhead)

Landscape Arch is the longest natural arch in the world, having a span length of 290 ft, yet having only 6 ft of thickness in its thinnest section.  After the Landscape Arch, the trail is no longer well defined. The fun began when we have to guess where the trail is :) since most sections of the trail are now on rock fins. 

Devil's Garden Trail, Arches National Park

Some sections of the trail requires some scrambling over rocks, but is rewarded by some of the best views I have seen in my many hikes.

Fun Rock Scrambling

The View from the Rock Fin Trail

When It Got Too Windy, I just Sat at the Rock Fin and Enjoyed the Scenery in Front of Me

There are some exposure to heights while walking on the rock fin, but it is pretty safe hike, not as scary and intimidating as Angels Landing in Zion National Park.  

No, He is not Daredevil, he is on the same Rock Fin trail enjoying the views around him

Un-named Rock Hoodoo( what do you see?)

Most of the hike is on rocky footing over sandstone slabs and slick rock with narrow ledges. There is stunning vista everywhere you look from the trail that not even seeing the arches is so worth it, but of course, the arches are added bonus. 

Double O Arch from the Trail

The sight of Double O Arch from the trail was not that very impressive, after having seen the other arches in the park which are easier to hike such as Delicate Arch and the Windows. However, hubby tried to go at the other side of the O, and these are what he got.

Double O Arch At the Other Side

( that's me at the lower O, trying my hardest to scramble past the lower O to join hubby who was photographing the sceneries around)

Me, still stranded at the Lower O

I gave up and decided to pose instead there at the Lower O, had I known this is what I will see, I would have probably tried harder to scramble past that lower O to get to hubby's location. Sometimes, my fear of skidding on rocks stops me from exploring :(

The best time to hike this trail is late fall to early spring, since the trail is mostly exposed. The temperature when we hiked here about 2 weeks ago was 30 - 40F ( 0- 5 C) but for us it is perfect compared to hiking in exposed summer heat. Truth is, we were here summer of 2007, the temperature was 90s F ( 32 C), but we did not make it even to just Landscape Arch and had to turn around because we could not take the heat. This time of the year is cold and freezing, but for desert hiking, a colder temperature is a lot more tolerable for us. 

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