Arches National Park
Utah
Dark sky
Very dark skies
Bortle 3 · SQM ~20.91 (est.)
Tonight
🌗 46% moon
6.6 h fully dark
Hikes
Strenuous
🔴
Crowds
moderate
Open today
Open
Entrance
$30
Timed entry
Wildfire Smoke Impacts
Smoke from the Cottonwood Fire near Beaver, Utah is impacting the park's air quality. Air quality is forecast to be in the unhealthy range for many areas in the park over the next 24 hours. Visitors should consider limiting exertion outdoors. Check Utah Fire Info for wildfire information and the link for current air quality in Moab.
Official NPS alert →Trip-planning tips for 2026
Planning to visit Arches this year? To ensure the best experience, please anticipate potentially long wait times at the entrance station. If trailhead parking is full, plan to return a little later. Please avoid parking on vegetation and roadways to help preserve this beautiful place for everyone to enjoy.
Discover a landscape of contrasting colors, land forms, and textures unlike any other. The park has over 2,000 natural stone arches, hundreds of soaring pinnacles, massive rock fins, and giant balanced rocks. This red-rock wonderland will amaze you with its formations, refresh you with its trails, and inspire you with its sunsets.
Activities
Topics
Entrance fees
$30.00 — Entrance - Private Vehicle
$25.00 — Entrance - Motorcycle
$15.00 — Entrance - Per Person
Hours & seasons
Arches National Park is generally open 24 hours a day, year-round. Fees apply. The park is very busy between March and October. To avoid traffic, we recommend entering the park before 8 am or after 3 pm.
Generally open:
winterspringsummerfallHours are reported by the park — verify before you go.
📞 4357192299
✉ archinfo@nps.govConditions
Very dark skies · DarkSky-certified (Bortle 3)
Quietest months (fewer crowds): Jan, Feb, Nov, Dec
Typical crowds: moderate
Weather now: ☀️ Clear, 69°F
☀️ 100°/68°
☀️ 102°/71°
☁️ 103°/74°
Typical monthly recreation visits · NPS avg 2023–2025 — orange months are the quietest by crowds.
Quietest months
Relative crowds by month — lighter is quieter; ringed months are the calmest by crowds.
Jan
16%
Feb
25%
Mar
74%
Apr
81%
May
100%
Jun
93%
Jul
83%
Aug
76%
Sep
81%
Oct
75%
Nov
43%
Dec
26%
Log a sky reading
Measured the sky with an SQM meter or app? Add your reading (16 = city glow … 22 = pristine). Opt in under “Travelers like you” to share it on the community leaderboard.
Live conditions
Entrance Station Webcam ↗active
UDOT Traffic Camera ↗active
Things to do
Explore the Fiery Furnace
Canyoneering at Arches
🔴 Rock Climbing at Arches
Stargazing Events in Southeast Utah
🔴 Hiking at Arches
Backpacking at Arches
Enjoy Arches from the Road
Start at Arches Visitor Center
Campgrounds
Devils Garden Campground ↗ · 51 sites
Visitor centers
Arches Visitor Center
Accessibility
1 accessible campground(s)
9 audio-described place(s)
Reported by the park — verify before you go.
Parking
Devils Garden Parking Lot · 160 accessible spacesaccessible
The Windows Section Parking Lot · 92 accessible spacesaccessible
Wolfe Ranch Parking Lot · 157 accessible spacesaccessible
Not an official safety source — always defer to NPS.gov and rangers for life-safety decisions.
By the numbers
A visual read on Arches National Park — its character, trails, sky, and weather.
Park fingerprint
How this park scores across the dimensions travelers care about.
Dark sky
How dark the night sky is — darker (lower Bortle) fills the dial.
Bortle 3
★★★★☆
SQM ~20.91
Trail difficulty
Difficulty mix across this park's trails.
3-day forecast
Daily high and low temperatures (°F).
People & stories
Figures tied to Arches National Park — each spans a cross-park journey.
Alice Eastwood
— Muir Woods, Muir Woods National Monument, BotanyBates E. Wilson
— Founders, Canyonlands, Bates WilsonFlora Stanley
— Women's History, Women, Arches National ParkFrank "Boss" Pinkley
— Pinkley, Boss, NPS HistorySherma Bierhaus
— National Park Service, Women's History, WomenPassport stamps
Mark the stamps you've collected — they show in your memory and along your routes.
🎫 Arches Visitor Center
Places to see
Arches Entrance Station
Arches Visitor Center Exterior Zone 1
audio
Arches Visitor Center Exterior Zone 10
audio
Arches Visitor Center Exterior Zone 2
audio
Arches Visitor Center Exterior Zone 3
audio
Arches Visitor Center Exterior Zone 4
audio
Arches Visitor Center Exterior Zone 5
audio
Arches Visitor Center Exterior Zone 7
audio
Arches Visitor Center Exterior Zone 8
audio
Arches Visitor Center Exterior Zone 9
audio
Arches Visitor Center Nature Trail
Balanced Rock Viewpoint and Trail
Audio & media
🎧
🎬
🖼
Learn more
The National Park Service is pleased to congratulate the recipients of the 2022 George and Helen Hartzog Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Service.
The Utah Geological Survey has worked in partnership with the National Park Service to document the fossils of Utah’s national parks for 20 years, helping to bring to light and protect a wide variety of fossils.
When the climate changes enough, the vegetation communities growing in any given place will also change. Under an expanded bimodal climate zone, some plant communities in western national parks are more likely to change than others. National Park Service ecologists and partners investigated the future conditions that may force some of this change. Having this information can help park managers decide whether to resist, direct, or accept the change.
The results of a recent study may help land managers to prioritize grassland conservation and restoration efforts. Park managers can’t do much about climate, but with the right information, they can make choices based on how different grassland communities behave in different soil types. In this study, cool-season grasses showed more resilience to drought than warm-season grasses.
Landscape Arch Dynamic Model Arches National Park, Utah
Some diseases can be passed from animals to humans. Never approach wildlife and learn other ways to protect yourself from animal-transmitted diseases in Southeast Utah parks.
A timeline of major events in the history of Arches National Park.
Explore a list of Arches facts: elevation, weather, species, visitation, and arches.
Ranger School
Park-grounded courses you can learn with the Ranger.
Imaginary River Trip
Open →
Microorganisms in the Utah Desert
Open →
Preparing for Winter
Open →
Traveling Safely in the Desert
Open →
How Arches National Park connects
This park's activities, topics, location, and on-the-ground places — one hop in the graph. Drag to explore; click an activity, topic, or related park to follow it.
Park
Activity
Topic
State
Campground
VisitorCenter
PassportStamp
ParkingLot
Trail
ThingToDo
Alert
Similar parks
Share activities & topics with Arches National Park.
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Parks travelers add to the same trip as Arches National Park.
