Your Guide to Hiking the Devil’s Garden Trail in Arches NP

Thinking about hiking the Devil’s Garden trail in Arches National Park? Read on for a full guide on how to do this fantastic trail.

We love Arches National Park – in a state full of incredible rock formations, Arches holds its own with the top sites and locations. We’ve visited Arches several times and done all the hiking trails in the park, and Devil’s Garden really can’t be missed.

The Devil’s Garden trail is one of the top hikes in Arches National Park for seeing a whole host of unique, incredible arches. On this trail, you can hike through canyons and on the top of rocky fins, admire beautiful vistas, and, with several spurs and offshoots, see up to 7 different, named arches.

This hike is great because you can see as much or as little as you want, and some of the best arches are pretty close to the trailhead. If you have time and energy, you can do the full Devil’s Garden loop hike with all the spurs and offshoots, and explore some much lesser visited areas in Arches National Park.

Since there are a variety of different routes and distances you can go, and a whole host of arches to see, in this guide, we’re going to break down exactly what to see and how to hike the Devil’s Garden trail.

Quick Tip: If you’re planning a Utah road trip, I recommend reserving a rental car ASAP for the best prices and availability. I always book my car with this rental car aggregate site to find the best deals.

Where is the Devil’s Garden Hike Located?

Devil’s Garden is at the very back of Arches National Park. It will take you about 30 minutes to drive to the trailhead from the Visitor’s Center, and you’ll drive past the parking lots and trailheads for other hikes in Arches, like Delicate Arch, the Fiery Furnace, and Tower Arch.

Facilities at the Trailhead

The trailhead for Devil’s Garden has a very large parking lot, as well as vault toilets. Notably, this is one of only three spots in the park (the other two being the visitor’s center and the Devil’s Garden Campground) that has water refill stations.

Devils Garden Trail Map and Arches Map

This is the Devil’s Garden Loop. The path makes a loop, with an out and back section at the beginning and end. You can see there are several little offshoots from the main path to see different arches.

If you do the entire loop with all the spurs, it’s a 7.9 mile hike. Alternatively, if you just want to experience the longest arch in the world (Landscape Arch), it’s only 2 miles. You can add in what you want according to your interests, and how much time and energy you have.

The map above is a screengrab from AllTrails, and I added in the arch names. I would recommend you do the hike in a clockwise direction, as noted in the numbers on the map above.

Hiking the Trail

The Devil’s Garden trail starts out on a dirt trail with some loose sand that heads into and between rock walls.

After about a third of a mile, the trail opens up and you can see farther into the distance. This will be your scenery the majority of the rest of the hike.

In the next sections, we’ll break down each individual arch and section of the hike.

1. Landscape Arch

• Distance: 1.9 miles round trip
• Elevation Change: 150 feet

Landscape Arch is only 1 mile into the hike, it’s one of the first arches you’ll come to, and it’s the most popular arch in the Devil Garden’s loop. It’s also the longest arch in the entire world! The arch is also shockingly thin, especially considering how long it is.

Unlike most arches in the park, you cannot go right up and underneath Landscape Arch. This is because the arch is, understandably, very delicate. A chunk of the arch actually fell off in 1991, so the park doesn’t want anyone to get hurt if and when another piece of the arch falls off. This is about as close as you can get.

2 & 3. Navajo and Partition Arches

• Distance: 0.5 miles from Landscape Arch

As you hike past Landscape Arch, you start to gain more elevation and climb in and through the the skinny rock formations, known as fins, that are prevalent throughout the park. About 1/3 mile past Landscape Arch, you’ll reach a turnoff to your left, followed quickly by a fork in the trail. One path of the fork leads to Navajo Arch, and the other leads to Partition Arch.

Each of these paths are very short – less than 0.25 miles, so it’s easy to visit both of them quickly.

Navajo Arch was a favorite arch on this trail – the curved shape is just really fun, as it almost feels like a cave or tunnel. The shade is also a welcome respite!

You will climb some elevation to get up to Partition Arch, but you’re rewarded with some really pretty views over the valley! (And some much appreciated shade!)

4. Double O Arch

• Distance: About 1 mile from the turnoff for Navajo and Partition Arches, and about 2 miles from the parking lot.

Once you leave Navajo and Partition Arch and continue on the main trail to Double O Arch, the trail becomes very cool, as you become surrounded by tall, dramatic fins and boulders. You’ll walk up and on top of and across the fins, and then in between the fins, and then crossing over them, and then walking parallel to them. It’s just a very fun section of trail.

However, due to the nature of the landscape, it’s not as clear where the trail goes and where the turnoff points are, as the cairns and markers are a little bit more hidden in the brush and the fins. It’s also not super obvious where your destination is, so it’s not quite as easy as “just hike in that direction.”

While you probably won’t wander off into the wilderness and be lost forever, it is easier to lose your way and miss your turns. While there are cairns marking the trail, it’s just not as obvious where to go just from the cairns if you aren’t also looking at a map.

For that reason, I would highly recommend having a trail map downloaded to your phone – we really like the AllTrails maps.

Double O Arch (not to be confused with Double Arch, found elsewhere in Arches National Park) has two circles in the rocks stacked on top of each other. You can go right up to the rocks and actually walk underneath and through the bottom arch. Walk through the bottom arch and up the rocks behind it for cool views through the arch over the surrounding valley.

5. Dark Angel

Dark Angel is a tall pillar located on a 0.8 mile spur off of the main trail. If you have plenty of time and energy, by all means, go see Dark Angel.

However, if you’re getting tired or running low on time, I would recommend just skipping Dark Angel. The name sounds cool, but after all the cook rocks and arches before, it was a bit of a let-down. It’s just a basic stone pillar – I don’t think its worth the time to see it.

6. The Primitive Trail

The second half of the loop, after Dark Angel, is the Primitive Trail section of Devil’s Garden. This area is marked by the red line in the map above. It’s just under 3 miles from Double O Arch to the trailhead via the Primitive Trail, not counting any off shoot trails to see other arches (there are 3).

This trail is quite difficult and can be hard to navigate. While there are cairns, navigation is tricky, there are steep slopes and drop-offs, and requires some scrambling. There is also a little “pool” on the trail that may contain water.

If you choose to do the primitive trail, FOR SURE make sure you have good maps on your phone downloaded for offline use on your phone, and feel confident navigating in the wilderness.

7. Private Arch

Private Arch is located in a very remote area on the Primitive Trail, on an 0.6 mile round trip side trail. Private Arch is a small arch located very close to the ground.

Alternate Option:

If you want to see Double O Arch but aren’t interested in doing the Primitive Trail, you can also just turn around and come back the way you came, instead of continuing onto the Primitive Trail.

8 & 9: Tunnel and Pine Tree Arches

Whichever route you take, at the end of the trail there is one last jut-off trail that takes you to see 2 different arches.

The first one, Tunnel Arch, is just about a minute off the main trail:

The second, Pine Tree Arch, is another few minutes past Tunnel Arch.

Devil’s Garden Hike Wrap Up

There are a lot of options for how to experience Devil’s Garden! It’s really one of the best hikes in Arches National Park to “build your own adventure”.

You can see one of the most famous arches in the park (and world) at Landscape Arch, and then just a mile later, leave the crowds behind and explore more off-the-beaten-path arches, while enjoying the visually appealing trail. However long you choose to explore this area, you are sure to leave with incredible memories.

Other Places to Visit on Your Trip to Southern Utah

Arches is one of the most popular destinations in southern Utah, but there are a host of other incredible spots to visit nearby as well.

For example, you can swing by nearby Goblin Valley and freely roam through the goblin rock formations, or head down and spend a day in Capitol Reef National Park, the least visited park in Utah that is massively underrated and has beautiful rock formations.

In the southwestern corner of Utah, Zion National Park is very popular, but Bryce Canyon National Park is maybe my favorite park in Utah and can’t be missed, St George has a host of excellent hiking opportunities, and Snow Canyon State Park is a great hidden gem in Utah. Nearby Valley of Fire State Park and Cathedral Gorge State Park in Nevada have the most stunning scenery.

Grand Staircase-Escalante is a remote area of Utah that has wonders like the stunning Lower Calf Creek Falls and the insanely narrow slot canyons of Peekaboo and Spooky Gulch (which are some of my favorite slot canyons in the southwest).

In the southeastern corner of the state you’ll find gems like Valley of the Gods, Natural Bridges National Monument, and Four Corners Monument, as well as access to nearby attractions like Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado or Lake Powell and Page in Arizona.

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