Arches National Park, Utah

We found Arches National Park to be an extremely accessible park, where you can see many of the largest windows and arches from the main road or a short trail. The delicate arch, which is the most well-known requires a good hike, but it’s worth it to see it up close. Some of our favorites are pictured here in this post.

Delicate arch has to be among the top arches, because it’s the most famous and on all the license plates but also because it took a bit of work to hike to it. It doesn’t seem as large in photos, but when you stand under it, you can understand just how big it is. And it’s standing alone with no other large rocks around it, which feels strange and even more special to be standing as it is.

Our next favorite was the Double Arch. This is accessible via a short trail. Not only is it really cool to look at, but you can climb all around under the arches, into the arches, and look out to the rest of the park from this spot. We learned that Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade filmed the opening scene here at the double arch, so of course had to watch the movie before returning to this spot.

There were so many great spots, but we really would have enjoyed exploring the Fiery Furnace area on foot rather than just from the view above. You need a guide or permit to go back in this area, as there are winding trails and narrow passage ways through these rocks, and once you’re inside, apparently they all start to look the same. We tried to get a view of this section as the sun was going down, as these rocks start to glow in the sunlight, but it was a little cloudy.