Salt Lake City Walking Tour
Temple Square, Pioneer Park and the stories behind them, on foot, in three hours.
3 hours
From
$44 per adult
1 Day Arches National Park Tour from Salt Lake City
Delicate Arch, Park Avenue and the Windows: private, all-inclusive, one long day.
- 13 hours
- Hotel pickup included
- Instant online booking
There are more than 2,000 documented natural stone arches inside this park, which is more than anywhere else on earth, and the reason is a slab of buried salt. Three hundred million years ago an inland sea evaporated here and left a salt bed thousands of feet thick. Everything piled on top of it since has been slowly, unevenly sinking into it, cracking the overlying Entrada Sandstone into parallel fins, which weather from the inside out until they open into arches and eventually collapse. You are looking at a landscape mid-process.
This is a private tour and a long day: pickup at 6:00 AM, back at your hotel around 7:00 PM, with roughly seven hours of that on the road. Arches sits just outside Moab, about 230 miles south-east of Salt Lake City, and there is no way to shorten the geography. What a private tour buys you is that the seven hours are yours: your guide, your vehicle, your pace, and an itinerary that can be rearranged around the light and the crowds rather than a coach schedule.
Everything is included: guide, transport, park entrance fees, a picnic lunch inside the park, water, and the taxes and fees on all of it. The rate is per party rather than per person, which makes it comparatively good value for four and excellent for six.
Your day, hour by hour
Itinerary6:00 AM
6:00 AM
Pick up and Travel to Arches National Park
TBD
Rest Stop
10:00 AM
Explore Arches National Park
12:00 PM
Picnic Lunch inside the park
3:00 PM
Return to Salt Lake City, UT
TBD
Rest Stop
7:00 PM
Hotel Drop Off
What’s included
- Knowledgeable Tour Guide
- Transportation
- Lunch
- Park Entrance Fees
- Water
- Taxes, Fees, and Gratuity Associated With All Activities (Tour Guide Tips Excluded)
What the day covers inside the park
Park Avenue is the first stop past the entrance and the best possible introduction: a canyon of vertical sandstone fins standing along both sides of a wash like a street of buildings, which is where the name comes from. There is a short walk down into it that most groups do at least partway.
Balanced Rock is a 3,600-ton boulder sitting on a slender eroding pedestal, and it’s exactly as improbable in person as in photographs. Its neighbor, Chip-Off-The-Old-Block, fell over in the winter of 1975. That is the whole park in one comparison.
The Windows Section
(North Window, South Window, Turret Arch and Double Arch) is the highest concentration of large arches you can reach with short walks anywhere in the park. If your group has limited walking in it, this is where the day earns its money. Double Arch in particular is enormous and only a few hundred yards from the parking lot.
The Garden of Eden and the Cove of Caves are the stops most day-trippers drive straight past, both of them on the spur road in to the Windows. The Garden of Eden is a stand of fins and balanced boulders you can walk into from the pull-off; the Cove of Caves is the row of huge alcoves beside Double Arch, one of which is an arch that has not finished forming. They cost the day almost nothing, and they are where the fin-to-arch process is easiest to actually see.
The Fiery Furnace is a labyrinth of narrow fins with no marked trail through it, and the Park Service limits entry to ranger-led groups and a small number of self-guided permits released in advance. It is not something we can promise: permits go quickly, the seasonal ranger walks sell out, and neither is within our control. Tell us when you book if it is what you want from the day and we will tell you honestly what the odds look like for your date.
Delicate Arch
The one on the license plates. Reaching the arch itself is a three-mile round trip with about 480 feet of climbing across open slickrock, in full sun, with no shade and no water. It isn’t technical but it’s not casual either, and it’s the decision point of the day. Your guide will tell you whether your group should do it. If not, the lower and upper viewpoints give you the arch from a distance on a much shorter walk.
Landscape Arch
Out in the Devils Garden, is the longest arch in North America and one of the longest natural spans anywhere, spanning over 290 feet. It is visibly fragile; a large slab fell off it in 1991 and the trail beneath is closed permanently. Whether the day reaches it depends on how the earlier stops go, which is the advantage of a private itinerary.
The rest of the Devils Garden is there if the group has the legs for it. Landscape Arch is where most people turn around, but the trail carries on past it to Pine Tree Arch, Private Arch, Double O Arch and, at the far end, the Dark Angel monolith. It gets rougher and more exposed the further you go, with slickrock fins to walk along rather than a path. This is the part of the day a private tour can actually offer you, because nobody is waiting on a coach.
What to wear and bring: the desert list
This is high desert at about 4,000 to 5,600 feet, and the two things that catch visitors out are water and sun.
- Water
- More than you think, and then more. Water and snacks are included on the tour, and you should still carry your own bottle and refill it. A gallon per person per day is the summer standard here and it’s not an exaggeration. Dehydration comes on faster in dry air because you stop noticing that you’re sweating.
- Sun
- High-factor sunscreen reapplied through the day, a brimmed hat, sunglasses, and long sleeves in a light fabric, which is what people who work out here actually wear.
- Footwear
- Proper closed shoes with grip. Slickrock is exactly what the name says when it’s dusty, and there’s real exposure on the last stretch of the Delicate Arch trail. Sneakers are acceptable, sandals aren’t.
- Layers
- The desert swings 30 to 40°F between dawn and mid-afternoon. You’ll leave Salt Lake City in the dark and be in full sun by mid-morning.
A small pack to carry all of it, and a phone or camera. That is the list.
The drive, and why the day starts at six
Salt Lake City to the Arches entrance is roughly 230 miles: south on I-15, then US-6 over Soldier Summit through the coal country of Carbon County, and down US-191 past the La Sal Mountains into Moab. It takes about three and a half hours each way in good conditions.
The itinerary runs 6:00 AM pickup, rest stop en route, arrival and exploring in the park from around 10:00 AM, picnic lunch inside the park at midday, departure at 3:00 PM, another rest stop, and hotel drop-off by about 7:00 PM.
The early start isn’t arbitrary. It puts you in the park before the midday heat and ahead of the worst of the crowds at the Windows and Delicate Arch. On a summer date it’s the difference between a good day and a hard one.
Because this is a private tour, your guide can shift that plan on the day, reversing the route to dodge a coach convoy, or holding at a viewpoint for the light. That flexibility is most of what you’re paying for.
Photos
Before you book
- Call to check availability
1 Day Arches National Park Tour from Salt Lake City: your questions answered
How far is Arches National Park from Salt Lake City?
About 230 miles south-east, near Moab, roughly three and a half hours each way via I-15, US-6 over Soldier Summit and US-191. The tour runs 6:00 AM to about 7:00 PM, so seven of the thirteen hours are driving. There is no shorter route. That is what a one-day Arches trip from Salt Lake City costs you.
Do we hike to Delicate Arch?
It depends on your group and the conditions, and it’s a genuine decision rather than a default. The trail is a three-mile round trip with about 480 feet of climb over open slickrock with no shade and no water. Your guide makes the call on the day. If it’s not right for your party, and in high summer it usually isn’t, the lower and upper viewpoints show you the arch on a much shorter walk.
Is this a private tour?
Yes. The rate is per party rather than per person, so you travel with your own group and your own guide, and the itinerary can be adjusted on the day around light, heat and crowds. That flexibility is a large part of what makes a single long day at Arches work at all.
Are park entrance fees and lunch included?
Yes. The fare covers your guide, transport, Arches National Park entrance fees, a picnic lunch inside the park, water, and the applicable taxes and fees. Guide gratuities aren’t included.
How hot does it get, and is summer safe?
Air temperatures exceed 100°F in June, July and August and slickrock surface temperatures go far higher. There is no shade and no water on the trails, and people are rescued from the Delicate Arch trail every summer. The tour still runs, but your guide will restructure the day around short walks and will decline an afternoon Delicate Arch attempt. Bring far more water than you think you need.
When is the best time of year to visit Arches?
April to May and September to October: comfortable temperatures, good light and full trail access, at the cost of crowds. Winter is quiet and photographs beautifully, especially with snow on the red rock, but the days are short and the trails can be icy. Summer is the season to plan carefully around.
Pair this with
The tours our guides most often suggest alongside this one, and why.
Bryce Canyon National Park 1-Day Tour from Salt Lake City
The other private full-day national park run: hoodoos and 8,000 feet instead of red rock and arches.
Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island
A much shorter landscape day if thirteen hours is more than your trip has room for.
Salt Lake City Highlights Driving Tour
Three hours in the city: the easy recovery day after a thirteen-hour one.
Read before you go
Longer background on where this tour goes, written by the people who run it.
Bryce or Arches: which national park day trip from Salt Lake City?
Both are thirteen-hour private days at the same price. They aren’t the same trip, and for a lot of visitors neither is the right call.
7 min read
Still have a question about the 1 Day Arches National Park Tour from Salt Lake City?
Ask us anything the FAQ above did not cover: pickup points, fitness level, what to wear in November. We answer within one business day.
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