Arches National Park Self-Guided GPS Audio Driving Tour

What's Included

Meeting and pickup

Itinerary

• 1
  Arches Visitor Center

  The Visitor Center has necessities like water, snacks, and restrooms. This is a good place to fill up your water and purchase a few snacks. There is no other place in the park that sells food and the only other place that has drinking water is all the way at the end of the road at Devils Garden.

  20 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 2

  At the Moab Fault viewpoint, you can see the result of enormous pressure that separated the area of the viewpoint with the cliff wall on the other side of the canyon.

  20 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 3
  Park Avenue Trail

  City folks say you get the same feeling standing among the rock formations in Park Avenue that you do standing next to the towering skyscrapers in New York city.

  20 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 4

  La Sal means the salt in Spanish. The mountains got their name in 1776 when Spanish explorers thought the snowy peaks looked like giant piles of salt. The highest peak, Mount Peale, is over 12,000 feet around 3,600 meters high

  20 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 5
  Courthouse Towers

  Here you’ll find a series of huge sandstone rock formations like the Three Gossips, The Organ, and Sheep Rock.

  20 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 6

  This is a vast landscape of these sort of lumpy rock formations. It may not look like it at first, but they are actually sand dunes, like on the Sahara. More specifically though, these are petrified sand dunes, meaning that the sand actually solidified into rock around 200 million years ago.

  20 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 7
  Balanced Rock Trail

  Balanced Rock stands over 120 feet or 11 stories tall. This giant Hoodoo has a ball on top that appears to be perfectly balanced on the spire below.

  20 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 8
  The Windows Section

  This area features more than 30 different magnificent arches including The Windows, Turret Arch, and Double Arch, which was featured in the opening scenes of Indian Jones and the Last Crusade.

  20 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 9

  The Garden of Eden is a great place to wander around. This is an open terrain dotted with fins, windows, and miniature arches, or even arches still being formed. There's no designated trail so be sure you watch your step for any biocrust. You can find the owl rock just a short distance from the parking lot.

  20 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 10
  Pothole Arch

  Pothole arch is unlike the rest of the arches you’ll see on the tour because, while those arches are vertical, this arch is horizontal.

  20 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 11
  Panorama Point

  From this high vantage point, you can see for miles and miles in several directions. To the north is Devil's Garden and the Fiery Furnace. To the south you can see Elephant Butte, the highest point in the park at 5,600 feet.

  20 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 12

  Optional Hike: Visit Delicate Arch Trailhead for the strenuous 3-mile roundtrip hike to one of the park’s most famous landmarks. Allow approximately 2–3 hours for the hike. If you prefer an easier option, visit the separate Delicate Arch Viewpoints instead.

  2 hours • Admission ticket free
• 13

  If you don’t have time or don’t have a reservation to make the three-mile hike to Delicate Arch, you can still see the arch from two viewpoints. The trail to the lower viewpoint is just a short 100-foot walk from the parking lot. The second trail is to the upper viewpoint, about a half mile round trip.

  20 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 14

  The Salt Valley was once called the paradox formation because early geologists couldn’t determine how it was created. It’s a good thing you’ve got Shaka Guide to make everything clear.

  20 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 15

  This place got its name because the rocks here glow as if they're on fire when the sun is at the right angle. There is a permit-only hike through the Fiery Furnace but permits are limited and must be reserved online. We don’t recommend the hike on our tour due to its difficulty, but if you really want to hike it, you can make a reservation here.

  20 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 16
  Sand Dune Arch Trail

  Explore Sand Dune Arch on a short walk through deep sand between towering sandstone fins. You can extend your visit toward Broken Arch if you have more time. Longer backcountry-style hikes such as Tower Arch require substantially more time and additional driving.

  30 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 17
  Skyline Arch

  This large arch sits just above the horizon framing the sky as a wonderful window arch. No hiking is required, but if you want, just 10 minutes on foot will get you up close to the arch.

  20 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 18
  Devils Garden Trailhead

  Walk around and check out the arches. The hike is short - about two miles - and it's well-worth it. You'll also find picnic tables and a restroom if you want to relax for a while. ​​The most famous formation at the Devils Garden Trail is definitely the Landscape Arch, the longest arch in North America.

  1 hour • Admission ticket not included

Additional info

• Service animals allowed
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels
• This is a self-guided driving tour. Transportation and a driver are not included, so you’ll need your own vehicle or rental car.
• The tour can be started from either the northbound or southbound approach to Arches National Park. Follow the starting-point directions in the Shaka Guide app.
• Download the Shaka Guide app after booking and use the redemption code provided in your confirmation to access your tour.
• Download the tour over strong Wi-Fi before entering the park. Cell service is spotty throughout Arches. Once downloaded, the audio and map work offline, and GPS-triggered narration plays automatically as you drive.

Tags

Rating