If there’s one hike to do in Arches National Park, it should be the Delicate Arch. While there are over 2,000 arches in the aptly named Arches National Park, Delicate Arch is its most famous arch. The hike is around 3 miles (1.5 miles there are back) with an elevation gain of 610 feet. While this is a heavily trafficked trail, it is well worth the experience.

The hike begins at the trailhead at Wolfe Ranch. From there, you’ll begin an uphill climb to Delicate Arch. There is a normal trail that is well marked until you get to a steep slickrock slope where you’ll ascend to the top.

We arrived to the trailhead parking lot around 7 pm and made it up to the top in 20 minutes. It was the perfect time to watch the sun start to set over Delicate Arch and emblazon the 46-foot arch. While the sunsets very late in this part of Utah (9:30 pm when we visited in June), make sure to arrive a couple of hours ahead of sunset since the shadows from the mountains will start to cover the arch before actual sunset. We highly recommend hiking Delicate Arch at either sunrise or sunset.

If you don’t want to do the hike, you can drive up to the Delicate Arch Viewpoint and take a short 5 minute walk to see Delicate Arch.