Begin your journey inside Arches National Park at the Arches Visitors Center, which is open every day of the year except Christmas Day from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Spring through fall, the visitors center of Arches National Park is open for longer hours to accommodate the increased number of guests.) Note that the park itself is open all the time; it never closes.
You’ll pay an entrance fee of $10 per vehicle or $5 per person, if you enter on foot or on a bicycle or motorcycle. These fees allow you access to Arches National Park for a full 7 days so you can enjoy all the sights and wonders of this park. However, you’ll have to pay extra if you’ll be camping at the park ($15 per night). Be sure to call the park well in advance of your trip to reserve a campsite. Or, if you want to take a ranger-led hike called the Fiery Furnace hike, there is an additional fee of $10 for adults or $5 for kids. These guided tours of Arches National Park do fill up, so the park recommends that you make reservations a few days in advance. You need to do so in person at the Visitors Center. If you’ll want to take a large group on this walk, you should contact the park for reservations at least a month in advance.
Once inside Arches National Park, you will enjoy hiking in this scenic wonderland, but leave Fido at home, because dogs are not allowed on the hiking trails. The park recommends allotting at least two hours for a hike, because you’ll want to stop and look at all the interesting arches and rock formations. But if you don’t have the energy to go it on foot, Arches National Park allows you to tour by car. There are several routes you can take by car that take between an hour and a half to over four hours. You choose how long and how much gas you want to burn.
If you want to climb in Arches National Park, you can, but you have to follow a few rules regarding your climbing hardware, and you have to limit your Spiderman explorations to the areas that the park permits you to climb. Some rocks and arches are closed to climbing because of their delicate nature or sometimes because the weather would make it dangerous.
You might be better off biking at Arches National Park. You’ll find plenty of opportunities to see the sights this way, and you will find both plenty of roads for biking. There are not any off-road trails, but the scenic drive is a beautiful sight from a bike.
If you don’t want to camp inside Arches National Park, you’ll need to find lodging in nearby Moab, Utah. There are several other parks in the area, so you’ll find plenty of options for places to stay as well as things to do, including tours of the area. Visit http://www.moab-utah.com for Moab tourist information.
For more information on Arches National Park, visit http://www.nps.gov/arch.