Delicate Arch

Delicate Arch stands on the rim of a sandstone bowl in Arches National Park, about 20 kilometres north of the town of Moab in Grand County, Utah. It is the best known of the more than 2,000 natural arches in the park, which is managed by the National Park Service.

The arch is about 16 metres tall and formed from Entrada Sandstone, worn away over millions of years by water, ice and wind. Local cowboys once called it the Cowboy's Chaps or the Old Maid's Bloomers. It appears on Utah licence plates and on a 1996 stamp marking the centenary of Utah statehood, and the Olympic torch relay for the 2002 Winter Games passed beneath it.

The main trail starts at the Wolfe Ranch parking area, near a log cabin built by settler John Wesley Wolfe in the 1900s and a panel of Ute petroglyphs. The path climbs about 146 metres over open slickrock with little shade, then follows a narrow ledge to reveal the arch at the end. The round trip is about 4.8 kilometres.

Two shorter viewpoints, the Lower and Upper Delicate Arch Viewpoints, give distant views without the full hike. Sunset is the most popular time, when the arch glows red against the La Sal Mountains.

The park entrance fee is $30 per private vehicle, $25 per motorcycle or $15 per person on foot or by bike (under 16 free), valid for seven days, and a timed entry reservation is needed for some months of the year. Carry plenty of water, as summer temperatures are very high and the slickrock reflects heat.

The arch sits at 1,404 metres above sea level. Its present name dates from the winter of 1933 to 1934, when Frank Beckwith, leader of the Arches National Monument Scientific Expedition, chose it. Cowboys had used blunter names, including the Chaps and the Schoolmarm's Bloomers, and it has also been recorded as Salt Wash Arch. Delicate Arch was not inside the original national monument of 1929 and was added only when the boundaries grew in 1938.

Protecting it has caused debate. In the 1950s the National Park Service looked at coating the arch in clear plastic to slow erosion and dropped the idea as impractical. In 2000 a photographer lit a fire beneath it that stained the surrounding sandstone, and he was ordered to pay $10,900 in restitution. Climbing on the arch is not allowed, and visitors are asked to stay off the fragile cryptobiotic soil around the bowl.

For the hike, start early in summer or two hours before sunset, carry at least two litres of water each and wear shoes with good grip on the sloping rock. The last stretch follows a narrow ledge with a drop on one side, so keep children close. The bowl around the arch fills at sunset, so arrive in time to find a place to sit, and bring a torch for the walk back down in the dark.