Double Arch Trail: Stand Under Two Arches at Once in Arches National Park

Most arches in Arches National Park reward you from a distance. You find the right vantage point, the sky fills the opening, and the image makes sense. Double Arch works differently. You walk underneath it, tilt your head back, and the arch is above you. The scale doesn’t register until you’re standing in its shadow.

The primary arch spans 144 feet and rises 112 feet above the canyon floor. That’s not something that comes through in photos taken from the parking area.

What Makes Double Arch Unusual

The two arches share a single rock abutment. One mass of sandstone, and two arches branching from it on opposite sides. From the parking area, they look like a wide double gateway into the rock. Walk closer and the perspective shifts completely.

The primary arch opening is massive. When you stand underneath and look up, you’re looking through a 144-foot span at blue sky and mesa country beyond. The arch curves above you on three sides. It’s one of the few places in the park where you’re inside the formation rather than photographing it from outside.

The secondary arch is smaller but still larger than most standalone arches you’d see elsewhere. It shares the same base and forms a smaller opening adjacent to the primary.

How These Arches Formed

Double Arch is a pothole arch, which is a different formation process than most arches in the park. Water collected in depressions in the sandstone surface and dissolved the rock from above over millions of years. The bowl shapes you’ll see in the sandstone at the base of the arch are remnants of those original potholes.

Most arches in Arches National Park formed through lateral erosion, where water and freeze-thaw cycles wore through a sandstone fin from the side. With pothole arches, the erosion came from above. The two arch openings are basically the spots where two potholes eroded completely through the rock before their neighboring stone collapsed.

That’s why the base of Double Arch has that distinctive bowl shape at the foot of the formation. You’re walking on what used to be the bottom of ancient water pockets.

The Walk

Half a mile round trip. The trail is sandy and flat for most of its length, crossing through open desert scrub before reaching the base of the arch. There’s nothing technically difficult about it.

The last section is different. The sandy path gives way to open sandstone slabs with no clear trail marking. You follow cairns from that point forward to the arch base. Keep an eye on the cairns because the slickrock doesn’t hold foot traffic patterns the way a dirt path does.

The elevation gain is only 50 feet total. You won’t feel it. This is a walk, not a hike, and that’s fine. The payoff comes when you reach the arch, not during the approach.

Photography Under the Arch

Morning light is the reason to be here early. Double Arch faces east, and the underside of the primary arch catches direct light in the first few hours after sunrise. The interior face glows. That warm orange tone inside a massive arch opening against blue sky is the shot most photographers are after.

The classic image is taken lying on your back directly under the primary arch, pointing a wide-angle lens straight up. The arch curves around the frame, and the sky fills the opening. You get the full sense of scale that a straight-on exterior shot doesn’t give you.

At midday, the light is harsh and the interior goes flat. At sunset, the arch is backlit and mostly in shadow. The morning window, roughly 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., is when the interior face is at its best.

If you’re visiting in summer, arrive at the park by 7 a.m. The Windows Section parking fills early and the heat builds fast. Being at the arch in the first hour means cooler temperatures, better light, and fewer people standing in your frame.

Combining Double Arch With the Windows Loop

The Windows Section trailhead is 0.3 miles back down the same spur road from the Double Arch parking area. Most people do both in the same morning visit, which makes sense.

The Windows loop covers North Window, South Window, and Turret Arch in about 1 mile of easy walking. Add Double Arch and you’re at roughly 1.5 miles total for the morning. None of it is strenuous. The two parking areas are close enough that you can either drive between them or walk the spur road connecting them.

If you’re prioritizing one, go to Double Arch first. The Windows loop is excellent, but it’s an exterior viewing experience. Double Arch is the one that gives you the under-arch perspective that you can’t replicate anywhere else in the park.

Getting There

The Double Arch parking area is in the Windows Section, about 11 miles from the Arches National Park entrance on the main park road. Turn onto the Windows Section spur road and continue 0.3 miles past the main Windows parking area to the separate Double Arch lot.

No shuttle is required. You drive directly to the trailhead.

The park entrance fee applies. Timed entry reservations are required during peak season (typically April through October), so check the current reservation requirements on the NPS website before you visit. The timed entry window is for entering the park, not for specific trailheads.

Bring water even for a short walk. The sandstone radiates heat in summer and there’s no shade on the trail approach. A liter of water for a 30-minute walk sounds like overkill until the temperature is 95 degrees and the rock surface is hotter than the air.

The arch itself provides shade on summer mornings. Once you’re under the primary arch, you’re out of direct sun. That’s where you want to be.

Trail stats: 0.5 miles round trip, 50 ft elevation gain, easy difficulty. Open year-round subject to park timed entry requirements.