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| Warm sunset light on stairs to North Window Arch in Arches National Park. |
Arches National Park
A set of paths collectively known as the Windows Trails gives day hikers a good sense of what Arches National Park is like without having to drive or traipse all over the desert. You’ll pass a massive hoodoo and three impressive arches all in a matter of a couple of hours of walking.
Mesa Arch Loop Trail
Canyonlands National Park
Perhaps one of the most inspirational – and certainly one of the most beautiful – places to enjoy a sunrise is Canyonlands National Park’s Mesa Arch. Located in the park’s Islands of the Sky section, the arch is easy to reach via the 0.5-mile Mesa Arch Loop Trail. The arch frames a desert landscape from atop a 500-foot vertical cliff.
Weeping Rock Trail
Zion National Park
Day hikers can walk through a natural hanging gardens on the Weeping Rock Trail at Zion National Park. A great family-friendly hike, the footpath ascends a hillside to a concave cut into a rock face from which water seeps.
Queens Garden and Navajo Loop trails
Bryce Canyon National Park
Visitors to Bryce Canyon National Park can hike through a fantastical maze of totem pole-like rock formations called hoodoos. A combination of the Queens Garden and Navajo Loop trails makes for a 2.2-mile round trip walk in which you get to see the most famous of the hoodoos.
Capitol Gorge Trail
Capitol Reef National Park
Forbidding desert terrain that takes you into the classic Old West awaits hikers of the Capitol Gorge Trail in central Utah’s Capitol Reef National Park. Here you’ll find pioneer inscriptions, a hidden arch, modern petroglyphs, and natural water pools.
Learn more about national park day hiking trails in my Best Sights to See at America’s National Parks series.
