Devil’s Garden Trail in Arches National Park With Kids

The Devil’s Garden Trail in Arches National Park has some of the park’s most outstanding scenery. Unfortunately for families with smaller kids, it is also one of the most difficult hikes within the park. This doesn’t mean that you need to stay away though; families can easily do a lot of this trail and enjoy some epic scenery along the way.

This northern-most part of Arches National Park is very beautiful, with many rock formations, including the famous long, tall, narrow “fin” formations. It gives visitors a taste of the Fiery Furnace area, which requires either a ranger-led hike or a self-guided permit.

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The Devil’s Garden Trail

The Devil’s Garden Loop Trail is actually three separate hikes combined into one:

Landscape Arch Trail

The Landscape Arch spans 306 feet (96 m), making it the longest arch in North America. The hard-packed, flat and easy walking path to the arch is only 0.8 miles (1.3 km) one way. The trail begins with a walk through a narrow canyon with towering long domes looming overhead on either side.

About halfway to the Landscape Arch, there is an option to take a short side trail (0.5 miles / 0.8 km return) that leads to the Pine Tree Arch and the Tunnel Arch. You’re in Arches National Park, so you may as well see as many arches as you can, right?

The Tunnel Arch is nice, but won’t be the highlight of your day. On the other hand, the Pine Tree Arch was really beautiful. It wasn’t the arch itself; it was the view through the arch which made it special.

From here, the Landscape Arch hike continues north along some beautiful rock formations. The hike remains reasonably easy and eventually comes to the Landscape Arch, one of the largest natural stone arches in the world.

I expected it to be big, but wow, is it ever big! A 60-foot slab of rock fell from the arch in 1991, leading the NPS to block visitors from getting underneath the arch. Not to worry, there are lots of places to stop and enjoy this natural wonder.

Double O Arch Trail

The hiking trail continues past the Landscape Arch and becomes the Double O Arch Trail, which the NPS rates as “difficult”. The trail ceases to be hardpacked and transitions to more natural hiking trail conditions.

The Double O Arch Trail soon begins to climb up some slickrock through a narrow, tall canyon. At this stage we were holding onto the kids pretty tightly due to a drop-off on one side.

We only went 0.3 miles (0.6 km) before the trail was blocked by some large boulders which needed to be climbed over, with precarious drop-offs on both sides.

People of moderate athletic ability were doing it without much issue, so Celine climbed up and over to assess the danger level. Our kids are great at scrambling over rocks, but we elected to not go any further.

At 3 & 5 years old, our kids listening skills are pretty typical for their age (i.e.: not good at all). Without the ability to trust that they would follow through on all the direction we gave them, we couldn’t be certain of a safe passage over these rocks. So, we turned back…  better to walk away and live to hike it another day!

Primitive Trail

We were pretty disappointed to have to turn back on the Double O Arch Trail so quickly, but not to be defeated, we tried the Primitive Trail and we’re really glad we did – it was awesome!

The National Park Service rates the Primitive Trail as “most difficult” but we were able to hike another 1.3 really enjoyable miles (2 km) one-way on this leg before we reached the really hard parts and had to turn around. Even if you can’t do the entire Primitive Trail, the section that is family-friendly is really nice.

The Primitive Trail begins just south of the Landscape Arch. It’s not a well-marked trailhead, so keep your eyes open for the sign, or use a hiking app like AllTrails. The slightly downhill, deep sand trail followed alongside some interesting rock formations on one side, with desert scrub and amazing vistas of distant rock formations on the other.

We saw all kinds of interesting wildlife, including some cute bunnies and even a (non-venomous) Glossy Snake.

After 0.6 miles (1 km) the trail descends sharply and starts following a dry creek bed, which you follow through some really fun and beautiful rock formations. There’s a huge rock which blocks the midday sun near the start of the creek bed, making it a good place to stop for lunch.

Sadly, the Primitive Trail becomes difficult and dangerous again shortly after this, so we turned back towards the trailhead. We carried the kids back up the hill to save on time.

Devil’s Garden Hike Stats

How Long is the Devil’s Garden Hike

The complete distance of the Devil’s Garden Loop (including spur trails) is 8.1 miles / 13 km. As described above, we didn’t hike the whole loop. The family-friendly hiking path we took (which avoided the dangerous parts) totaled 5.4 miles (8.7 km) roundtrip.

How Steep is the Devil’s Garden Trail?

The full Devil’s Garden Loop hike has a few very challenging parts to it and can be quite difficult at times. The official elevation gain for this hike is 1,158 feet / 353m, but the kid-friendly portions of the hike we did had 850 feet / 259 m of elevation gain.

How Hard is the Devil’s Garden Hike?

If you attempt the whole loop, we would rank this trail as difficult. If you avoid the dangerous sections, we’d rank this trail as moderate, if only because of the length.

There are no really hard parts to the kid-friendly sections of the Devil’s Garden Trail that we did. Our 3 & 5 year old kids easily hiked most of this trail themselves. We did pick them up for less than a mile on the uphill stretch on the way back to the car. The kids could have hiked this, but they hike uphill so slowly and we wanted to get a couple more walks in before the end of the day (the Sand Dunes Arch and Park Avenue).

How Long Does the Devil’s Garden Trail Take?

The family-friendly version of the Devil’s Garden hike that we did took us 3 hours and 45 minutes. This is a bit faster than our usual pace with the kids, likely due to the fact we carried them for a little bit. Without us carrying them, we’d have likely completed it in 4.5 hours.

Devil’s Garden Trail Location

The Devil’s Garden is located at the most northern part of Arches National Park park and is a 30 minute drive from the park gates. It has a huge parking lot; we got there at 7:30 AM to find it around 10% full. When we got back to the parking lot at 12:30 PM, it was completely full with many cars just doing loops waiting for someone to leave.

Note, that timed entry tickets may be required for Arches National Park during parts of the year. They are free but have a small processing fee, and pass holders still need a timed entry reservation when timed entry is in effect.

Devil’s Garden Trail Highlights

You can see several arches on the Devil’s Garden trail, but for us, two of them really stood out:

The Landscape Arch is one of the biggest natural stone arches in the world. And it is huge! Due to recent instability in the arch (part of it fell), visitors are not allowed anywhere near the bottom of the arch, but don’t despair, there are many great viewpoints of this magnificent arch.

The Pine Tree Arch is one of the arches you see early in this hike. The arch is nice, but nothing special. It’s the view through the arch which makes it special. We got here early in the morning and the ground is a deep, soft sand. There weren’t many human footprints yet, so the kids had a great time looking at all the animal tracks in the sand.

The views of the rock formations within Arches National Park are excellent on this hike, both from an up-close perspective and off in the distance. There are also snow covered mountains (in April at least) off in the distance which adds yet another layer of beauty.

Despite being in a harsh desert environment, when we did the hike in April there were lots of beautiful wildflowers.

Hiking Devil’s Garden with Kids

As mentioned above, there were sections of the Devil’s Garden Loop Trail which we felt were too dangerous for our kids, and we’re usually pretty game to try risky things with them.

There are bathrooms at the trailhead. The main trail to Landscape Arch is really busy, so it can be tough to find a private spot for a bathroom break. Your best bet to find a place to go is on the less-traveled Primitive Trail; you’ll have a lot of isolation and bigger trees to duck behind.

There is a seasonal water station next to the bathrooms. Fill every single water bottle you have as there is little relief from the blazing Utah sun on this hike. The NPS recommends you bring at least 1 quart (1L) of water for every 2 miles (3.2 km) you plan to hike. Water bladders are a great way to transport large quantities of water for the family.

The trail to Landscape Arch is a well maintained, hard-packed gravel trail. The rest of the trails are either in deep sand or on sliprock. You can get by with normal shoes or hiking shoes, but not flip-flops.

There isn’t much tree cover on this hike, so you need to be prepared for full sun exposure for the duration of the hike. Bring sun hats, lots of water and sunscreen.

This trail is not stroller accessible, but we saw tons of parents carrying their small kids on the trail in a carrier.

No dogs are allowed on Devil’s Garden Trail.

Despite the harsh desert environment, we saw a decent amount of wildlife. We saw several bunnies, chipmunks, swallows, a glossy snake, lots of lizards and a stinkbug (a large beetle which will spray you with a noxious fluid if you bother it).

At the beginning, the trail is lined with decorative rocks on either side of the trail. It’s virtually impossible to keep kids off these rocks, which will slow everyone down.

Near the beginning of the Landscape Arch Trail, there is a narrow canyon filled with a small slope of deep sand. Kids won’t be able to resist running up and down it as many times as you let them.

Stop and empty your kid’s shoes often as they will likely be filled with sand.

We know this is hard, but do your best to keep your kids on the trail. The soil around the trail is actually alive; a biological crust made up of many tiny organisms, which make water and nutrients available to the nearby plants. One step on these organisms will endanger all the larger plants nearby.

Before you head out, read our best tips for hiking with kids and see what we actually pack in our guide to hiking gear for kids.

Where to Stop for Lunch or a Break

There’s a bit of shade and some potential spots to stop for a break around Landscape Arch, but you may be forced away by the crowds.

We stopped for lunch on a dry creek bed, which threw a huge shadow over us and the dead log we sat on. There is also a picnic area complete with tables near the entrance to the parking area.

Devil’s Garden Safety Tips

The sun can get intense in southern Utah, so bring more water than you think you will need.

As mentioned, there are several spots on this hike which we felt were too dangerous for our family.

Other Hikes in Arches National Park

Arches National Park has many fun and interesting hiking trails for families to enjoy. A few others we enjoyed during our visit include hiking the Delicate Arch Trail and many easy hikes to the different arches.

For more hikes nearby, Canyonlands National Park also has some fun and interesting trails for families to enjoy. A few other family-friendly hikes we enjoyed during our visit included those we share in our post on hiking in Canyonlands National Park with kids and hiking the Slickrock trail with kids.

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