Arches vs. Canyonlands: Which National Park is Better?

Trying to decide whether to visit Arches National Park or Canyonlands National Park? Despite being only 30 minutes apart, many travelers on a tight schedule prefer dedicating their time in Moab, Utah to just one. To help you make the tough call, we’re comparing Arches vs Canyonlands side-by-side on key factors like crowd levels, cost, scenic drives, things to do, and more! That being said, keep in mind that we’re sharing our personal opinions in this post—there is no objectively better park.

Park Feature	Arches National Park	Canyonlands National Park
Park Size	76,519 acres	337,598 acres
Crowd Levels	High	Low to Moderate
Entry Fees	$30/day + $2 Timed Entry	$30/day
Visit Duration	Best for shorter visits (1-3 days)	Best for longer visits since the park has three separate districts.
Prettier Landscape	Known for its high concentration of sandstone arches and rock fins.	Often compared to the Grand Canyon with its panoramic vistas of river canyons.
Best Park By Season	Great in the fall and spring, and preferable to Canyonlands in the winter.	Great in the fall and spring and preferable to Arches in the summer.
Sightseeing by Car	Very easy, a single paved scenic drive (18 miles) leads you to most major attractions.	A bit more difficult, fewer roadside attractions and long distances between park areas.
Better Hiking	Gorgeous views of sandstone arches, more crowds, and lots of shorter trails!	Fewer arches but but expect fewer crowds, longer trails, and sweeping canyon views.
Better Backpacking	Fewer backpacking opportunities, but cheaper permits.	Loads of backpacking opportunities and permits, but more expensive permits.
4×4 Drives	Fewer opportunities, but the Willow Springs 4×4 Road is a good option.	Loads of opportunities, including the 100-mile White Rim Loop. Some routes require permits.
Sunrise & Sunset	Delicate Arch for sunrise and Tower Arch for sunset.	Mesa Arch for sunrise and Green River Overlook for sunset.
Camping	1 developed campground, Devils Garden Campground, with 51 sites.	2 developed campgrounds, Willow Flat and The Needles, plus numerous backcountry sites and 4×4 camping along White Rim Road.

🗺️ Park Size: Arches vs Canyonlands

One of the main differences between these two parks is their sizes. Arches National Park is a relatively compact park, spanning roughly 76,500 acres. Canyonlands National Park is colossal in comparison, protecting over 337,500 acres. It’s so vast that NPS has divided it into several districts—Island in the Sky, The Needles, and The Maze! None of these districts is connected by roads, so travelling between them can take up to a few hours.

👥 Crowd Levels: Arches vs Canyonlands

While both parks experience heavy visitation, Arches National Park is consistently one of Utah’s most crowded, funneling the majority of visitors onto a single scenic road. To find solitude here, tackle some of the longer, less-traveled trails like Tower Arch or Fiery Furnace (permit required).

In contrast, escaping the crowds is far easier in Canyonlands National Park. By moving beyond the main overlooks in Island in the Sky and venturing into the wilderness of The Needles or The Maze districts, you can easily find solitude.

💵 Entry Fees: Arches vs Canyonlands

The entry fees for Arches and Canyonlands are essentially the same, with both parks charging a standard $30 per vehicle for a seven-day pass (or accepting the America the Beautiful Pass). However, during peak seasons, Arches National Park requires visitors to pay an additional $2 for a separate timed-entry reservation permit to access the park between the hours of 7 AM and 4 PM. Visitors can enter the park before 7am to avoid the timed-entry reservations.

1️⃣ Visit Duration: Arches vs Canyonlands

If your schedule only allows for one day in the area, and you prefer not to visit both Arches and Canyonlands in one day, we recommend choosing Arches National Park. Its smaller size makes it more manageable to see the highlights, it’s slightly closer to downtown Moab, and it is the more popular park of the two.

In contrast, Canyonlands National Park is over four times the size and is divided into three districts, which are not connected by road. Trying to see more than one district in a day is virtually impossible, although most visitors only see the Island in the Sky district (the closest to Moab).

In sum, Arches National Park can be visited in 1, 2, or 3 days, but most visitors don’t visit it for any longer than one or two. Canyonlands National Park, on the other hand, has enough space and things to do to entertain an extended trip and backpacking excursions, if that’s what you’re looking for.

🌲 Prettier Landscape: Arches vs Canyonlands

Both of these parks are beautiful in their own right, so we can’t choose just one. The main difference between the landscapes of these two parks is their geological features. Arches is famous worldwide for its high concentration of sandstone arches, towering rock fins, and balanced rock. For us, Arches felt like walking through a natural, desert sculpture garden!

In contrast, Canyonlands is impressive because of its sheer scale and vastness. Many compare this park to the Grand Canyon, with its panoramic vistas that look down into the canyons of the Green and Colorado Rivers. Some people will find Arches more impressive, while others will fall in love with Canyonlands.

🌡️ Best Park By Season: Arches vs Canyonlands

Weather and seasonal changes can impact your experience in both of these parks. With soaring temperatures in the peak of summer and the occasional snowed-out road in the middle of winter, we’ve outlined below which park we recommend depending on the season:

• Spring: Both Arches and Canyonlands are pleasant in the spring, with mild temperatures ideal for hiking and exploration. This is when we last visited, in May, and it was cool in the mornings and warm in the afternoons, without becoming sweltering.
• Summer: We would recommend Canyonlands a bit more in the summer since it’s slightly higher in elevation. That being said, both parks become very hot in the summer, complicating mid-day hikes.
• Fall: Both Arches and Canyonlands are pleasant in the fall months. Similar to spring, cool conditions make exploration comfortable all day.
• Winter: We recommend visiting Arches in the winter to see the arches topped with snow, a unique and less crowded experience.

🚗 Sightseeing by Car: Arches vs Canyonlands

As far as which park is better for just driving around and seeing stuff, Arches National Park definitely wins. Its main road is positioned much lower than its rock formations, so you can see loads of attractions from the comfort of your car, or by going to a nearby lookout. Park Avenue, Balanced Rock, Double Arch, Fiery Furnace, Sand Dune Arch, the La Sal Mountains, and Window Arch are all visible from your car.

Canyonlands National Park is totally different in this respect. The scenic road here runs along the mesa rim, meaning those huge, breathtaking canyon views are all below you. This makes it so that you basically have to hop out of the car and walk to the overlooks, if not hop on a formal trail, to see the top highlights.

🥾 Better Hiking: Arches vs Canyonlands

Honestly, when it comes to better views when hiking, we can’t pick just one—both parks are absolutely gorgeous! The difference is in the type of hiking you can expect to do. Arches National Park offers a plethora of shorter, well-established trails to loads of sandstone arches, while Canyonlands serves up solitude, longer treks, and sweeping panoramic views from above.

🎒 Better Backpacking: Arches vs Canyonlands

Canyonlands National Park offers a lot more when it comes to backpacking trips, although there are a few opportunities in Arches. In Arches, $7 backpacking permits are available from the Backcountry Permit Office, and there are a total of 7 backcountry campsites in the park.

Canyonlands, on the other hand, is full of undeveloped land, making it a popular destination for backcountry travelers. The cost of a permit in Canyonlands is slightly higher, at $36 for the reservation fee plus $5 per person, per night. For both parks, spring and fall are the most competitive times, so make sure to secure a permit months in advance.

🚙 4×4 Drives: Arches vs Canyonlands

The entire Moab area is well-known for its incredible off-roading. As far as the parks go, Canyonlands National Park definitely has more opportunities within its boundaries. It’s most well-known for White Rim Loop, a 100-mile challenging route that requires a high-clearance 4WD vehicle and an overnight permit. In Arches, 4×4 drives are limited to shorter trails like the Willow Springs 4×4 Road.

🌄 Best for Sunrise & Sunset: Arches vs Canyonlands

Sunrises and sunsets are gorgeous in both of these parks, so instead we’ll list our top recs for each. In Arches National Park, we recommend the famous Delicate Arch for sunrise. In part because arriving before 7 AM allows you to bypass the peak-season timed-entry system, and there are also fewer crowds than later in the day. For sunset, we’d recommend Tower Arch, which requires a hike out, but rewards you with a secluded experience.

In Canyonlands, Mesa Arch would have to top our list for sunrise. This arch is a must-see for photographers at dawn, when the sun wedges itself right between the horizon and the arch. For sunset, we loved watching the colors of the canyon change in real time at the Green River Overlook. Here, the crowds were also notably much lower than in Arches.

🏕️ Camping: Arches vs Canyonlands

Arches National Park has only one developed campground, Devil’s Garden, which features 51 sites and generally requires reservations six months in advance. Canyonlands National Park offers two developed front-country campgrounds: Willow Flat (12 sites, $15/night, first-come first-serve) and the larger Needles Campground (26 sites, $20/night, reservations and first-come first-serve).

While both parks fill up incredibly fast during peak season, Canyonlands offers slightly more variety in terms of locations and a few more sites overall, as well as way more backcountry campgrounds than Arches. There are also plenty of options for free camping on BLM land outside of both parks. We use sites like iOverlander to find available BLM land near us.