Capitol Reef National Park is known for its unique rock formations and Cassidy Arch is no exception. In fact, this structure, which towers at 400 feet tall, is one of the only natural sandstone arches in Utah that you can actually walk across the top of! If you want to have this unique bucketlist experience for yourself, here’s everything you need to know about the Cassidy Arch Trail.
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About the Cassidy Arch Trail
- Distance: 3.1 miles
- Elevation gain: 685 feet
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Dog-friendly? Sadly, like most hikes in the U.S. National Parks, you’ll have to leave your furry best friend home for this one.
- Trail map
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you're visiting in early 2025, the road you take to get to the trailhead, Scenic Drive, is closed after the Fruita Campground, due to maintenance of some of the parking lots in the national park. You can still walk to the trailhead but it will add an additional five miles total to your roundtrip hike.
How to Get to the Cassidy Arch Trail
The Cassidy Arch trailhead is located here, in Capitol Reef National Park, between Torrey and Hanksville, Utah.
If you aren’t within driving distance to Capitol Reef, the closest major airports are:
- Grand Junction, Colorado: 3 hours and 25 minutes
- Salt Lake City, Utah: 3 hours and 45 minutes away
- Las Vegas, Nevada: 7 hours and 15 minutes away
You will need a rental car. There’s unfortunately no public transit to get there and, unlike some of its neighboring parks, like Zion and Bryce Canyon, there’s no transportation offered around Capitol Reef itself. Luckily, regardless of which direction you’re coming from, the roads to the Capitol Park are paved and well-maintained.
To enter Capitol Reef, you’ll need to pay a $20 entrance fee per vehicle, which is good for one week. Alternatively, you can pick up an America the Beautiful pass, which, for $80, gets you into all of the U.S. National Parks for free for an entire year! This will actually save you a decent bit of money if you’re visiting Capitol Reef as part of a road trip to Utah’s national parks.
Once you enter Capitol Reef, you’ll drive south for 3.5 miles down the paved Scenic Drive and finally, turn left on Grand Wash Road for 1.3 miles to the trailhead.
Grand Wash is an unpaved road, which was a bit bumpy when my husband and I drove down it. We made it just fine in a Prius, so any passenger vehicle should be fine, but just drive slowly and carefully.
The parking lot fills up here pretty quickly, especially during busier periods, like weekends or spring break, so I’d suggest trying to get here early if you can!
What to Expect Along the Cassidy Arch Trail
Despite being a shorter and more moderate trail, the Cassidy Arch hike is actually a teeny bit confusing. No worries, though—we’re breaking it down for you!
Grand Wash to Cassidy Arch trailhead
The first section of your hike will actually be along the Grand Wash Trail. From the parking lot, you’ll hike along a flat dirt pathway, with certain sections that widen into a rocky dried up river bed (the aforementioned “Grand Wash”).
After 0.2 miles, keep an eye out on the left hand side for a sign for the “Cassidy Arch Trail”—it’s actually usually hidden by a bush! This is where you’ll want to turn left and start your climb upwards.
Uphill climb
Once you turn off the Grand Wash Trail, you’ll start climbing uphill along slickrock, some of which is almost like natural stairs that have been eroded into the rock formation. As you climb higher and higher, the views of the canyon below will get more and more stunning.
This is definitely the most challenging section of the hike, but it isn’t TOO terrible—you’ll gain about 500 feet over about a mile.
Follow the cairns to Cassidy Arch
Once you’re about 1.2 miles into the trail, it will flatten out quite a bit.
You also may notice, around this area, that the trail forks off to the right along the Frying Pan Trail. This area is not particularly well-marked, but you’re going to want to continue on the trail to the left. Here, you should get your first view of the Cassidy Arch off in the distance.
This section gets a bit confusing, as you’re hiking on a wide slickrock ridge with no discernible path. I’d strongly recommend downloading an offline map on AllTrails ahead of time, so you can follow along the trail with GPS, and follow the cairns (the little piles of rocks on the ground) to ensure you’re headed the right way.
After 1.5 miles, the trail curves around a bend and you’ll finally get to see the massive arch for the first time.
We’ve seen a lot of arches in our day (for example, just a few dozen of the thousands at Arches National Park!), but we’ve never seen one quite like Cassidy. There’s actually a massive round hole eroded into the sandstone mesa that you’re standing on, with the Cassidy Arch on its far end.
Here, you can skirt around the cliffside and actually walk across the arch itself! The top of the arch is surprisingly wide—it’s WAY less scary than it looks!
When to Visit the Cassidy Arch Trail
We’ve been lucky enough to explore southern Utah several times and in all of the seasons. Based on our experience, I can confidently say that spring and fall are the best time to visit Capitol Reef, when the weather is pleasantly warm and the skies are clear.
The summer in Capitol Reef can get absolutely brutal, with temperatures regularly soaring over 100 degrees. We hiked the Cassidy Arch Trail in October and it still was in the 90s during our visit!
Additionally, there’s minimal shade along the trail, so it can actually be quite dangerous to hike here. If you do visit in the summertime, I’d strongly recommend visiting very early in the morning or late in the evening to miss the hottest parts of the day.
The cooler months (November through February) are much quieter than the other seasons. However, winter in Utah is surprisingly cold—it’s actually not unusual for there to be snow on the ground in the colder months. Accordingly, given the elevation gain and the slippery slickrock, I’d highly recommend bringing along microspikes if you hike during this timeframe, in case you encounter snow or ice on the ground.
In terms of the time of day, if you’re into photography, I’d highly recommend trying to visit during sunrise. Not only will you likely get the arch all to yourself, but the soft, glowy light is absolutely stunning at this time of day. Even if you can’t go at sunrise, I’d highly recommend going in the morning—otherwise, Cassidy Arch will be in the shade.
Tips for Hiking the Cassidy Arch Trail
Bring sun protection
As mentioned above, Capitol Reef can get pretty toasty outside of the winter time and, with extremely limited shade, it’s important that you bring sun protection, like sunscreen, a hat, and sunglasses, plus PLENTY of water.
My husband, Justin, and I each have one of these comically enormous Nalgene bottles and bring them everywhere—including on all our hikes! There’s no running water available at the trailhead, so be sure to bring enough with you.
Wear proper hiking shoes
The trail has a mix of different terrain, with some rocky sections at the beginning and slippery slickrock towards the end.
To provide additional support and traction, I’d highly recommend leaving the flip flops at home for this one and wearing proper hiking boots—Justin has this pair and I have this pair.
Enjoy the Cassidy Arch Trail—it’s our favorite hike in Capitol Reef National Park! Do you have any questions about this trail? Let us know in the comments below!
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