Arches Visitor Center

Arches Visitor Center is the park's only visitor center, just inside the entrance gate on US 191, about five miles north of Moab. It's a useful first stop if you want ranger advice on drive times and trails and a quick introduction before heading deeper into the park. Allow 15 to 60 minutes; fill your water bottles here, since the park has few other drinking-water sources.

Indoor and outdoor exhibits cover park history, geology, plants, and animals. The theater shows Window in Time, and an animated geology presentation traces 300 million years of change in the landscape. Rangers can help shape your day, and kids can pick up a Junior Ranger activity book. There's also a bookstore with park books and gifts.

The indoor center's staffed hours vary by season. The outdoor exhibits, restrooms, and drinking water are available around the clock, so an after-hours stop still has useful facilities and displays. The center, bookstore, theater, and restrooms are wheelchair accessible; accessible brochures and some tactile exhibit models are available. Pets aren't allowed inside the visitor-center activity, but service animals are welcome. There's no separate fee for the activity, though park entrance fees may apply because the center is inside the gate.

The first National Park Service building in Arches was a 12-by-14-foot contact station near Double Arch, built in 1939; early interpretation amounted to a single outdoor sign. The first purpose-built visitor center opened in 1960: about 6,000 square feet, planned for 60,000 visitors a year. The current center opened in 2005, when annual park visits were nearing 800,000 and as many as 3,000 people used the center in a day. The earlier building was remodeled for staff offices.