Traffic congestion has been a big problem at Utah's Arches National Park for a while now.
The park, known for its hundreds of striking sandstone formations, has only one main paved road—the 36-mile (round-trip) Scenic Drive—and parking is limited.
Arches gets the bulk of its 1.5 million annual visitors in the period from March through October, according to the National Park Service, and on many days during that span trailhead parking lots fill up before 8am.
In 2022, Arches began requiring visitors to get advance reservations in peak season as part of an effort to maintain better crowd control.
But earlier this year the Trump administration dropped the reservation requirement for Arches and other extremely popular parks. At the time, federal officials said they'd combat overcrowding in other, vaguely described ways instead.
Now a new service has launched that could genuinely improve things, though we hasten to add that the project was spearheaded by county government, not the Trump administration.
How to access Arches National Park from Moab without a car
The project in question: the Moab-Arches Shuttle, a free bus service that launched this month in order to give riders a lift from downtown Moab to Arches National Park, courtesy of Grand County, Utah.
As the park's gateway town (Arches is only about 5 miles away), Moab is where many parkgoers stay and eat when they're in the area. The new shuttle lets them, at long last, head off to Arches while keeping their cars parked in Moab.
The current solution doesn't make Arches an entirely auto-free proposition, however.
As Afar points out, the shuttle "isn’t yet a park-wide transportation system like the ones at Zion National Park or Denali National Park."
Instead, the service encompasses only two shuttle routes. The first goes from downtown Moab to the Arches National Park Visitor Center. There you can catch a second bus that makes stops at the trailheads for the Windows area and Delicate Arch. The buses do not travel the length of Scenic Drive.
But fortunately for you, the Windows area and Delicate Arch are among the most famous spots in the park. So if you're looking to accomplish an overview of Arches, relying on the shuttles is a pretty good option—and won't require a futile search for parking.
Plus, the shuttle service is free for anyone with a valid pass for Arches National Park.
In order to board the bus, though, you will have to show that you have already purchased admission to the park or have an annual pass. That means you'll need to buy a pass in advance online in order to use the shuttle.
You don't have to make a reservation for the shuttle. Simply find a stop in Moab using the city's transit app or online map and show the driver your park pass to board.
Shuttles between downtown Moab and the park's visitor center run every 15 to 30 minutes, Monday through Sunday from 8am to 5pm. The second route, from the visitor center to Delicate Arch, has the same schedule, except that the last bus from Delicate Arch departs daily at 4:05pm.
Launched this month, the Moab-Arches Shuttle will run through Oct. 31 before taking a winter break. Then service will return March 1 through June 30, 2027.
At this point, the shuttle is being described as a pilot program, indicating its chances of continuing after next June depend on whether it catches on this season. So use it or lose it.
For more information, visit the Moab-Arches Shuttle website.