National Parks News
Arches Fiery Furnace IS Closed Indefinitely Due To National Park Staffing ShortagEs.
What to Hike Instead?
Arches National Park’s beloved Fiery Furnace closed indefinitely due to National Park staffing shortages. For those who’ve experienced it, this is a real loss—Fiery Furnace isn’t just a trail; it’s a masterclass in what makes Arches unforgettable.
fiery furnace closure
Arches Fiery Furnace Is Closed For Now. What to Hike Instead?
Arches National Park’s beloved Fiery Furnace closed indefinitely due to National Park staffing shortages, according to the Arches National Park website and a recent Axios report. For those who’ve experienced it, this is a real loss—Fiery Furnace isn’t just a trail; it’s a masterclass in what makes Arches unforgettable. The closure of the Fiery Furnace hike has made headlines from local Moab, Utah outlets like The Times-Independent to national news USA Today, MSN, and SFGate. Why would a closure of a short hiking trail cause such a wide uproar? As a recent AOL.COM article points out, the Fiery Furnace is not your average hike, it’s a bucket-list experience.
What's So Special About The Fiery Furnace?
With only about two miles of hiking, Fiery Furnace condenses everything visitors love about Arches National Park: tight sandstone corridors, towering walls, and the sensation of being completely enveloped by stone. It’s immersive, exploratory, and tactile—often described as feeling like you’ve stepped inside a video game. There are “doors” to choose, routes to puzzle out, and a sense of agency over how you move through the terrain. It’s an experience that turns hiking into a kind of real-world level design, where every turn reveals a new challenge or reward.
Are there Good Fiery Furnace Alternatives Inside Arches National Park?
While the Fiery Furnace may be the best hike in Arches—hands down—it’s not the only place that captures that magic.
Arches National Park is built on a landscape shaped by fractured Entrada sandstone. Over millennia, erosion carved those fractures into tall, parallel fins and narrow passageways. These walls are what create the maze-like, otherworldly feel throughout the park. And while Fiery Furnace offers the most condensed version of that experience, there are still other hikes that deliver the same essence—the same sense of wonder, immersion, and exploration.
Here are the top alternatives to try while Fiery Furnace is off limits:
1. Sand Dune Arch
This is your closest match to the actual experience of being inside of the Fiery Furnace. Small, accessible, and wildly immersive, the walls around Sand Dune Arch are tight and close, forming cool, shaded corridors that are perfect for playful exploration. It’s located at the opposite end of the same wall system as Fiery Furnace, so the geology here is so strikingly similar. While this area is small in scope, it still gives that same “choose your own adventure” vibe.
2. Broken Arch Loop Trail
A lesser-known gem, this short trail takes you through a narrow slot canyon that channels the same feeling of discovery as Fiery Furnace. It’s a light and rewarding hike, with passageways that feel like hidden levels waiting to be unlocked.
3. Tower Arch
You’ll need to hike about a mile before reaching the good stuff on this moderate hike in one of the most remote sections of Arches National Park. However, once you’re in the proper Tower Arch area, you are finally in a quiet wilderness of sandstone walls and arches reminiscent of the Fiery Furnace. Again, it’s not as compact as Fiery Furnace itself, but it’s closed-in in a way that invites slow wandering, climbing, and endless exploration.
4. Devils Garden Loop
This hike is no doubt most challenging in Arches National Park. While the fins and passageways here are more wide open than inside the Fiery Furnace, the entire trail system in Devils Garden is built into the sandstone maze. Every fork in the trail feels like a quest, and the constant elevation shifts, arch sightings, and alternate routes keep the gameplay feeling fresh. It’s not as tightly packed, but it absolutely taps into the immersive “video game” vibe.
What About The Famous Arches from Fiery Furnace?
Some of the named arches inside Fiery Furnace have cousins elsewhere in the park:
- Skull Arch, which appears high overhead, has a spiritual twin in Double Arch (in The Windows section), which also forces you to crane your neck and marvel upward.
- Surprise Arch spans delicately above a secret alcove inside the Fiery Furnace. For a similar feeling, visit Landscape Arch, the park’s thinnest and longest span, gracefully stretching over the terrain like a natural bridge to nowhere.
In Conclusion - Not All Is Lost!
While nothing replaces Fiery Furnace, the spirit of it—its puzzles, its passageways, its sense of play—lives throughout the park. With a bit of curiosity and a willingness to explore, you can still find the famous Arches National Park magic.
