Sunset Arch Arizona

Sunset Arch in the Superstition Mountains

I researched arches near Phoenix, Arizona, and there is only one within Phoenix that I could find (Hole in the Rock), but I found several in the Superstition Mountains that we could hike to.  We didn't have much time, though, so I focused on one that said it was only a half mile hike from the road.  Well, the big challenge was knowing where to park for the trailhead since it isn't marked!  I spent a lot of time looking online for an exact location, and finally after asking some questions on the Arizona Hiking page, I received a pin of where the parking area was.

If you are driving from Phoenix, from the junction where East Lost Dutchman Blvd meets Highway 88, the parking area for Sunset Arch is exactly 6 miles.  

Junction of Lost Dutchman and Apache Trail (Highway 88)

View of the Superstition Mountains as we were driving highway 88

The arch trailhead is less than half a mile past the Triple Arch Trailhead, so if you put "Triple Arch Trailhead" in your google maps, instead of turning left off of highway 88, keep going straight for only a couple minutes and you'll see a pull-out with enough space for about 3 cars on the right side of the road.  This is the trail head parking!

This is what the pull-out looks like

This is the view of the road in either direction while standing in the parking pull-out

This is a print-out that the Phoenix Welcome Center gave us when we went in to ask about the arch.  She had never heard of it, but she went online and was able to find this map showing us where the trailhead was in comparison with Triple Arch Trailhead.

This is my location on apple maps when I was standing at the trailhead parking.

Our parked car at the Sunset Arch trailhead.  Some of the posts about the hike described the road as curving sharply to the right and then sharply to the left.  As you can see on the map, that curve is where the trailhead is.

And this is my location on Google Maps when standing at the trailhead parking.

The location I shared was here:  Trailhead Parking Location

Another hiker gave me the following coordinates for the trailhead parking:

From the Hike Arizona website

This is what my GPS read when standing at the trailhead

There is room for about 3 cars to park in the little parking pull-out.  There are large rocks blocking the dirt road so that vehicles can't climb up it, but this is where the trail begins.

It is a steep road at the beginning

I made a small cairn on top of one of the large rocks at the entrance.  I'm not sure how long it will last!

The other difficult part of this hike, besides figuring out where to park for the trailhead, is to find the trail once you reach the top of the first hill.  The trail starts on the left at the top of the first hill.  There is a small cairn there.  

Small cairn on the left after climbing the first hill directly after the parking spots

Looking up the hill at that telephone pole, the cairn is on the left at the bottom.  The nice thing is, even if you don't start the trail at the right spot, you can easily see the trail off to the left and can join it at any point.  It's just a little easier not to have to bush-wack through cactus, etc.

At the top of the very first hill after the parking lot, before you even begin to walk on the trail, you can look to your left and see Sunset Butte (Peak 2625).  When looking at the Butte, you are looking directly at the arch from the side.  You won't be able to see the opening until you begin climbing the butte.  The arch is on the north-west side.

Looking up at the butte, the trail can be seen along the way

If you hike up to this telephone pole, you are not on the trail to Sunset Arch.  The trail veers off to the left before this.

Once you're on the correct trail, it is very well marked with cairns, and rocks lining the path

There are so many interest cacti along the trail!

We visited in January of 2025

My daughter particularly liked this Saguaro cactus

This is where it started to get really steep, and with loose rocks we had to be very careful not to fall

Still, the trail was very easy to follow, with both cairns and rocks lining the path

View from the trail

And this is where I could finally see the arch opening - just barely.  This was at .42 miles into the hike.

Light barely coming through the first open spot I could see on the butte since we had begun our hike

As we continued to climb up and around the butte, we could see the arch opening much better

A barbed wire fence runs down the butte.  There was a cut in it that we walked through, following the cairns up the butte

Near the top we had to cross over the barbed wire fence again in order to reach the arch.  My husband held it down for my daughter and I to climb over.  The cairns clearly led this way, so it must have been the easiest way to climb up to the arch.

From this distance it doesn't look easy to climb into the arch, but when you're standing directly below it you can see where to put your hands and feet to climb inside it.

The other side of the arch

Underneath the arch

Looking up at the arch, it looks very fragile - like it might collapse at any moment!

View from inside the arch back at the trail and highway 88.  The trail is very clear from this vantage point!

This very tiny arch is just to the left after going through the arch

View from inside the arch

The arch is called Sunset Arch because people like to get sunset photos through the opening.  We were not there at sunset, but I was happy to get photos of the sunlight through the opening.

My daughter and I inside the arch

View looking back the other way through the arch.  The other side of the arch is much steeper than the side we climbed up.

The tiny arch

High up in those mountains that can be viewed through the arch is another arch - I have not been able to discover the name of the other arch.

Climbing back down the butte -- over the barbed wire fence

Last view of the arch on the way down

Back down the trail

looking back at the butte -- the arch is very obvious now that I know where it is

It appears there was a fire there recently

Going back down was pretty tough and slow-going.  I was really glad we weren't trying to go back down in the dark.  It was very steep and had lots of loose rocks

It was really beautiful to see all of the cacti dotting the hillside

It looks like the area is used for target practice.  There was a lot of evidence of that, including this target that was left behind

Back down the hill to our car

When we arrived at the arch, my mileage tracker said we had gone exactly half a mile.  So we must have gone a little bit longer route on the way back, because our round trip was 1.08 miles

Looking at the route this way shows that it was a pretty direct route.

Someday I'd really like to go back to Arizona and hike the Triple Arch Trail.  I'd also really like to know what that mysterious arch was that I could view from inside Sunset Arch.  I am very glad to have found Sunset Arch, and I'm very grateful for whoever took the time to mark the trail so well with cairns and rocks along the sides.  

Someday I'd also like to go back to the Superstition Mountains when the crouching cougar is visible, which happens twice a year during the spring and fall equinoxes.

The sun and the mountains create a shadow that looks just like a crouching cougar.  

It also would be fun to go on some of the hikes in the Superstition Mountains to search for the Lost Dutchman's gold mine!  But that will have to wait for another day...