Corona Arch sits outside the national park, which is why it gets a fraction of the visitors and none of the timed-entry drama. The trail is 1.5 miles each way from the Colorado River road, with a short section of fixed cable and a ladder bolted into the slickrock. Nothing technical, but you will use your hands.
The arch itself is enormous: an opening of roughly 140 by 105 feet in a fin of Navajo sandstone. Stand in the right place and the whole opening fills with sky. Stand in the wrong place and it fills with the backpack of the person in front of you.
Where to stand
Walk under the arch and keep going up the slope on the far side for about eighty paces. From there, a wide lens shows the full span with nothing but sky inside it, because the ground behind the arch drops away out of the frame.
Shoot from low, near the ground. People standing under the arch drop below the bottom edge of the opening and disappear into the rock.
When to go
Late afternoon puts the light on the inside face of the arch, and the rock glows. In summer, go at sunrise instead — the trail faces south and heats up fast.
The arch fills with sky. Your only job is to keep everything else out.
