In July of 2019 the entire family went out to Moab for a week to explore both Arches and Canyonlands National Park. I’m going to combine the two for this blog since they are almost across the street from on and other. Moab is a really fun place to stay and has a bit of something for anyone who enjoys the outdoors. Lots of great places to stay, eat, drink and many stores to outfit you for whatever type of adventure you’re into. You can rent bikes or off road cares, get hiking / camping information and so on.
Arches National Park
Just 6 miles north of Moab you find Arches National Park. Bordered on the southwest by the Colorado river, the park has over 2,000 natural sandstone arches. This is the highest concentration of arches anywhere in the world! In the park you can find more then just Arches, you can see sandstone fins, spires, balanced rocks, and huge monoliths.
It’s an easy park to explore, from the roads and overlooks you can see many of the attractions. There are trails of all length to explore depending on what sort of adventure you’re looking for. At the peak of summer (when we were there) it’s best to be out very early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The mid day sun is hot and it is of course very dry.
Cami and I would head out before sunrise hike and take photos. Walking back to the car just as the day was starting to really warm up. Later in the afternoon the entire family would venture into the park and we would do a shorter (easier) hike and I would photograph sunset. This allowed us to skip the hottest parts of the day. I should point out that at the peak times the park can be very crowed, with long lines to get in. It was never a problem early in the morning but in the afternoon sometimes there was a long line to get in. The NPS website has webcams and you can watch the traffic in real time.
The park is large enough with enough different parking areas and trial heads that we never had a problem finding a place to park. Though your mileage my very depending on the time of day / month you’re in the park.
We were lucky and had enough time to explore most of the well known sites inside the park. From Balanced Rock, Courthouse Towers, Delicate Arch (more on that later), Devils Garden, Double Arch, Landscape Arch and the Petrified Dunes. There were some areas that because of time and or distance we did not get to. You could spend years exploring this park and never see it all.
On the last morning Cami and I headed out hours before sunrise, parked and hiked to Delicate Arch. This is maybe the most well known arch in the entire park. The hike is about 3.2 miles and climbs about 500 feet. Even though we stated with headlamps well before sunrise we where by no means alone on the trail. Watching the sunrise at the arch is a well known activity. If there was one long hike to do in the park, this is it! I was able to capture a stunning photo. Though to be honest I wish I would have left even earlier to get more of the blue hour. By the time we got back to the car the day was starting to get very hot, other people where just starting the hike and while always worth seeing, its not a hike I’d want to do in mid-July in the full heat of the day.
Canyonlands National Park
Canyonlands National park is huge and diverse, it has four main areas. The most popular area is the Island in the Sky. That area is just north of Moab and the road that brings you to the park entrance is just across from Arches National Park. It is worth noting (and visiting) that Dead Horse Point State Park is just before the entrance to Canyonlands is is very much worth a stop. It is the same area and gives you one of the most classic viewpoints of the canyons and the Colorado river.
The Island in the Sky and Dead Horse State Park is where we spent most of our time exploring. Here you are much higher up and there are epic vistas that look down into the canyons. There is a road that runs along the top of the level mesa.
This is where you find Mesa Arch, one of the most famous arches in the world. We hiked there for sunrise twice. If your aim is photography you have to get there 1 to 3 hours before sunrise to get a stop. On a clear day as the sun rises it will reflect light under the arch making it glow red.
The second area that we were able to explore is the Needles district. This is located south of the Island in the Sky and on the east side of the Colorado River. The district is named for the red and white banded rock pinnacles. You are much lower in this region, giving you a very different perspective of the landscape. There are some paved roads in this area, however to explore deep into the background you either need to hike or have a good four wheel drive car with higher clearance.
There are a number of short to medium hikes you can do in this area. We where able to do the Cave Springs trail. It’s short but super fun, on the .6 mile loop you pass a spring, well preserved pictographs and a late 19th century cowboy camp. You also get to climb up a pair of wooden ladders and cross a summit that gives and amazing 360 view of the distract.
For sunset in the Needles we hung out at the Big Spring Canyon Overlook. This is at the very end of the Scenic Drive Road. It’s an amazing view of some very different geography, and we where lucky to see an amazing sunset. On your way into the Needles District you’ll pass right by Newspaper Rock State Monument featuring an amazingly preserved wall of petroglyphs dating back almost 2000 years.
All in this area of the American south-west is amazing and worth a visit. We had just over a week here and I feel like that was just enough time. There are so many cool things to see, places to explore and hikes to take. It (like so many other places) is on our list to return to someday.
