After we spent 3 days in Alamosa, CO, we headed slightly northwest to Moab, UT, where we had 10 days booked at Seven Mile RV Park. The RV park, which was perfectly located between Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park, was empty when we arrived since they just opened for season. We had gorgeous 360 degree views from our RV site. With 10 days in Moab, we were ready to do some exploring.

Arches National Park

Arches National Park is one of the “Big 5” parks in Utah. The “Big 5” (officially known as the “Mighty 5”) refers to Utah’s five spectacular national parks: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, and Arches. Arches has the largest concentration of natural sandstone arches in the world with 2,000 documented structures.

For our first day exploring the park, we decided to take Sophie with us and drive through it to get our bearings and decide what hikes we might want to do the next day. The park was only 10 minutes from our RV but we did have to wait a short bit to get into the park. Once we got in and checked out the visitors center, we started driving. With the map, we managed to drive most of the park, getting out occasionally to stretch our legs and check out the views.

We decided the next day to hike the Devil’s Garden trail, which is about 8 miles total and lets hikers see up to 8 arches. The trail was quite busy but as we got further into it, it thinned out some and really got interesting. We lost our bearings a few times as others we passed did too, but all in all it was a great hike. On our way driving out of the park, we decided to check out the Delicate Arch trail which is about 3 miles with a really steep climb at the beginning. We’re glad we got to see Delicate Arch, which is a 52-foot-tall freestanding natural arch, since it is considered unstable and may eventually succumb to gravity and erosion.

Canyonlands National Park

Canyonlands National Park, another one of the “Mighty 5,” is a dramatic desert landscape carved by the Colorado River. We didn’t get to see all of Canyonlands because it is big. It’s divided into 4 distinct districts: Island in the Sky, The Needles, The Maze and The Rivers. We were able to drive through and check out the Island in the Sky district which features several scenic overlooks. We also did a couple short hikes (with Sophie in the car), one of Whale Rock and another to view the Mesa Arch. We didn’t really do any longer hikes together in the park since the one that interested us both was 10+ miles (and a 25 minute drive) and we didn’t want to leave Sophie at home that long. Randy ended up hiking it one day and said it took him into the canyon and had amazing views. Canyonlands marks #4 out of the “Mighty 5” Utah parks for us since we visited Bryce Canyon and Zion last year.

Dead Horse Point State Park

Dead Horse Point State Park is a Utah state park near Canyonlands that features a dramatic overlook of the Colorado River and Canyonlands National Park. The park’s rim trail takes you to various overlooks and scenic views of the Colorado River and the canyons at an elevation of 5,900 feet. Randy and I hiked the trail (roughly 7 miles) and thoroughly enjoyed the views.

Grandstaff Trail to Morning Glory Arch

With so many days to explore Moab, Randy and I did a few local hikes. One of those is the Grandstaff trail, which is roughly 4.5 miles and takes you to a colossal alcove arch called Morning Glory.

Poison Spider Trail to see the Petroglyphs

Poison Spider Trail is actually a 15-mile trail scenic off-road trail with dramatic ledges, sandy washes, and sweeping views of the Colorado River. We didn’t visit it to hike the whole thing, we just wanted to check out the petroglyphs and fossilized dinosaur tracks that are a short but steep .25 mile scramble. It was pretty cool to see the tracks and the petroglyphs carved into the sandstone. The road that leads to the parking area for the Poison Spider trail also has petroglyphs and prehistoric Native American rock art in the sandstone cliffs. This area also happens to be a popular climbing spot. We pulled off the road on our way home to get a glimpse of the rock art dating from the Archaic (6,000-1000 B.C.) and Fremont (450-1300 A.D.) periods.

After exploring Moab for more than a week, it was time to move on and head to West Yellowstone, with a quick stop in Salt Lake City, UT.