Arches and Canyonlands National Parks

 We have been living in Show Low Arizona and it has not been our favorite locations. Luckily, our house here is beautiful and we have been able to travel a lot. I am just going to start with our last trip and I’ll try to catch up with the really awesome trips I missed later. We are reaching the home strip in Arizona. Brent’s contract ends with this hospital in mid May and we will be moving on. So we have been trying to fit in all the places we wanted to visit since we are hoping to move to a different region next. 

our little cabin in the woods in Arizona

We traveled to Southern Utah recently to visit Monument Valley, Arches National Park, and Canyonlands National Park. This was our second trip to Utah and I am just in love. While camping I heard on public radio a local Utah man say that he thinks the entire state of Utah could be made into a National Park and I whole heartedly agree. It is a stunning State! 

Monument Valley

Monument Valley was the first stop we made and it was nearly a flop. We knew that the the 17 mile self guided tour was a dirt road but we did not know that RVs were not allowed on it. Our RV is lifted and can go off road so we were planning on taking it on the tour. But, alas, Navajo rules said no. We ended up unhooking right in the parking lot and driving the road. It was beautiful, so many amazing views and a great introduction to the scenery of the area. It was well worth the $20 entrance fee. As a bonus, traveling this way allowed us to pass through the cute town of Mexican Hat and to snap a couple picture of the town’s namesake monument.

Mexican Hat!

We finished out the drive to Moab pulling into ACT campground way later that we usually like to arrive. When we woke up the next morning we were pleasantly surprised by how nice the campground was, we really enjoyed our stay there. Since I was barely on the mend from a stomach bug we took our time in the morning before we headed to Arches National Park. We spent the day doing some shorter hikes and just getting to know the Park. We hiked the one mile primitive trail around Windows Arches. Even though I was really weak and I had to stop an embarrassing amount of times, this hike was beautifully scenic and not crowded. Next be headed across the parking lot and did the short half mile hike up to Double Arch. Brent and the girls climbed up to sit inside the Arch and they said the view was really great. I found a shady spot to lay back and enjoy it from a different angle. Sand Dune Arch was our last stop for the day and it was a perfect ending. It was a short walk back to the Arch and the girl’s had a blast climbing around on the rocks and playing in the sand.
 

                                     

windows arch

sand dune arch

Day two brought us to Arches again and since I was finally feeling a little more normal we decided to do a couple of longer hikes. We started the day in Devil’s Garden at the trailhead to Landscape Arch. Landscape is the longest Arch in North America and it is nearing the end of it’s life. It had a big section fall off about 15 years ago so the trail doesn’t allow you to stand directly under it anymore. After we did the mile walk to Landscape we decided to go a little further to another overlook/ Arch about a quarter of a mile (uphill) away. We climbed through this arch and had a picnic with a seriously stunning view. After lunch we headed back down the trail and had a nice talk with a park ranger as we walked. We headed to Delicate Arch next. Mat fell asleep in the car on the way and we all thought that was a great idea so we copied her and took a rest. I am so glad we did because the rangers were not lying when they marked this trail as difficult. It was only a three mile hike but the fist part was a straight up. Luckily the view was well worth the hike. I feel like Delicate Arch is the most “marketed” arch in the park because it is the arch they put on most of their souvenir items. Once we visited I understood why, it was really magical. We ended our trip to Arches with Delicate and I felt like it was a great sendoff from a gorgeous Park.

Brent and Zadie

our picnic view

landscape arch

delicate arch

Day three we woke up to colder temps and lots of wind. We decided to take our time leaving and to spend the afternoon and evening in Canyonlands National Park. We made the 40 mile drive to the Park from our campground and our first stop the was the visitor's center. Even though we mostly knew what we wanted to do at the park we stopped and asked a Ranger if he had any more recommendations for us. He pointed out a really cool 4x4 trail that we could do on our way out. We were super excited until we realized we needed to fill up with gas to be able to manage the trail. So we took a 50 mile detour to go get gas and come back… seriously. Once we got back to the park we quickly headed to Mesa Arch since it looked like a storm was about to hit. We did the short half mile hike and caught our first real glimpse of stunning Canyonlands. I was not expecting that view and it was a truly amazing surprise. From there we headed to the Grand View Overlook trail. We hiked the mile to the end of the mesa and it was indeed a grand overlook. It was also knock you off the side of a cliff windy, but we found a blocked spot and enjoyed another lunch with a lovely view. We headed back to the truck to start on our 32 mile off road adventure. Sheaffers Trail is a 4x4 recommended trail, which pretty much means it is going to be a ton of fun but your not going to kill your vehicle doing it. I wouldn’t recommend doing the 4x4 trails at either of these parks unless you have a real off road, lifted, 4x4 vehicle. This trail led us via several switchbacks, down the side of the mesa into the canyon. Then we got to drive through part of the canyon, beside the Colorado River, and into a State park. At the end of the 32 miles you are sufficiently bounced around and ready to catch HWY 279 for a quick drive back into Moab. Overall it took us about 3 hours with plenty of picture stops. Once we were on the HWY we made one last quick stop to look at some dinosaur footprints. That was a great surprise and a really nice way to end our trip to Moab.

view at mesa arch

a stop on grand overlook trail

off-road trail through the canyon

the Colorado River

Dino tracks!

We totally understand why Moab’s town motto is “again and again” because we barely scratched the surface of this awesome town. I think I could spend weeks hiking, biking, and playing on the river. What a great little city!