Canyonlands vs. Arches
 

Looking for advice for which National Park would be a better choice for our family of 6. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

Both are close to each other and worth a visit. When we went, we were camping, and ended up staying at a federal campsite along the river outside the park (park camping was full) which was very nice.
My kids really enjoyed arches the best, but both are unique and worth a visit.

Hi Amish,

Honestly, if you have so little time that you much choose only 1, then my best advise would be to skip Moab altogether and come back another time.

I know from your other post that you are covering A LOT of ground on your trip. Once you are out here and see what you won't have time to enjoy, you will want to return anyway.

Slow down, you should really spend about 2 x what you have planned in each location (except for CO Springs). Your trip sounds great, just far too rushed.

Good luck!

IMHO, you will see more in Arches just driving though than you will at Canyonlands, Island in the Sky District.

In Arches you are driving though some incredibile scenery with these giant slabs of slickrock sandstone, arches you can see from the vehicle and short hikes to get up closer if you want. There are some spots to stop for vistas too. Another plus is it is just 4 miles to the entrance of Arches National Park from the town of Moab.

Canyonlands you have to drive to the scenic overlooks and get out of the vehicle to really see most of them. The drive is nice, but nothing like the drive into Arches. Canyonlands is farther off the main highway.

Utahtea

I have to agree with Dayle...if you have so little time that you have to choose one or the other, you're really not giving yourself enough time to enjoy the area. I was there for 5 days a few years ago & didn't feel like I had enough time to really explore. That said however, I'd go with Arches if you're travelling with kids. There are lots of short, interesting walks easily accessible from the road & the rock formations are breathtaking.

Arches is more concentrated, so you can see more in a limited time. Canyonlands is vast and requires time and sweat (as in some long hikes.)

We were also pressed for time in this area on our way to Lake Powell and a houseboat for the week...But we did do one overnight and ended up doing a quick ride at night into Canyon Lands and in the a.m. we got up early to hike to DELICATE ARCH..which IMHO was SO WORTH the whole trip...so much so, that on our way back from Lake P. , everyone voted to stop and do the HIKE again cuz it was just so AWESOME! DO the DELICATE ARCH hike, the kids & you will LOVE it!

My husband are from the UK and first visited both Arches and Canyonlands in November '98 and fell in love with both (and have returned since). How can one choose? Since then I have read Edward Abbey's 'Desert Solitaire' and suggest it as required reading in preparation for Utah park visits both for adults and older kids. As Abbey exhorts, look at Arches not simply as an interesting place with breathtaking rock formations, but as a part of this planet earth, largely untouched but with a message for us all.

My heart lies in Arches NP, I think.

Joan

Sorry, folks, I meant to say....My husband AND I visited Arches NP in 1998....

Both are incredible places and very different from each other and I would be hard-pressed to choose one over the other. If you want to do Canyonlands in a day there is a good way to see it, if you can afford to (with 6 people I understand if you can't). We spent a day doing one of those organized tours where half of the day is spent in a 4WD van (where they take you to some places that are harder to access by normal car) and the other half is spent in a boat going down the river through the canyons (with a lunch break between the 2 halves). It was spectacular and our tour guides were great! We saw alot more in 1 day than we would ever have seen on our own in the same amount of time. If you decide to do that tour though, opt for doing the van in the morning and the boat in the afternoon (it's nicer to be sitting in the boat on water during the hotter part of the day).