Easy to Moderate Hikes - Moab Area
 

Trip is booked, looking to find the "must do" hikes near Moab. Specifically looking for Arches, and Canyonlands (Island in the Sky and Needles). Easy to Moderate. We have three days set aside to hike (with Rafting, Hummer Tour and ATV's mixed in on alternate days). Family trip with our 13 year old and 11 year old boys. I am in "okay" shape, so moderate is as hard as I want to attempt.

My thought is one day of hiking in Arches and two days for Canyonlands but that's flexible. Advice please?

Hi capecod73!

We just got back from 2.5 weeks in Utah and Colorado - and we loved our time in Moab. We've got two young boys (ages 5 and 7) and so we kept our hikes in the easy/moderate range. In Canyonlands (Islands in the Sky), we absolutely loved the Grandview Point Trail. It's a couple of hours of hiking along the rim, with gorgeous views of the "islands" all around you. It's beautiful and not too strenuous. We also did Mesa Arch, which was lovely. It's not much of a hike, more of just a walk to the arch, but we were lucky to get some solitude when we first got to the arch and I (gasp!) may have like it better than a lot of the arches we saw in Arches NP! That said, Arches is a gorgeous park with tons to see. While it's not talked about as often, we loved the Park Avenue hike. It's amazing to walk on the ground and have the rock towering above you... Once you've seen some of the "big-name" arches, you may want to consider giving Park Avenue a try. We loved it.

Happy planning!
Jenn

Jenn - Thank you soooo much! The thread on your trip is extremely helpful. Due to not knowing whether or not we could do this trip until last week I have literally had to plan this trip in the last two days and we leave in three weeks! So I am desperate for help lol.

Our trip starts in Vegas and goes to Zion, Page, Mesa Verde, Moab and we fly out of Salt Lake City. Mesa Verde was a last minute addition so I want to ask you - was two days needed (I have a one night stay there now but could change things to two days) AND was the hotel in the park worth it? I considered the Far Point for lodging but saw some negative reviews about the rooms so went for lodging outside the park. Would love your thoughts on the hotel and what you did in MV.

Again, thanks so much. Can't believe how last minute this planning is BUT we are super excited!

Steph

There are lots of easy hikes/walks in Arches. Other than Fiery Furnace, Devils Garden and Delicate Arch, most are easy.

For some ideas in the Moab area, check this website : climb-Utah.com

See if you can get tickets on NPS website to hike in the fiery furnace - it would probably be something your boys would enjoy! Otherwise hike to Landscape Arch (Devil's garden hike) is also a great, relatively flat hike in Arches. I also loved the walk out to Delicate Arch, but that was a little more strenuous - but definitely worth the effort.

Like alwaysafrica stated, Mesa arch is also a fantastic, lesser known hiking route!

We adored Mesa Verde... We planned for two nights there, but in fact we only stayed one full day (arriving late at night, staying the full day and then leaving that following morning). We arrived much later than anticipated - everything was so beautiful on our trip that we always found we fell behind schedule : ) And so we ended up arriving at the entrance to MV at about 7:45. It was getting dark and I'll admit that the drive up the mountain (which takes about 40 minutes) at dusk/dark was no fun at all. I highly recommend avoiding that : ) We reached Far View Lodge and were so glad that we were staying there. The lodge itself is in a nice location and everything is very closeby. The main lodge itself is nice - the restaurant is nicely decorated and has great views. We stayed in a Kiva Room in a separate row of rooms. Extremely basic - two double beds, pretty cramped, but with a balcony with long views. We went out to enjoy the stars the first night and we amazed by all of the stars in the pitch darkness. We thought that one full day in MV was enough (but keep in mind that we went before Memorial Day and so a lot of the other sights to see were still closed). And it was wonderful. We hit some bad weather after we finished our hiking for the day -- it rained from about 4:30 onward and we ate dinner in our room and spent the evening in (one of the only times we did that). I'll admit that it was very cramped with the four of us and all of our stuff, and I kinda wished at that point that we were staying in a great suite somewhere in Cortez, but overall I think it's worth it not to have to drive up and down again and again. And there's a real bonus to being so closeby to all of the sites that you can stop in at your room whenever you need to. BTW, we loved the food at the Spruce Tree Terrace - don't miss the Navajo Tacos there. It's only a cafeteria-style place, but we all loved our food and the tacos were unbelievable.

As for hikes, we did the Balcony House tour, which I highly recommend. It's a ranger-led tour that you have to get tickets for in advance (we got them the morning of, but it wasn't busy in MV at all when we were there). There were about 15 people on our tour. It's the tour that has 3 or 4 ladders (including one 32' ladder) and short tunnels and some rock scramble. I was terrified when we reached the big ladder and I actually thought we should maybe turn around, but our boys did amazing and we were all so proud that it made it really special. With the ages of your kids, they'll really love it. And then the sites on Balcony House tour are phenomenal. I truly didn't expect to have such a cultural experience (not sure why I wasn't expecting it!)... our boys really loved it. We then did Spruce Tree House and then chose Petroglyph Point Trail as our longer hike. We got caught in a thunderstorm - thankfully it didn't last too long - but the trail was amazing. Gorgeous views and a really neat (albeit somewhat strenuous) hike. Whatever you do, be sure to pick up the Trail Guides at all of the trailheads, so that your kids can read along and also see images of what it would have looked like when the Puebloans were there. My kids are very young and yet they were fascinated once we were there in the moment. Anyways, I hope this helps. I have a TON to say about Zion and Moab, but I'll have to leave it for another day. I'm about to start writing my trip report, so hopefully that will be ready in time to help you out too!

As alwaysafrica said, the advantage to staying in the park at Mesa Verde (like Grand Canyon) is that you are there and don't have to drive in/out every day. For MV, in addition to the curves, steep grades, etc. on the road, there are deer who could pop out too. This makes driving when there is low light very sketchy.

We found the food at the Metate Room there to be better than most NPs.

Thank you all for the information - I truly appreciate it!

Some great advice from alwaysafrica about Mesa Verde. Such a fascinating place. Be sure to sign up for the trip out to Balcony House. And definitely stay at Far View Lodge in the park - the rooms are not special but the convenience is well worth it and the food at the Metate Room is good!

The Needles District is 75 miles from Moab, and, while an incredible area if you have few days to explore, may not be worth the drive for you. Save that time to explore some of the many highlights in Moab. Drive out Route 128 along the Colorado River to Fisher Towers, check out some of the rock art around Moab on Potash Road or Kane Creek Road, take a jeep tour, go mountain biking or do a rafting trip on the river.

Sign up for the Fiery Furnace hike in Arches - lots of fun!
Consider doing Delicate Arch hike at sunset and hike back out in the dark (bring headlamps/flashlights) along with plenty of other visitors. I also loved the Park Avenue hike - incredible scenery! And Devil's Garden is one of my favorites!

The short Mesa Arch hike in Canyonlands Islands in the Sky is stunning. While incredibly scenic, the hiking in Islands in the Sky is limited. But there are lots of short walks out to amazing views. Dead Horse Point State Park is also worth some time and is easily accessible from Islands in the Sky.

You may want to find some time to spend in Capitol Reef before you head north to Salt Lake City. Capitol Reef is a less visited park with some interesting historic and geological features. The scenery is breathtaking and the rock colors dramatic.

Let me know if you have any questions. Sounds like you are planning a fantastic trip!

I second the suggestion of Capitol Reef! Since it's a less-visited park, I guess I didn't expect as much... and then we really loved it. Gorgeous scenery - the scenic drive is simply spectacular and we loved the Hickman Bridge hike -- relaxed, scenic and fun for the kids. We adored Canyonlands - both Islands in the Sky and Needles and were so glad that we saw both! That said, both of them are far and take time to get to. One of the only downsides we found to our trip is that, because our kids are so young, when we wanted to see beautiful scenery, we were limited to hiking or driving. Because your kids are older, you have the option of enjoying rafting, jeeping, biking. For us, there were a few times where we had pushed the kids' to hike long distances the day before, our bodies were sore, and yet the only way to see beautiful things (and really the only thing to do short of spending a day sitting around a pool, which seemed like a waste in such spectacular scenery) was to keep hiking! You have many other options fun open to you... so it would be a good idea to include a few, to spice things up : )