Moab and vicinity
 

In the very early stages of planning an April trip to Moab - we'll drive from our home in Colorado and are trying to work out an itinerary. Pretty clueless at the moment - how many full days would one need to get a nice taste of the area including a few long hikes/walks?

Take the extra 15-20 minutes to drive Utah 128 to get to Moab from I-70. The US 191 route is mostly boring country. There are several great hikes to take in Arches NP including the one out to Delicate Arch.
Take at least one day to go see the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands. Also see Dead Horse SP.

If you click on my user name you will find a few trip reports for Arches and Moab. Query this forum--tons of questions and reports on Arches/Moab. Go to the nps.gov web sites and search Canyonlands and Arches--these sites list all of the hikes you take, the distance, and how hard/easy they are. Google Moab tourism--you will find all sorts of activities listed. You really need to come back with a tentative itinerary. You have given us almost nothing to go on. What else do you like to do? who all is in your party? Ages? Hiking abilities?

tomfuller - we're trying to avoid 70 as much as possible, will probably come into Moab from the south. This is going to be a back roads trip, hopefully. I'll take a look at how to work in 128, thank you.

StantonHyde - thanks I'll look at your report. My OH has come up with this potential driving itinerary, we're just trying to figure out how many full days we need to give Moab and the surrounding parks a good explore. Possible itinerary: Home-Buena Vista-Ouray-Moab-Durango-Ojo Caliente, NM, Home.

We are two adults with failing knees, yet avid walkers and moderate hikers, no time constraints. We're not looking for anything hard core, but walks/hikes of up to four hours. No climbing. Not interested in organized activities, just do-it-yourself exploring.

I am working with my left hand, but will try to get some of my favorites. In Canyonlands Island in the sky, do not miss Grandview overlook mesa arch or upheaval dome, In arch, stop ay all the easy arches and do hike devil.s garden, at least to landscape arch and also hike up yo delicate arch.

in Moab there are roads along both sides of the river. try Kane creek road for some nice petroglyphs and to see the crazy jeeps climbing the cliff,

I hope some pictures will attach, buy click my name and scroll yo the tr for the 2015 and 2013 reports

ok, if you are coming from the south, drive into needles district of Canyonlands and see cowboy camp/cave spring, easy and you can go in/out on the flat trail, delicate arch might be too hard for you, but most of the others will be fine.

Re: 128. I love this drive! If you can do it earlier or later in the day, the light is even better. (Maybe go through Colorado National Monument first and stay in Fruita for an early departure?)

+1 on the route 128 drive. There is (was?) a nice B&B in there, though I don't remember the name. A number of classic Western were filmed along the route. See attached PDF file if that interests you.

We enjoyed hiking in The Needles District of Canyonlands. There are lots of options. Some, like Chesler Park or Druid Arch, may be more than you are looking for, but you can always start out in that direction and turn around at any point.
https://www.nps.gov/cany/planyourvisit/hiking.htm

In Arches the easy walk down Park Avenue makes for an excellent evening stroll. Have a great trip!

Red Cliffs Lodge

You can see much of Arches from the road or on a short, relatively easy walk. Delicate Arch, Devils Garden and Fiery Furnace are the 3 big hikes that require more effort. I've never done Fiery Furnace but I'd say Delicate Arch is at the top of the list if you can do one harder hike. I believe Fiery Furnace requires some commitment - you need to go on a ranger led hike, and once you begin you're committed so for that reason, I'd skip it in your situation. With Delicate Arch or Devils Garden, you can always turn around if it's too difficult.

I'd think you could cover Arches in a day with or without the longer hike. Probably allot another day for Dead Horse and Islands in the Sky, and half a day for Needles. 3 days in the area is good but 4 would be more relaxed.

One day for Arches, one day for Canyonlands' Island in the Sky, one long day because of the drive for Canyonlands' the Needles area. That's a minimum. The beginning of this albums covers that area and might give you some ideas:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsjpnUR1m

Excellent, thank you. I was leaning towards four nights in Moab. Does it make a good central base for day trips, or is it better to split things up?

Moab is a fine base for a day trip. we liked Cali Cochita b& b in town. if you do not have lodging, get it asap.

I've just booked four nights in Moab, will take a look at all the suggestions and come up with a rough plan on how to spend our three days there, thank you.

We'll be arriving from Ouray, so will have part of a day on our day of arrival as well.

You could also visit the Needles area as a detour on your drive from Moab to Durango.

That would make for a long day given the time to drive to the Needles and take one of the walks and drive out, all of which must be added to the 2.5 hours of the direct drive.

Good to know, thanks Michael.

Can you work in Hovenweep (if you haven't been)? There's a nice loop trail around the Square Tower Group.

I think Moab itself is a good spot to stay. You can drive out and back to Island in the Sky easily.

Good question, mlgb, never heard of it before now. I'm looking into it, thanks for that.

There are jet boat trips on the Colorado from Moab that are good if your knees need a break, plus there's a driving circuit for viewing rock art along Kane Creek. I picked up a pamphlet somewhere, maybe the town visitor center. Of course you can also see some inside Arches (my favorite is Courthouse Wash).

https://www.nps.gov/arch/learn/histo...house-wash.htm

Hi Melnq8

You may remember that I had lots of questions 2 years ago about driving the Million Dollar Highway. Glad to say we really enjoyed it in early October. Don't get to see amazing golden aspens in the east.

I agree that going from Ouray to Moab would be a long day, but then you've probably seen much of what we stopped to see along the way. After Ouray, we did a night in Durango, 3 nights in Mesa Vera and 5 in Moab.

So much can easily be accessed from Moab. Imagine April isn't very crowded, but even in October, an early start into Arches is worth it as the line lengthened in mid-day. Know you're a great photographer, so an early start or late afternoon visit to Arches is best. I have some info on best times to see various features. Email me if interested.

At the time we went, my husband was having some difficulty hiking, but he managed to go to Landscape Arch.

Our days in Moab were:

Day 1: Arches. Started at Devils Garden to Landscape Arch, Pine Tree and Tunnel Arch,Double Arch, Balanced Rock, visitor center
Day 2: Sal Mountain Loop, Fisher Towers, Titan Tower
Day 3: Canyonlands, Island in the Sky section, Mesa Arch late in day
Day 4 church in morning, laid back day, uninteresting Negro Bill Trail, beautiful late afternoon visit back to Arches (really need to see it on both ends of the day) loved walking down Park Ave and having DH pick me up at other end, Delicate Arch lower viewpoint, did not go up to arch due to open rock ledge, actually told lower view was better than upper???,magical time at Windows/Turrent Arches closer to sunset

This was not a fast paced trip, especially with DH walking limitations. On some of the trails, he simply hung out near the car and waited for me.

I know you have reservations, but we stayed at a wonderful B&B, Dessert Hills B&B, onside of town with basic cooking privileges and a great outside eating area. Even in October, we got frustrated trying to get simple take out meals because it was so crowded. Maybe it's to be expected in this area, but in the east, 20% is not added to a takeout meal. However, e did get takeout to be enjoyed "at home" on 3 of the 5 nights. One nice, upscale restaurant we liked was Dessert Bistro.

Let me know if I can help any other way. You've provided me with great info in the past. Looking forward to your next adventure and hearing about it.

Hi Clousie, good to see you here. Best I can tell the drive from Ouray to Moab is just under three hours, although I'm sure it'll take us longer than that as we tend to stop along the way.

I've booked one night at our favorite place in Ouray, four in Moab (which can be changed if necessary), two in Durango and one at Ojo Caliente in New Mexico. Only Moab will be new for us.

I think our longest drive days will be getting from home to Ouray, then getting from Ojo back home, but I'm not yet sure how much driving will be involved in our day trips from Moab.

I've cut and pasted your comments into my ever growing file to sort out in the coming days. I get the distinct feeling Moab is going to be quite busy, but I hope I'm wrong. Large numbers of people are not our thing, but sometimes they can't be avoided.

My camera's life hangs in the balance at the moment...it's in the shop in another state and I fear it's on its last legs. I may be forced to go camera shopping before our trip.

Thanks for chiming in!

Melnq8, yes, peak season in Moab begins mid-March, so I expect April may be pretty busy - especially so on the weekends. Not sure when you'll be there, but I do hope it's not over Easter weekend. Easter Jeep Safari runs April 13-21 as well. Here's a good reference site: https://www.discovermoab.com/events/

Having said that, you have a whole lot of area there, and I think you can avoid most of the crowds with some planning. FWIW, even in a slower time (February), the downtown area got congested. I second Mlgb's suggestion of a boat trip We did the jet boat tour; had a great time and got some fantastic pictures. https://www.moabadventurecenter.com/

It's a wonderful area, and I think you'll really enjoy it.

April will be just as busy as October, maybe busier. Here are monthly stats for all of the parks https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/SSRSRepor...ear)?Park=ARCH Also there's the Jeep Safari during Easter week.

The entrance to Arches is right there. Moab to the Islands in the Sky section of Canyonlands is about an hour one way. The Needles section is farther.

We timed our arrival at Mesa Arch at Canyonlands immediately after sunrise. As we were on the trail, there was a mass exodus of photographers with tripods but we were able to enjoy the view in relative peace and I still managed to get a decent shot.

Not sure when you'll be there, but I do hope it's not over Easter weekend.

No, we'll be there the last week of April - Monday through Thursday. I try to avoid weekends pretty much everywhere when possible. We'll be in Durango over the weekend, then Ojo on Sunday night.

Thanks for the help everyone. Seems there's a lot more to do than we've allotted time for, which usually seems to be the case. But we're close enough that we can go back another time.

Couple comments on this: nobody's mentioned it but Moab is very busy during Jeep week which falls on April 13th to the 21st this year. The parks will be busier than normal but it's more of an impact outside the parks.

As for Delicate Arch, I've never heard anyone say the lower view is better than the upper so I'm wondering if someone told you that to make you feel better? The views are quite different. Upper is the iconic image on the UT license plate, lower is quite a distance away and the arch looks tiny in comparison. I'd go for the upper view if at all possible. The open rock ledge is not real difficult.

Slowly putting together the drive details - thought we could incorporate Utah 128 on our arrival day from Ouray - perhaps taking 191 from Moab to I-70 and then coming back via 128, making a loop. Best I can tell it'll take about two hours.

Is the whole drive pretty (minus the I-70 bit) or is one section of 128 nicer than another? Trying to determine if it's worthwhile to make the entire drive, or just a portion, if that makes sense.

I recall most of 128 being scenic.

128 is a lovely drive, well worth the time (not that much extra). Lots of photo ops, IMO. From the canyon entrance (exit?) to I70 is flattish and scrub, but we thought it pretty (driving I70 to 128 with a dramatic sky and mountains and canyon in the distance, not the reverse).

That wasn't very clear. IMO, the 191 to 128 loop is not worth the time and gas. I would recommend it only if driving from Colorado on 70.

Interesting, thank you.

but you might take 128 from Moab to Ftshers Towers

Highway 128

At Milepost 14 is Castle Creek Winery and Red Cliffs Resort (hotel)
It is the largest winery in Utah having free wine tasting
In the hotel, visit their Hollywood museum
Beautiful place along the Colorado River

vaga

Thanks again, I'm taking notes.