Moab, Arches, and Canyonlands, Utah
 

Hi. Would appreciate any advice,

First, please let me know if I have not posted this within the correct forum. I always have difficulty ensuring it is within the correct section. If not, please advise on how to.

My wife and I (in our 60's) plan to visit Moab, Arches, and Canyonlands in either late May or early June. We will be travelling from Boston, MA. We understand it will be warm then but we do pretty well in the heat and do our best not to overdue things. We love the outdoors and consider ourselves pretty active. It is also one of the only times we are free to visit Utah over the next year.

We love beautiful scenery, love to take easy to moderate hikes, local restaurants and great atmosphere.

We have been to Utah several times in the past visiting, Bryce, Zion, and Lake Powell. Salt Lake City appears to be the central hub where we always fly into. I realize there are closer smaller airports to Moab but considering airfare costs and the fact that I believe the drive from Salt Lake to Moab would be very scenic I think that would be our best bet,

We are planning 8-9 nights and would love your thoughts on how to plan this out. My thought was to fly into SLC, arrive approx. 2:30pm, rent a SUV, drive to Moab for our base, spend several nights, visit Moab, Arches, and Canyonlands, then drive back to SLC, spend a night before the flight back.

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated including:

Does this sound like a good plan?
Where to stay in Moab? Preferably a nice place with outdoor pool, beautiful scenery and local restaurants.
How many days needed for Moab, Arches, and Canyonlands?
Not that we want to be driving all the time but are there other places you would suggest visiting while in that area? Although I mentioned we had visited Bryce and Zion it was very short and we do plan on visiting those and Escalante at some other time.

Again, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Warren

I would try for as early as possible in May to make your trip. How much time to stay in the area depends on how much hiking you plan to do and what other things interest you. The minimum I would want in the area would be two or three days in Arches, one day in the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands and one day in the Needles district of Canyonlands and a day to explore other sites near by like Fisher Towers, Dead Horse park, etc.

Do get a cooler and fill it with the food and drinks you will need while in the parks as there is very little in the parks and they are huge. Do drink more water than you think you need as you will be coming from near sea level and it is much dryer in Utah.

Get lodging in Moab for the Arches and Canyonlands part of the trip now!

if you look here for Trip Reports on the area you will gets lots of information.

Thank you so much! Agree on the cooler and food and drinks!

Based on some other conversations, others are recommending wee also spend time in Capital Reef and Canyonlands. They do look beautiful but keeping in mind that we have 8 nights where the last night needs to be spent in SLC for our early flight back home and the fact that we also want some time to rest and relax I'm thinking those would be a separate trip.

We would like to revisit Bryce at some point and maybe it makes more sense to visit those other areas then. Your thoughts on whether we should be visiting those areas as well or do at a later time would be appreciated as well. Sounds like based on your recommendations that we need the days we have to enjoy Moab, Arches, and Canyon lands.

I would also like to visit Grand Escalante and thinking that would work well with Bryce unless we would be trying to do too much then, i.e., Bryce, Capital Reef, Monument Valley, and Grand Escalante.

Utah is so beautiful yet so big and overwhelming. Finding the perfect balance is very difficult.

Thanks again, W

You do not need to rent an SUV. The roads leading to hiking trails are very good in both National Parks, and I doubt that a rental would be equipped for the rougher trails that are available in Canyonlands. The pictures are dated, and in 1987 I was driving a compact sedan:

https://flic.kr/p/7uw9HQ

Consider a 1-day Jeep rental in Moab, so you can explore some of the many trails. That's what they are intended for. There are several; one that we have used is https://canyonlandsjeep.com/?utm_sou...m_campaign=gmb.

Otherwise, you don't really need an SUV - you certainly wouldn't want to take a normal rental car on the dirt trails anyway. We do like renting an SUV, though, just for the better view we get out of the windows at all the scenery. As to dividing the trip up, I'd go with Arches, Canyonlands, Dead Horse State Park as one vacation, maybe throwing in a day trip to Goblin Valley State Park. Drive the La Sal Loop, go on some trails like Shafer Trail, take a boat tour on the Colorado (Moab). Go out to Red Cliffs Lodge and downstairs into the free museum - fantastic drive out to it, also: https://moabmfwh.com/

I'd make Bryce, Zion, Grand Staircase-Escalante NM, and Capitol Reef a separate trip altogether.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...df793d6a0.jpeg
Delicate Arch
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...16b147226.jpeg
Trail to Delicate Arch
If you zoom a bit, you can see the cars where you park for the trip to the arch

I encourage you to do the hike to Delicate Arch. We were in our 70s when we did it and it was so worth it.

As far as how long to stay in Moab, on our first visit to the area, we spent four nights, which gave us three full days - one for Arches, and one for each district of Canyonlands. That trip report can be found here:

https://www.fodors.com/community/roa...-trip-1666843/

If you do stay in the Moab area 4 nights as Melnq8 #suggests, you could head down to Monument Valley (2 and a half hours from Moab ) then continue on up 89 to 15 for a drive by Escalante past Bryce and up to Salt Lake City. More driving but spectacular scenery.

Adding in the north part of Capitol Reef to include the Fremont culture petryglyphs, Fruta, and the short paved scenic drive is not much of a detour from the Interstate. If you have a night to spare in perhaps Torrey to break up the drive there are some easy hikes such as Grand Wash.
Attachment 7954

Great information! Great pictures! I can't wait. Thank you so much.

This is a tough one in terms of deciding what we want to accomplish this trip.
As I mentioned, we have been to Bryce and Zion NP's but only spent one brief day at each with the kids. We plan on revisiting on a separate trip.
Early June is the only window of opportunity for us this coming year. I appreciate that it would be better weather in May in terms of the temperature.

As I take in all of the advice and look at the map trying to find some time to relax (please keep in mind although we may like to sit by a pool we can only do for for a couple of hours before we get ansi), I'm trying to find the right balance.

My latest thought is :
Day 1: fly into SL, arrive just before 2:30pm. Rent a SUV (yes, we want the SUV for better viewing), drive to Torrey, spend a night. I realize this is a long drive.
Day 2: Visit Capital Reef, stay one more night in Torrey.
Day 3:: Drive to Monument Valley, Spend 1 night.
Days 4 - 7 Drive to Moab. spend 4 nights. Visit Arches, Moab, Canyonlands.
Day 8: Drive to SLC, spend 1 night prior to mid morning flight home to Boston.

I am thinking of the order of things as mentioned above so that we would have some time to relax towards the end of the vacation, I liked the idea of visiting Monument Valley. We could skip Capital Reef altogether; I just thought that it may be better than to drive from Moab to Monument Valley and then back to Moab over the same route.

We would then plan a second trip for Bryce and Zion and other nearby areas of interest. Maybe the Grand Canyon since that was another site that we only spent several hours at.

Your thoughts? Too much?

Thanks again! W

Re being a long way to Torrey, that's an LOL for Californians but I have friends in Florida who consider driving 30 miles a "long drive". Sunset will be late in June, so it should be a nice drive.

If you are done with a morning hike in Capitol Reef and it has not been raining, an afternoon could be spent driving south on the Notham-Bullfrog road. The road is unpaved and should only be done when it has not rained recently. I have done this in the opposite direction (coming in from the Burr Trail road, down the switchbacks (not for everyone) and then back up into Torrey.

I'm with you there in terms of the drive. According to Google (and we always believe the Internet right??) the drive is 3 hr 35 min (218.1 mi) via I-15 S and UT-24 E.
This is why I figured we would stay 2 nights in Torrey.
Overall thoughts regarding the above potential plan, i.e., routing from SLC to Torrey through Monument Valley to Moab?

Thanks, W

If you plan to see the Needles district of Canyonlands, you can do it the day you drive from Monument Valley to Moab instead of backtracking from Moab later. We've stayed at the Hyatt Place in Moab and liked it. It's on the north end of town so convenient for getting to the Arches entrance.

I did it as a loop from Los Angeles. Monument Valley was part of a different trip combined with the Grand Canyon I believe.

just a quick thought: We visited Moab in 2020 and flew into Denver. It was June of the pandemic and we wanted to avoid connecting coming from the East Coast, so we found the extra hour drive from Denver was well worth it given that we could get a direct flight to Denver but not to SLC.

You've been given some great advice. and pay attention to dates and getting timed park passes. I think Arches is now based on reservation, so don't miss that window.

have a great time!

If this is not too late for your trip, we have just spent 5 nights in Moab. I don't like long drives, so we flew to Grand Junction and rented a car there. The drive from Grand Junction to Moab is 1:40, so we didn't need the hotel in Grand Junction at all. We visited both Arches (did many popular trails including the Delicate Arch in two half days because of the weather) and Canyonlands (both Island in the sky and Needles districts - one day each, the drive to Needles is 1.5 hours) and did one tour - the zipline which was fun. There is an option with even shorter drives - fly to Canyonlands airport which is basically Moab and rent a car either there (very few options compared to Grand Junction) or use the shuttle to Moab and rent there.

Hi. Thank you. It is never too late to post. I'm assuming you had a great time! Nice to hear about your trip.

I did finalize our trip which is basically very similar to what I mentioned above with one exception. We will be arriving in Salt Lake City just before 10am. This should give us plenty of time to pick up the SUV car rental, pack our portable cooler with all the right stuff and drive to Capital Reef resort. All lodging is booked.

Looking forward to the whole trip and like you can't wait to let everyone know how it went!

Thanks all, W

Hi. It is getting close and its time to do some final planning.

Any further suggestions of:

Where to stop for groceries between Salt Lake City and Capital Reef resort for food, water and beer?

Where to dine in Capital Reef? Again, we are staying at the Capital Reef Resort?

Where to dine in Monument Valley. We are staying at the View Hotel.

Where to dine in Moab? We will be there for 4 nights.

Where to dine in Salt Lake City. Where are there 1 night before we fly home.

Looking forward to the trip and will update you all.

Thanks, W

Where to dine in Capital Reef? Again, we are staying at the Capital Reef Resort?

Not a lot to choose from.

https://capitolreefcountry.com/dining/

Where to dine in Moab? We will be there for 4 nights.

We like the Moab Brewery. We also liked Sultan Mediterranean Grill.

Thanks. We'll make it work! W

Thanks. I'm sure we will find something that works for restaurants. I was just curious if anybody had specific recommendations. Thank you for yours.

According to Mapquest, the fastest route is via I-15 and UT-24, 3hr 17min222mi. Does that make sense? Is there a more scenic route?

And from Capital Reef Resort to the View Hotel in Monument Valley: via UT-95 and UT-24, 3hr 51min 204mi

And from the View Hotel to Moab (Worldmark Condo's): via US-191, 2hr 57min 157mi

Does that make sense? Thanks, W

You're staying at the Worldmark in Moab? We were just there in October. They have some very nice bbq grills (gas, built-ins) down in the common area. We cooked steaks. As far as restaurants, I've never been all that impressed with the dining options in Moab, but there is a couple decent diners on the south side of town for breakfast (one has bacon pancakes), as well as a Mexican eatery in the same area. The Worldmark has a small restaurant, and we enjoyed a light meal on the terrace there our first night.

Enjoy,.

Sadly, it looks like the Capital Reef Inn Cafe is permanently closed, at least according to Google Maps.
I might give the Torrey Grill/BBQ a go.

https://www.torreygrillandbbq.com/our-menu/

There's also a food truck park in Moab. We had good tacos there once.

https://www.moabfoodpark.com/

Hi. How was the Worldmark in Moab? We are staying there for 4 nights.

Thanks, W

Hi. We are starting to hear weather advisories regarding the smoke from the wild fires. Should we have any concerns in Capital Reef, Monument Valley, Arches, and Canyonlands?

Thanks, W

Are you looking at outdated websites?

The WorldMark is quite nice. It's new, as I'm sure you know. We were only there for 2 nights on a road trip, staying in a studio-style room with a murphy bed. Even so, we enjoyed it. If you are in a larger unit, you will really enjoy. Our balcony looked down on the common area (right near those grills). It's on the north edge of town, very near Arches. We'd go back in a heartbeat.

On our previous visits, we've stayed at Red Cliffs Lodge, which is about 20 minutes drive out of town along the Colorado River. Hugely scenic, and rather secluded. So the WorldMark's location and ambiance is quite a change. Both are nice.

Are you looking at outdated websites?

The smoke here in CO is terrible thanks to the fires currently burning in Canada. I assume it's pretty bad in Utah too.

https://www.axios.com/2023/05/21/can...lity-us-states

Over the next few days they're supposed to get some significant rainfall up north so hopefully that will cause the smoke to subside soon.


Probably best to buy your groceries before you leave the SLC / Provo metro area. There are many options just off I-15.

Also, note that beer at the grocery / convenience store can only have an ABV of 5% or less. If you want anything greater (such as most non-lagers and craft beers) you'll need to find a liquor store.

Thanks for the info regarding the wildfires and the shopping. It makes sense to find a grocery store or something similar to one as close to the airport as possible before the long journey to Capital Reef. That's good to know about the beer. I did read that before but forgot. We'll make due.

Thanks again, W

Just returned and wanted you all to know that we had an amazing time! Beautiful scenery, great food and drink, and especially friendly people.

Everything went as planned and we were very happy with the itinerary. All the places we stayed were wonderful offering great locations, fantastic views from our balconies, and excellent food choices.

Flew into SLC, picked up car rental from Fox. Fox is offsite so need to take shuttle but well worth it based on their prices compared to others. Went to Smith’s grocery market (1 mi away) and picked up all food and beverages. Drive to Capital Reef Resort was long (3hrs 45min’s) but we stopped along the way for take out coffee and enjoyed the scenery,

Capital Reef Park was wonderful. Did several hikes including the Capital Gorge and Grand Wash canyon trails as well as the Hickman bridge trail. Highly recommend all. Ate at the Rim Rock patio and La Cueva,

On day 3 we did another long drive to Monument Valley. (approx. 3 hrs). Similarly, the scenery was well worth it. Stayed at the View hotel. Did a 4-mile hike around several monuments. It was extremely hot that day but again the scenery was well worth it. This was my wife's favorite spot.

Next day we headed to Moab and took the advice to stop at Canyonlands Needle district on the way. Did various hikes and then went to the Moab Worldmark resort in Moab. The total drive was approx. 2.5 hours. The Worldmark as noted by others is new and has a great pool.

Over the next several days we went to Arches NP (my favorite!), Canyonlands – Isle in the Sky District, and Dead Horse Point State Park. In Arches alone we did 10+ miles of hiking. I think we basically saw almost every arch! Dead Horse offers a wonderful 5-mile rim hike which was just right for us since we also wanted to enjoy the pool at the resort. For a special treat we went to the Sorrel River Ranch for dinner one night and had their rainbow trout and chicken. Also had dinners at the Moab brewery, Zax, and Trailhead. Tried a little bit of everything.

Finally, we made the long drive 3 hours 45 mins to the Courtyard Marriott at SLC airport. Nice place; not far from downtown. Decided to return the SUV a day early and uber into town for diner. I had made reservations for the Copper Onion. Another highly recommended place,

As mentioned, it was a wonderful trip. Sad that it goes by so fast but the memories will be there forever. Thank you all once again for all your help.

Thanks for reporting back; glad to hear you had a good time.

I've been wanting to take that rim trail hike at Dead Horse, but we keep missing it - we usually visit Utah in January, and weather can be hit and miss. It's still on my list though...maybe the fourth time will be the charm.

Sounds like a fantastic trip. We love the area too and the drives between sites have such beautiful scenery that we just consider them part of the fun.

Thanks for reporting back and for the kind words about the advice you got here.

Thank you all! Honestly, I have come to depend on your advice and so happy that you provide it.
W

Thanks for the detailed report back. I've also started using Fox as well, despite the sometimes long wait for picking up the vehicle (not sure if that is universal these days).