Arches & Canyonlands National Park

This is our final two national parks on our unbelievable 6-week trip visiting 14 national parks. Summer is wrapping up. School is about to start. And all good things must come to an end. We are so thankful we were able to take this adventure and it will be something we will never forget. To see the itinerary and links to all the posts, click here.

Trip Details:

Where: Arches National Park & Canyonlands National Park, UT

Campsite: Sun Outdoor Arches Getaway RV Park, site 14

Length: 3 days

Itinerary:

Day 1: Relax/pool day

Day 2: Arches National Park

Day 3: Canyonlands National Park

Arches National Park:

Charlotte’s Highlights: Delicate Arch and doing yoga

Paige’s Highlights: Seeing the stars!

Adult’s Highlights: The views of Delicate Arch and star gazing!

Canyonlands National Park:

Charlotte’s Highlights: Hiking to the cliff's edge

Paige’s Highlights: Hearing a cool echo in the canyons

Adult’s Highlights: The view at Grand View point and off roading down the cliff

This is a really cool campground with lots of amenities! The girls loved swimming in the pool all afternoon, then we went to the putting green and played some of their yard games!

The next day we woke up early and got to Arches National Park by 6:45am to get a couple of hikes in before it got too hot!

Currently, Arches requires a timed permit to get into the park. Since I had booked this permit a while back (and grabbed 8am because that seems like a more reasonable time to get to the park), the ranger was kind enough to change our entry time to 6am so we could get in! Just wanted you to know if you're planning on visiting! While driving into the park, we got to see the sunrise over the landscape. It was a great way to start our day!

We first headed to Delicate Arches Trail. This hike is a 3.2 mile hike out and back and goes up to a 600 foot elevation - and the payoff was so worth it! This arch has an opening that is 32 feet wide and 46 feet hight. It's dramatic free-standing arch is all that remains of a thin fin sculpted by thousands of years of weathering.

While at the park, we learned there are over 2,000 openings found in Arches! Since the weather was getting hotter, we squeezed in as many arches as we could. We saw two on the Devil's Garden Trail: Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch. We also saw Skyline Arch, which was practically right off the road.

On our way back toward the visitors center to get the girls their badges, we stopped at Balanced Rock and did some yoga! Haha The boulder on the top is 55 feet high and weights approx. 3,500 tons!!! We learned the type of rock below the boulder erodes faster than the slick rock boulder on top of it and eventually it will collapse.

The afternoon we enjoyed some pool time, naps and dinner. Arches is also an International Night Sky park (seems to be a theme at these Utah parks), and we got the girls up at 1 am and headed to Panorama Point to see the night sky. The park recently put in stargazing benches and a bathroom at this area. We enjoyed the starry views, Milky Way and some shooting starts for a little bit before heading back to bed.

Since these early August days were getting into the upper 90s, we once again woke up early and headed into Canyonlands National Park. We didn't know much about this park, but came to learn that there's 3 different regions of the park: Island in the Sky, The Needles and The Maze. We spent all of our time in Island in the Sky. This park had lots of easy to moderate hikes, and a ton of off road routes!

Our first hike of the day took us on Grand View Point Trail, a 2 mile out and back hike with just 100 feet in elevation. The views along the way and the end of the cliff was gorgeous and we could see for miles. Wish we would have gone back at sunset - I bet it would have been beautiful!

Our second hike, a short one named Upheaval Dome Trail, was a 1 mile round trip to this large crater that scientist believe was created from a meteorite impact! They believe about 200 million years ago, a meteor hurled toward Earth.

Moving on we visited Mesa Arch Trail, which was an easy 0.75 mile trail loop with a vista.

After getting the girls junior ranger badges, we were ready to head back to Moab, the way we came. However, I overheard a park ranger talk about this one off-road drive, Shafer Trail, which is a shorter way to get back to Moab - by milage.... certainly not by time. Haha. What a better way to end this journey then to go off-roading trip in Utah!! Let's go!!

On this trip, we drove right along the Colorado River and found an excellent area for some wicked echoes. The girls were worn out from the star gazing the night before and used the bumpy car ride to catch up on some zzzz's during our long trek back to the camper.

This was a great way to end our epic adventure. These past 6 weeks was packed full of some unbelievable memories, sights, laughter, emotions and mileage. All in all, we drove over 7,800 miles in 11 states, saw gas at an all time high of $7.49, saw 14 national parks, hiked 47 trails that equaled 80 miles hiked - along with 4 miles of kayaking and God knows how many miles we walked around Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood and the San Diego Zoo. We went by SUV, foot, bus, Uber, trolly, tram, boat, kayak, rafting tube, train, shuttle and ferry! Thank you so much for following us on our journey. We left a lot of footprints and took even more memories. Until next time....

~ Mary