Moab, Utah - Make the most of your time!

Hello fellow wanderers!!

If you haven't been to Moab, Utah, you should really add it to your list! Moab has two of the "Mighty 5" National Parks and a State Park, not to mention, everything else around this area. 

We stayed for two weeks in our RV at the KOA Moab and absolutely loved our stay and two weeks was just not enough time to do everything on our list. So, we had to prioritize our bucket list of items for our time in Moab, knowing... we would be back soon!

Placed in and around Moab that are a must to add to your list:

- Arches National Park

- Canyonlands National Park

- Dead Horse Point State Park

- La Sal Mountains

- Castle City

- The Colorado River & Green River

Things that we did:

- Hiked

- Rappelled

- Rafted

- Shopped & Ate 

- Explored Downtown Moab

Arches National Park: 

We spent two days in the park. The first day we spent checking out the visitor center and driving the entire park, we hiked to the Delicate Arch Viewpoint and several other arches and ended our day hiking in Devil's Garden. The Second day we hiked Fiery Furnace. This hike requires a permit via Recreation.gov and we somehow lucked out and got a permit during our stay. This hike was amazing. Check out our video of the full hike and of our other day in Arches. 

We tried twice to get into Arches, but the park was at capacity, so we had to wait. This was September 2021, and they implemented a new timed entry system for the park in 2022 and moving forward. 

We will be back to Arches! Two days was not enough! AND... September was still in the 90s! It was HOT. 

TIP for ARCHES: Plan ahead! Make necessary reservations and get necessary permits for hiking.

Canyonlands National Park:

We LOVE Canyonlands! Easily one of our top five favorite National Parks! Canyonlands is broken up into three districts. Island in the Sky, Needles and The Maze.

We spent one day exploring the Island in the Sky District. Hiked to Mesa Arch and checked out Shafer Trail. We attempted Shafer Trail with our F350 but decided to turn around as the weight of our truck on the edge of the road was a little nerve racking. We will be back in our Jeep to tackle this trail! 

Island in the Sky is a close drive just outside of Moab and adjacent to Dead Horse Point State Park. Island in the Sky you are standing on the rim of the canyon looking down.

We spent our second day in Canyonlands Needle District. The Needles Dist. is a two-hour drive from Moab but absolutely worth it! We explored the visitor center and then took off out to our hike for the day. We spent all day hiking the Chesler Park Look and the Joint Trails. Not an easy hike and it was easily in the 90s and hot but the views are epic. The Joint was awesome! This is one our top hikes ever and we highly recommend. Check out our full video of the hike. Video includes directions, all the info needed for a successful hike with tips. 

The Needles Dist. puts you down in the canyon looking up at the needles, hiking through them and through slot canyons. This area of Canyonlands is very remote and easy to get lost in. Be prepared. But it is absolutely worth it!

 

Dead Horse Point State Park:

Dead Horse Point State Park entry is on the way to Canyonlands Island in the Sky Dist. and also looks down on the canyons. The park gets its name from an old story about horses being left out at the point to die. We hiked the rim and drove around and explored the park. The views of the river are amazing. Thelma and Louise also drove off the cliff just below this park, if you have a 4WD, you could make it out there to see the area. This park was about a half day adventure for us. Not much to do here in the way of hiking for us. 

If you have time, take a day and drive up the La Sal Loop Road. The La Sal Mountains are beautiful and a nice break from the heat down in Moab. We drove up and explored Oowah Lake and ended up at Castle City. The drive is scenic and peaceful. 

Oowah Lake above

Castle City Monument above

Are you up for adventure? We booked two guided tours through Moab Adventure Center. Highly recommend them! The guides were awesome, and the tours were amazing!

First tour was a guided hike and rappel at Grandstaff Canyon and Arch. We were on this tour with a group of gals from SLC. They were a fun group and made the hike and rappelling super fun! Our guides were fun as well and did a great job keeping us safe during both rappels. Grandstaff Canyon and Arch are beautiful.

Second tour with MAC we rafted the Colorado River just below Arches National Park. This rafting tour stopped at Red Cliffs for lunch and lasted about 3 hours total. The scenery cannot be beat and the fun we had through the rapids was an adventure! We even stopped to jump in and cool off. Our guide was great, and we had a very fun group of content creators on the raft with us. 

Moab also has inner city trails and walking/bike paths that meander from the park on the Colorado River near Arches all the way to the South side of town. Moab is beautiful and charming with Art in Public Places throughout the town including tons of murals on buildings. Be sure to walk around and explore, shop and dine! You will not be disappointed. 

Our favorite spots to eat:

Sunset Grill hands down for dinner! Eat out on the patio overlooking Moab and the Colorado River and experience one the best sunsets you will ever see. Did you know that this desert oasis is colored in green? Moab is lush with green and that red rock backdrop just makes this desert town absolutely stunning to visit!

Love acai bowls as much as we do? Glorias Cafe is the best acai bowl we have come across nationwide... yes... we said nationwide! Look at this thing!!! $15 and could easily feed two people! Pretty sure there is an entire jar of peanut butter on this bowl, and it was amazing!

Like BBQ? Blu Pig not only had great food, but service was also great, and the live music was fantastic! Make sure you stop by here when you hungry!

We definitely plan to visit Moab again in the near future. Only this time, we want to stay for a month. There is so much to do and see in this area and here is something for everyone. The KOA was about 10 minutes from town and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there. You can see our RV Park tour on video, visit our channel on YouTube: Wandered Off

For additional information, please check out our videos of Moab and the surrounding areas on our YouTube Channel: Wandered Off. If you have any questions, shoot us an email and we would be happy to help. 

The number one tip I could give to anyone visiting this area is to plan accordingly. Determine the amount of time that you have and what your priorities are (must see and do) so that you can maximize your time. Check with the parks to see if reservations or permits are needed. Understand that most places are within a 30-minute drive from Moab. 

Thanks so much for wandering around Moab with us! We hope you enjoy this area as much as we did.

The Adventure Begins!!

Wandered Off

Chris & Brandi