Moab, Utah, Canyonlands, and Arches National Parks
- Aly & JT
- Jul 19
- 5 min read
Spontaneity can be a funny thing. Once again, as the temps are rising here in the Texas Hill Country, we sought a little reprieve. As often happens with our adventures, the details change frequently. Sometimes, even while on our trips, we change directions to try something else. There were a lot of “audibles” on this year’s Summer road trip.
Our initial plan was to visit a destination with cooler temps. Since driving north to Canada or Alaska didn’t fit into our time off schedule, we narrowed our search to a drive within 8-10 hours from home. Not a ton of options since it can take that long just to get out of Texas! So we chose the town of Cloudcroft, NM. We’d leave Saturday morning, drive to our camp spot, spend a couple nights in the mountains, and do some hiking in Lincoln National Forest. Simple. Short. Done.
Not so fast!
Two days before departing, we thought, “Why not leave a little earlier and see more places?” Like Arches National Park. It’s only a little further. Canyonlands National Park is right there, too. Why not? So we decided to skip packing our own gear and find a spot with tents already set up. Like Under Canvas - Moab. Glamping, actually, but only a few minutes from Arches and Canyonlands.
Booked. Done.
What we didn’t do was check the weather to see the triple-digit heat we would be heading to and staying in, in our fancy clamping tent with NO A/C. Oops. But no big deal. We live in Texas. We can handle it.
Arriving to the site, Under Canvas - Moab was pretty cool. There were several tent sizes to choose from. They offered nice amenities like complimentary s’mores in the evening, a coffee stand in the mornings, and activities such as yoga, corn hole, board games, and hammocks to be lazy in. We opted for a two-tent set up so the youngster could have his own tent and the adults theirs. This trip was to be his first camping trip after all.
The safari-style tents were spacious. Ours had a camp shower, sink, and flushing toilet. The king-sized bed was comfortable and each nightstand had a USB charger pack, a rechargeable fan, and lantern. Had we been there in the winter, the wood-burning stove inside would have been awesome! Unfortunately, we were there in the middle of July. Let's just say we wore the little rechargeable fans OUT every night instead!
Our first night in let us get settled, made some sandwiches for dinner, took advantage of the free s’mores, and watched the sun fall and the stars light up. Talk about big sky! There wasn’t a cloud to be found and the moon took extra long to come up from behind the mountains. Nothing but stars. Even a couple shooting stars for the icing on top.
Being an hour behind meant we could wake up at our normal time and be a bit ahead, which worked out nice staying up to look at the stars.
To avoid the last of the weekend crowds it was decided Canyonlands National Park would be the first. Really an unknown park for us, it turns out that it’s actually the biggest National Park in Utah. Over 337,000 acres! Who knew? As the name suggests, the park is primarily focused on the massive canyons formed by the Green and Colorado Rivers over the ages. Separated into four districts, we spent our day in Island in the Sky. With a few more days, we could have also hit The Needles, The Maze, and Horseshoe Canyon. What we did see was quite unexpected and brilliant. Most of our hikes were short, like seeing Mesa Arch, but even driving from trail to trail gave us a diverse landscape of rock formations, canyons, and mesas. After lunch in one of the many pavilion spots, we got a little ambitious and tried to make our way down into the canyon to Green River. Although not exactly 4-wheel driving, our Atlas wasn’t particularly thrilled. The last mile or so down into the canyon was a bit too nerve-racking, causing us to settle for a bird's-eye view from the edge before making our way back to camp. We did venture into Moab for a burger to fill the bellies, but it wasn’t that great or worth detailing. What we really wanted was a cool place to sit for a meal, but it wasn’t much cooler inside the tiny drive-up than outside in our tent, which didn’t help. After a long day of exploring and fighting to find short breaks from the scorching sun, it was off to bed early for Arches National Park at dawn.
A good night’s sleep would have been really helpful, but it was just plain hot. Even with the 30-degree temperature drop after the sun had set, our tent material absorbed the heat of the day and took most of the night to be released. The shower water was almost unbearable. Sadly too, the cool breeze from the day before had slowed to practically dead calm. It was just sweltering.
Undeterred, we were up before the sun to get to Arches early. The beauty of the predawn sky definitely helped us shake off the sleepies! The clear skies changing from midnight to reds and yellows before clear blue was quite a sight. Arriving at the park super early, if you want to avoid the backup at the gate and make the hike to Delicate Arch before the crowds, is a must. Even arriving before 6 am we were behind a fair number of people already there to see the famous formation. The arch is a sight to see. We sat and snacked on a light breakfast, watched the sun continue to come up, and got our pictures in front of the arch. By the time we made it back to the car it was barely 8 am, so we continued on to see more dramatic rocks. We hiked back to Skyline Arch, saw Fiery Furnace (you have to have a permit to hike it), and Devil’s Garden. All before 10 am. There was a ton more to see, of course, but the heat was rising and already in the 90s. Once we arrived back to the Visitor’s Center for required souvenirs, our brains got to thinking, “Aren’t we supposed to be getting away from the heat?” Which led to the next audible.
We’d seen a lot (not all of course), it was not even 11 am, and getting hotter. Did we really want to spend another sweaty, sleepless night melting in our tent? And what would we even do until then? So we sacrificed our last prepaid night in the fancy safari tents, packed up everything, and headed East to the cooler temps and higher altitude of the Rocky Mountains. In Telluride, Colorado. It was only three hours away. Why not?! Sometimes you gotta go where the cool breeze takes you. If there isn’t one, go find one.
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