Travel Review: Arches & Canyonlands National Parks

Utah's Natural Wonders Provide a Remote Spectacle

While my family and I have had to cancel or postpone numerous trips and events this summer for the sake of safety surrounding COVID-19, we managed to still attend our end of summer trip to Utah as planned, taking some additional precautions to ensure our trip was safe and well worthwhile. In the 5 days we spent traversing the Utah wilderness, we packed in a lot of hiking, scenic drives, and photo ops. But instead of breaking down this post chronologically like I normally do, I've decided to highlight different places on my trip to provide you with the best image of all the wonderful landscapes and scenery I got to experience this past week.

The Town of Moab

I first want to begin this blog by giving a shoutout to the lovely town of Moab, where we stayed throughout our time in Utah. With a population of just over 5,000 people, it's primary means of economic success is reliant on tourists visiting nearby Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.

When we arrived, we were greeted with a massive construction project that made driving on Main Street somewhat challenging. Nonetheless, the town was quaint and consisted of lots of hotels and restaurants to suit the needs of all types of travelers, along with excursion offices for adventurous activities like ATVing, rafting, and skydiving.

And while we had delicious meals at both a local Thai and Pizza restaurant during our stay, the greatest dining experience occurred on our first evening in town. After a 4+ hour drive from Salt Lake City airport, we were starving and discovered a place called Sunset Grill, located on a hillside above the town. While it was cloudy that evening and we, therefore, didn't experience a true sunset, their outdoor patio area boasted an array of string lights and a gorgeous view of the rock formations surrounding the town of Moab. Upon getting seated, we were greeted by a friendly waiter named Edgar who originally hailed from Mexico City and somehow landed himself in the middle of the Utah desert. And while the food was outstanding, the best part of the meal was the Chocolate Souffle dessert, which I only had the privilege of eating once before when I took a cruise to Mexico with my family when I was just 10. And while the bill was pricey, to say the least, the leftovers from the large portioned meals fed us through the next evening, so there was little to complain about.

Canyonlands National Park

For the third day of our trip, we ventured out to Canyonlands Island in the Sky district, not entirely sure what to expect. Needless to say, our expectations were greatly exceeded. The term "Island in the Sky" refers to the tall rock formation on which much of the park's roads and viewpoints sits atop. Visitors are therefore treated to a plethora of overlooks to the vast canyons surrounding the Island. We chose to trek out to the Grand View overlook at the far end of the park's main road and were greeted with an amazing panoramic view of the valley below us, starkly similar to how one would view the Grand Canyon. We were also surprised to learn that a 100-mile dirt road winds down the mountain and into the canyon for folks with 4WD to explore the park. While our rental did include AWD capabilities, we chose to save that trip for another time. The last thing I would note about Canyonlands as a whole is that it is very primitive. The park has only one water station at the visitor center and no flush toilets. But if you're looking for a remote getaway with fewer crowds, this is definitely the national park to experience that in.

Above: Me posing just shy of a vertical cliff overlooking a canyon at the Island in the Sky district at Canyonlands National Park

Arches National Park

While Moab and Canyonlands were both awesome places in their own respective ways, the highlight of my trip was by far Arches National Park. One of the first hikes I did was a 3-mile roundtrip hike up a fairly steep rock face to see Delicate Arch, arguable the most famous arch in the park and in the country, found on many PC home screen pictures and Utah license plates. Fortunately, the day we hiked to the arch was the coolest of the 3 days during our stay, which otherwise would've made the mostly unshaded hike miserable.

Above: Catching my breath after hiking to the world-famous delicate arch in Arches National Park

But in addition to the delicate arch, there were plenty of other arches to explore, including Landscape Arch, a wide-stretching art over a hillside, and Double-O arch which required a strenuous hike on a primitive trail over large rock formations.

The park is not only great to visit during the day, but also once the sun has set. Arches is one of the few parks in the country that holds the prestigious title of being an international dark sky park, meaning it's great for stargazing. Unfortunately, our timing sucked as we were there during a near full-moon phase. Nonetheless, we managed to drive into the park the day before we returned home and enjoyed seeing well-known constellations and a glimpse of the milky-way just after sunset before the moon rose and illuminated the parks mega-sized rock monuments.

Overall, highly recommend visiting these two national parks and staying at one of the many accommodation options in Moab to fully experience what Eastern Utah has to offer. The only caveat I will provide is that Utah is very lax on COVID protocols and mask enforcement (which I may decide to discuss in a separate blog), so if you're a bit uncomfortable being around others without masks, I might recommend waiting until the pandemic has settled. Otherwise, hit up Arches and Canyonlands to stand in awe at some of God's best work!