Due to the vicinity of these national parks, I bundled them into one post. Both parks are about a 30min drive from eachother, so it makes sense to visit both if you are in the area. After our first “Pacific Northwest Leg”, Terence and I knew we wanted to spend the Fall and early winter days in the Southeast. The first stop of Red River Gorge in Kentucky. On our way to Kentucky, we stopped at Arches and Canyonlands National Parks prior to our drive towards the Red. They were quick half day visits to each before we headed back onto the road.
Arches National Park
Arches National Park is home to over 2,000 natural stone arches. We arrived at the park a little after 12pm. Before you venture off to visit any arches, I’d highly recommend watching the orientation video at the visitor center to give you a little history of the park and how the arches were formed.
Since we only had a half day, we decided to first visit the Delicate Arch, the most famous one in the park. It is the largest free-standing arch in the park standing at 46 feet high and 32 feet wide. You cannot see the arch from the main park road. To view it, you can either see it from the “Delicate Arch Viewpoints” (Lower: 91m or Upper: 0.8km w/ stairs) or take the Delicate Arch trail (3 miles / 4.8 Km). NOTE, this is a popular trail and a popular tourist attraction. If you plan on taking a picture of the arch with an unobstructed view you are better off coming here early in the morning or right before sunset.
After our quick roundtrip hike to Delicate Arch, since we still had a little more time before sunset, we decided to do a quick walk to Landscape Arch.
Canyonlands National Park
Canyonlands is divided into three sections: Island in the Sky, The Needles, and The Maze. It takes hours to go from one section to the other as they have separate entrances so plan your visit accordingly. We only had time to visit Island in the Sky since the entrance was closest to our overnight camping area.
We didn’t wake up for the sunrise, but I hear the sunrises are beautiful at Mesa Arch.
Afterward, we went to Grand View Point Overlook.
Shortly after, we got a quick snack in Moab and went back on the road!
Climbing
There is some rock climbing available in the national park and in Moab. Be sure to read all of the regulations required prior to climbing, including registration of a free permit. We didn’t climb here as we only spent one-day exploring the national park. We didn’t spend much time here, however we definitely will someday!
Camping
We stayed on Bureau Land Management (BLM) land off of Willow Springs Road (BLM 378 – Coordinates: 38.696762, -109.698364). It is located on a dirt road right off of US-191, but we saw plenty of large RVs parked here overnight. It can get noisy and busy over the weekend, but overall it was not bad for free dispersed camping. Reasonable access to Moab, Arches and Canyonlands.
Water Fill: N/A We did not fill water in the area.
Showers: N/A We did not shower in the area.
