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Moab / Arches


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Anyone been to Moab and the surrounding area? I have to be in Park City for 3 days in July and I’m thinking about going out a couple of days early and going over to Moab and the Arches. If you have been, did you rent a Jeep and go off by yourself or did you take the guided tours? I’m not real interested in going out in a group, but I’m also not interested in rolling a Jeep somewhere either. I’ve got plenty of off road experience, but don’t know if there are enough easy loops/site seeing trails to do by ourself and keep our interest for a day or two without getting stupid. I’ve also looked at the UTV rentals but prefer the Jeep option.

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i'm planning a road trip and have it going through moab but was not planning on stopping anywhere in utah.  you can drive straight through utah in 7 hrs, and when you have to make a lot of tracks to minimize vacation days, some things got to get passed up.   i have been to bryce and zion and they are beautiful parks but not needing to go again.  i might do capitol reef on the way back, but not sure yet.

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I spent a week in Moab a few years ago. Arches was my favorite of the national parks. We did mostly hiking, however, so couldn't tell you about the jeep.

But delicate arch, park avenue, and fiery furnace hikes were great. Also, about an hour from there is Little Wild Horse slot canyon and Valley of the Goblins.

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Absolutely one of the coolest places in the U.S. Take a guided hiking tour of the fiery furnace if you can. You must go with either a Park Ranger or a tour company. Canyonlands is also a great park. There's also a nice brewpub restaurant in the center of town. It's also a very pretty little town if you have the time to walk around.

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33 minutes ago, msbesq said:

Absolutely one of the coolest places in the U.S. Take a guided hiking tour of the fiery furnace if you can. You must go with either a Park Ranger or a tour company. Canyonlands is also a great park. There's also a nice brewpub restaurant in the center of town. It's also a very pretty little town if you have the time to walk around.

When we went, we got a tour of the Fiery Furnace with a volunteer who organized hikes with the local Sierra Club (who refused payment but we insisted on at least taking him out to dinner).  I believe we also saw some hikes there that were being run by local Meetup groups.  There aren't any trail markers in the Fiery Furnace, though, so you definitely need a guide. If you use a park ranger the tours need to be booked well in advance, but I definitely second the recommendation for the fiery furnace.

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Went a couple years ago, awesome place and I'd love to go back.

I know at some point NPS suspended outside companies from doing Fiery Furnace tours, not sure if that's still the case.  We didn't get to do it, and since we had our boys we just stuck to the main short hiking trails.

Stayed at Moab Under Canvas, which was pretty awesome.  Got the model with the separate tipi for the boys:
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We could just make out the Windows from the porch:
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The town is cool. Had one of the best breakfasts of my life at Jailhouse Cafe.  Southwestern Eggs Benedict with chorizo:
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Too bad Kevin and Photobucket fucked up the epic summer road trip thread Scooter started.

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4 hours ago, msbesq said:

Absolutely one of the coolest places in the U.S. Take a guided hiking tour of the fiery furnace if you can. You must go with either a Park Ranger or a tour company. Canyonlands is also a great park. There's also a nice brewpub restaurant in the center of town. It's also a very pretty little town if you have the time to walk around.

Yup.

Wife and I swung through there on a lark during our honeymoon.  Spent the night in Moab, and went hiking at Arches the next day.  The Moab Brewery was quite good, especially given Utah's buttfucked alcohol laws.  Moab Diner had a great breakfast the morning before our hike.

At Arches, you pretty much have to do the hike to Delicate Arch.  You can't see it from any point along the hike until you suddenly come around a bend and BAM, it's right there.  Breath taking.  Devil's Garden to Double O arch was a spectacular hike as well.

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Yes, Moab Brewery was good.  Zax and Eddie McStiff's were also good if not earth-shatteringly so.

They can only serve 3.2% drafts in Utah, even at the brewery, so you're generally better off with bottles or cans.  Recockulous.

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We went skiing at Deer Valley Spring Break before last for 4 days and then drove to Capitol Reef.  From there we went to Arches, Canyonlands, Dead Whores Point State Park, Monument Valley, etc.  We stayed at a VRBO in Moab.  It was a 3 bedroom with a sauna and a hot tub for $200/night.  

Amazing part of the USA!

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We went over spring break and camped at dead horse point state park right near the entrance to canyon lands.  It is stunning and lots of stuff filmed there (Thelma and Louise, hbo’s Westworld, ...)

arches is pretty small with one entrance get there by 8-8:30 or after 3 or plan on a long wait in your car.  Agree on Moab brewery.  Cool place.

probably wouldn’t work for op, but ~3 hours south of there is Monument Valley.  We went horseback riding on my daughter’s 8th b-day with some Navajos and it was one of the coolest experiences of my life.

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  • 1 month later...
6 minutes ago, blacklab said:

if you had 2 days between your planned day at the grand canyon and hotel reservation in las vegas what would you do in southern utah with a couple of kids and a couple of old people?

Go up to Zion and hike angels landing. Eat at Oscars cafe. On your way back to Vegas check out a couple of the ghost towns around st George then buy a shit ton of illegal fireworks at the moapa tribal store between mesquite and Vegas. 

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On 4/5/2018 at 4:43 PM, Al_4_ISU said:

 The Moab Brewery was quite good, especially given Utah's buttfucked alcohol laws. 

 

On 4/5/2018 at 4:55 PM, Damor said:

They can only serve 3.2% drafts in Utah, even at the brewery, so you're generally better off with bottles or cans.  Recockulous.

I go to Salt Lake City every June for work. In fact, I'm headed there next week. There are some fantastic breweries and brew pubs there despite the insanity of their alcohol laws. I will never understand it.

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On 4/6/2018 at 6:57 PM, AnonymousInternetPoster said:

We went skiing at Deer Valley Spring Break before last for 4 days and then drove to Capitol Reef.  From there we went to Arches, Canyonlands, Dead Whores Point State Park, Monument Valley, etc.  We stayed at a VRBO in Moab.  It was a 3 bedroom with a sauna and a hot tub for $200/night.  

Amazing part of the USA!

Did you do the guided tour with Craig James?

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On 5/27/2018 at 7:17 PM, blacklab said:

if you had 2 days between your planned day at the grand canyon and hotel reservation in las vegas what would you do in southern utah with a couple of kids and a couple of old people?

With a couple of old people and some kids, Zion is not the location unless you just want to ride the bus up the canyon and back.  DO NOT attempt Angels Landing with some olds and young kids.  Repeat....DO NOT.  The olds will die on the way up and the kids will probably go over the ledge - unless of course, that;s the plan.

Go to Bryce Canyon.....you can walk the rim without much difficulty, the drive out to Rainbow Point is really nice.

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I did Moab a couple of years ago and it was incredible. Found out that it is the Mecca for Four Wheelers. I got to meet a father and son who's goal was to drive their Jeep on Hell's revenge. They were pumped after getting through the Hot Tub. I did the Zip line tour which was lots of fun and two hike to Delicate Arch. First was for a Sunset photo and the second was at 4 AM to get a photo of the Milky Way. Both shots were amazing. I also did Zion; Do Not hike this trail with small kids or old folks. I also recommend hiking the Narrows as it is rated as a Top 10 in the world hike. The local Brews are very good as well but the food was O.K..

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I remember several extremely specific things from visiting Moab.

1. There was a teepee at the hostel I stayed at.

2. We played some kind of tag game in the middle of the main highway drunk at night. Basically trying to run into each other on our bikes.

3. Riding Slickrock trail. You had perfect, unlimited grip going up hills but they were incredibly steep. You put it in the lowest gear, which I had never used, and were able to stay upright even at 5 mph. Just crazy steep.

4. Towards the end of Slickrock, one of our crew didn't bring enough water and tried to die. It was pretty funny really.

Arches was amazing. Time well spent overall.

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  • 1 month later...

Holy shit it’s hot. Moab in July was not well thought out. The sun goes down in an hour or so and it’s still over 100. Oh well, got a Jeep lined up tomorrow so we’ll see what we can find and post pictures. That is assuming we don’t melt first.

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3 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

Yeah, there is a reason people usually go there in the spring or fall.

Advantage me, there was virtually no one on the trails today, no wait at the restaraunts, etc. AC in the Jeep blew cold so it worked out fine. It was actually nice up until lunch so we hiked several of the Arches trails first thing this morning and then rode trails all afternoon.

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Yep, got there Monday and left for Park City Wednesday. We went through Arches and Canyonlands both although we spent more time in Arches. We’re already looking at planning another trip back. For those looking for Jeep rentals, Cliffhanger was easy to work with and let us drop the Jeep off well after closing. 

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