How to Have 2 Epic Days in Moab, UT (Arches and Canyonlands)

The eastern Utah city of Moab is home to the vast red rock formations of Arches National Park and mesa and buttes of Canyonlands National Park. After visiting Grand Teton National Park, I drove from Wyoming to Utah to spend a few days in Moab, UT during my 55 Day Road Trip Across America in July 2020.

How to Have 2 Epic Days in Moab, UT (Arches and Canyonlands)

While on our road trip, we drove from Wyoming to Moab the day before, which was about an 8 hour drive. We stayed in Moab for 3 nights but spent a day to rest up so that we could load up the next two days with National Park sightseeing and hikes. After our day of relaxing at the pool, doing laundry, and sleeping in, we were ready for Arches National Park!

Day 1: Arches National Park

Arches National Park is known for its natural sandstone arches and its scenic drive takes you along its many landmarks and trails. Many of the arches within this park are an easy viewpoint walk to get closer views and other trails Arches offer aren’t too bad of a hike.

With a full day available to us for Arches, we drove through the park and hit as many stops as we could, starting at Delicate Arch.

Delicate Arch

We started the day off early (to avoid the hot weather and sun) with the hike to Delicate Arch, the picturesque formation that is a popular image for this national park. The Delicate Arch trail is a 3 mile there and back hike that ends with the 52-foot towering arch.

There is a steep incline around the middle of the hike that is strenuous, but other than that, most of the trail is generally pretty easy to hike.

The total hike took us probably about an hour and a half to do. This is definitely a must-do when visiting Arches.

Landscape Arch

This arch is actually the planet’s largest arch! As you drive to the end of the park’s Entrance Road, Landscape Arch is an almost 2 mile trail on the beginning of Devil’s Garden hike and features this thin arch and beautiful scenery.

Due to time, we didn’t do the full Devil’s Garden trail and walked back after seeing Landscape Arch. Devil’s Garden loop trail is located at the end of the park road and is an almost 8 mile trail. While on this hike, you can view 7 arches which includes Double O Arch, Pine Tree Arch, Tunnel Arch, Navajo Arch, and Partition Arch, and Dark Angel.

It is a nice, easy hike and is the next must-do attraction at Arches after Delicate Arch. We even saw a few deer on the way back!

Balanced Rock

As you begin to slowly head out of the park and drive back toward the Visitor Center, you’ll pass Balanced Rock on your way back as a stop before or after seeing The Windows.

At Balanced Rock, you can choose to do a short loop around this landmark that takes you up closer to the rock and around. The landmark is exactly what it implies and the upper portion of the rock is as large as three school buses!

Double Arch

This trail is super quick to get to with it being less than a mile but is such a cool site!

Right across the parking lot for Windows Arch, Double Arch is exactly what the name is. There’s a stunning view of the mountains between these rocks that you can see if you choose to hike up closer to the middle of the arch.

Windows Loop

We arrived to Windows Loop and Turret Arch Trail around when the sun was starting to set for a cooler temperature hike. This is an easy 1.2 mile loop to see North Window Arch, South Window Arch, and Turret Arch.

We walked the loop clockwise, stopping at North Window Arch first. This loop takes you to the arch in close vicinity and up to the center of them.

As we continue on our loop, the next stop was South Window Arch. It looks like a slightly smaller version of North Window.

After South Window, you can turn around and see Turret Arch, which is the smallest of the three.

Courthouse Towers

The last stop at Arches is Courthouse Towers. While we continue on our way out on the Entrance Road, we took in the sunset at Courthouse Towers Viewpoint.

This viewpoint overlooks formations of Tower of Babel, The Organ, The Three Gossip, and Sheep Rock. IT was a beautiful place to watch the sunset colors behind these massive rock formations.

Stargazing

Although it’s not one of the top 10 darkest places in the U.S., stargazing at Arches National Park is one thing you can’t miss. Seeing the stars illuminated through the arches is super unique.

With great stargazing conditions from the forecast, we were back in the park around 11 PM midnight to view the night sky. We parked at Windows Loop where we were able to see the many stars surrounding the arches!

Unfortunately, with only iPhones as cameras, they weren’t the best for taking pictures of the stars (but you get the idea).

After this, we headed back home for a good night’s sleep before waking up early the next morning for Canyonlands National Park!

Day 2: Canyonlands National Park

Also near Moab lives Canyonlands National Park, Utah’s largest national park. Canyonlands offers explorers, hikers, and off-roaders multiple areas to adventure within this dramatic desert landscape.

Take into account that visit was pretty limited, because we didn’t have the best car set for off-roading in backcountry areas like The Needles and The Maze. We only visited the most accessible part, Island in the Sky. However, these less accessible areas provide more strenuous hikes and amazing views from within the canyon.

Since we were mostly driving through Canyonlands rather than hiking, we didn’t need to spend a full day here. We entered into Island in the Sky from its Visitor Center to start our scenic drive.

Buck Canyon Overlook

Buck Canyon Overlook is only 0.1 miles which makes it easy to walk there and back to get these fantastic canyon views. We stopped here twice, once on the way in and once on the way out. It’s a great place to watch the sunrise or sunset!

Candlestick Tower Overlook

This butte at Candlestick Tower Overlook is 450 feet tall made of sandstone surrounded by open plains. With the plains around this landmark, it shows you just how vast Canyonlands park is. You can see Candlestick Tower on the far right of the photo below.

Grand View Point Overlook

At Grand View Point, it is the southern-most spot where you can see how the Colorado River and Green River carved thousands of feet into the earth. It offers tremendous views all around you and enhances the scale of the canyon.

Mesa Arch

This hike is a short and easy 0.7 mile loop trail but the views through the arch at the end is unexpected. With insane scenic views, you can see the vast canyon through the arch and understand just how massive it is.

After two jam-packed days of red rock formations, we were tired and ready to continue on to our next stop. The next day, we were headed off to Las Vegas, NV for our next stop on our road trip!

Visiting Moab or recently been there? Feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear about your travels!