Arches National Park: Moab, UT (May 2014)

Although both Pablo and I had already been to Arches National Park, when rain showed up in the forecast for Bryce Canyon we had to change our itinerary. Bryce still awaits for a future visit.  At least we still made it to Escalanate

Moab is beautiful. And apparently quite popular during Memorial Day weekend, we had to wait in a long line of cars to enter the park. After about 20 minutes we paid our $10 entrance fee which covered us for 7 days (the minimum time option).

We stopped at the Visitor Center right away since we wanted to do some canyoneering. Unfortunately the ranger was zero help in this area other than directing us to the forms to fill out for this (free!). There was not much information in the way of maps or locations for good rappelling spots, but we found where we thought Elephant Butte was and decided to head there.

First hike we did was to Double Arch which you could pretty much see from the road. Very short trip, like 1/4 mile. You can actually climb up the rocks and sit right in the arch itself, though it’s a bit steep and I was pretty afraid of it. I’m told I’m just a wimp and it’s really not that bad which is probably true since parents had their small children up there with them. We actually climbed down the other side of the arch (ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING) to try to find Elephant Butte which was a fail. However, this landed us into the Cove of Caves, another cool site.

We turned around after hiking across the cove and decided to move on to Delicate Arch. This is the most famous arch, but was my least favorite. I think this was due to 1) the huge amount of crowds there and 2) the steepness of the hike up. It actually wasn’t all that steep, but it’s uphill pretty much non-stop the whole way which I think is about 1.5 miles. There’s bathrooms at the parking lot, but no water so come prepared! The large crowds also easily filled the parking lot and we had to drive a ways down the road and park on the side. Not a big deal, but just something to be aware of.

After Delicate Arch is where things really got fun! We decided to head to Devil’s Garden which had a lot of hiking options. The trail we picked was the one headed to Double O. We didn’t end up doing the full hike as it was getting late/dark/we were hungry. But we stopped at 5 arches along the way and the whole trip probably took around 3-4 hours.

The first detour option is to Tunnel Arch (very boring) and Pine Tree Arch. It was a quick detour but neither of these arches were particularly pretty. We kept going and the next one we came to was Landscape Arch. Beware that this area around Landscape Arch is completely covered in sand- we saw some abandoned strollers that were waiting to be picked up for the hike back out when the trail had solid ground again.

Hiking up from there to the next arches was definitely my favorite park of the day. There were lots of rocks to scramble over and around which would make it a little difficult with small children. We had tons of fun though and Pablo was quite disappointed to notice there were a few possible rappel areas- but of course we had told him to leave all the ropes and harnesses behind since we had been striking out all day. Oops 🙂

We hit Navajo Arch next by taking the detour. And it was the BEST. Just look at how beautiful it is! Only .3 miles off the main trail.

We walked through the arch and then turned around to take these photos. Then saw this small pathway(?) out the backside and took that to get back to the main trail.

Next up and final arch of the day was Partition Arch. Really great view of the whole area and good one to end on.

We hiked back out and drove towards the picnic area we had seen close to the parking lot for Devil’s Garden. Ended our day with some good old tomato soup and grilled cheese.

Review: Partition Arch and Navajo Arch were my favorites. Moab is just all around beautiful and there were way too many trails for us to hit them all in one day. Definitely picnic there if you can, it was a beautiful location to enjoy some good food after a long day of hiking. There’s one campsite available again right near the picnic area by Devil’s Garden, but it was completely booked when we were there. Maybe next time!

We drove about 1 1/2 hours from Arches on to camp near Goblin State Park. The park was full so we camped in the gravel parking lot camping area closer to the main road. There was just one other RV there and it was free, though camping on rocks is NOT comfortable. Then we headed on to the slot canyons the next day!