Moab, Arches, and Canyonlands

Next up on our Southwest road trip was two more national parks. Utah is famous for its "big five" national parks. We've been to Zion and Bryce, but this trip would be our first visit to Arches and Canyonlands. The city of Moab was our base, as it's very close to both parks. Moab is a bit strange. It's a well established tourist town with a great location in a valley near the Colorado River. There are shops and restaurants along main street, and a variety of hotels. The problem is the city is entirely set up for cars, and main street also happens to be a 4-lane highway - so semi trucks and loud 4-wheel drive vehicles are a constant. It's thus not particularly pleasant to walk around. If the city could find a way to put in a bypass, main street could be greatly improved by adding more sidewalk space and trees. 

We also happened to be visiting during a heatwave. For mid-September we expected temperature in the 80s. Instead, temps were in the upper 90s and even over 100 on one day. This greatly shaped our time in the area, as it was too hot during the day to comfortably hike. Instead, we planned a series of sunrise and sunset hikes, with siestas during the days.

Shortly after checking in to our Moab AirBnB, a older man opened the front door. We were surprised, but thought it might be the owner. Turns out it was a retired couple trying to find their AirBnB, as there were three or four units in the complex. They left, but we saw them wandering around and about an hour later David had to help them get in to their unit. Bless their hearts!

By now it was late afternoon, so we drove a few miles down the road to Arches National Park. We decided to spend sunset at the "windows" section, which has several major arches close together. After parking we did a very short hike to double arch, a spectacular formation where you can climb right under two giant perpendicular arches. Then we walked over to turret arch, and finally settled in to a spot in the "north window" to wait for sunset. The views were beautiful as the weather started to cool and the sunset cast a soft pink glow on the rocks. Right after sunset we drove out of the park and had dinner at Singha Thai before going back to the AirBnB.

Our first stop was the impressive double arch.

Can you spot Thomas?

Paul at double arch.

A view of one of the window arches through turret arch.

Sunsets in the desert are the best!

Quit goofing around, Paul, you're missing the sunset!

Gotta stay hydrated!

Sunset at the windows.

Sunset at Arches is spectacular.

The next day we woke up super early to make the one hour drive to mesa arch in Canyonlands National Park in time for sunrise. Driving around winding roads in the pitch black wasn't the best, but the first light of dawn arrived around the time we parked. We had read this was the best sunrise spot in the region, and others had the same idea - a few dozen other people were also waiting for sunrise. We had great views as light slowly lit up the valley beyond the arch, and then a beautiful sunrise above the horizon but below the arch.

We drove further down the road in the "Island in the Sky" district of the park, stopping at the Green River overlook and Grand View Point overlook. We backtracked and stopped at the visitor's center (mostly closed due to COVID) and entrance sign on the way out. The districts of Canyonlands are very far apart with separate entrances, and unfortunately on this trip we only had time to visit this one area.

A small crowd waiting for sunrise.

Almost there...

Sunrise beneath mesa arch.

Even with the haze you could see for miles.

The landscape of Canyonlands.

Canyons in the early morning haze as the temperature started to rise.

Paul likes climbing to the edge of things...

White Rim road is a 100 mile long rough dirt road that goes down into the canyons. 

Since it was pitch black on our way in, we stopped at the sign on the way out.

After leaving Canyonlands, we visited nearby Dead Horse Point State Park. On the other side of the canyon from the national park, this state park is worth a quick visit for some different views, including of the giant potash ponds. It's also the filming site of quite a few movies and TV shows, including West World, Mission Impossible, and the famous ending scene of Thelma and Louise. Just beware the $20 entrance fee!

The view in the state park. 

Lots of neat canyon views throughout the park.

We headed back in to town and had lunch at the Moab Diner before taking a siesta at our AirBnB to avoid the heat. Speaking of our AirBnB - what do you know about swamp coolers? They're pretty commonly used to cool houses in the southwest where it's dry and just humidifying air causes evaporation that cools down a space (this would never work in Georgia). Anyhow, when it's super hot and you have an old swamp cooler it really doesn't work that well... and unfortunately that was the setup at our AirBnB. Avoid swamp coolers if you can.

After our little siesta, we wandered around downtown Moab a bit before returning to Arches National Park when it cooled off for another hike. In this trip we visited landscape, tunnel and pine tree arch near the backend of the park. Landscape arch is an iconic arch, and a must visit. Afterwards, we went back into Moab for dinner at a Mediterranean place called Sultan, which we'd highly recommend. Finally, to wrap up the day we returned to Arches after nightfall for some stargazing at Panorama Point.

There are over 2000 arches in the national park.

Tunnel arch.

Landscape arch. You can see on the right side where some of it collapsed a few decades ago.

Beautiful sunset on the hike out from landscape arch.

Kabob-o'clock!

We don't have real cameras but if a cell phone can pick it up, you know it was great star gazing!

David looking at the stars and Milky Way.

On our final full day in the area, we started with an early morning hike to delicate arch, perhaps the most famous arch on earth. It's a couple miles to the arch, along a mostly easy/moderate path (with a few harder uphill sections). This path is pretty busy with lots of people making the trek. Delicate arch alone is worth the visit to this national park, and easily one of the most iconic sites in the US.

On the way out of the park, it was already getting pretty hot so we just made a quick stop to look at Park Avenue (a section of canyon that reminded people of the eponymous street in New York - Paul kept accidentally calling it Wall Street). We also quickly stopped by the new visitor center, but it was 90% closed and only served as a source of information and a gift shop. Usually national parks have really cool visitor centers for science nerds, so their closure due to the pandemic has been a disappointing component of this trip.

No, those aren't ants! That's the line of people climbing towards delicate arch.

Now for the narrow portion of the trail. Single file folks!

David not being in single file...

Paul taking it all in... with his hat.

First view of delicate arch, through another arch Paul climbed up to.

The area around delicate arch is really cool as well.

Here we are under the arch, but you'll have to take our word for it.

Try not to think of how much rock is precariously perched about your head here.

Park Ave. I guess I see the "skyscrapers."

This totally counts as the "sign" for the national park, right?

After leaving arches as it started to get quite hot, we went back into town for lunch at a spot called Dewey's. Dewey's actually has a liquor license and you can just get drinks here if you want (again, watered down Utah versions of drinks, but whatever). The food here is pretty good too so we'd recommend the place. With the sun blazing and temperatures again in the upper 90s, we retired to our AirBnB, relaxed in the AC, and watched a DVD of Luca.

Later in the afternoon, we took a short drive down the Colorado River to check out some different scenery and then met back up with Thomas at the AirBnB to head out to a bar to try to watch the Atlanta United game and get a drink. First we stopped for drinks at Zax before moving on to Spitfire BBQ for dinner. We ended the day back at the AirBnB by watching a really bad horror movie called The Nest, and got some sleep to prepare for the next day's drive.

Pedestrian bridge over the Colorado River in Moab.

Not much to look at but the green flood plain is a contrast to all the desert around. We drove a bit up the road that parallels the river.

Main street in Moab over a creek.

ATL UTD with the win!

Dinner at Spitfire BBQ was really yummy!

That wraps up the national park portion of our trip. Last stop, Salt Lake City!

Monument Valley

The next stop on our Southwest road trip was Monument Valley. This area near the four corners includes a Navajo national park, beautiful sweeping vistas... and not much else. We arrived in early evening and made a quick dinner with supplies from Gouldings grocery before settling in to our lodging. We got a cabin at The View, inside the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. The cabin was small, but the selling point was the phenomenal view. We had an unobstructed view over the valley, perfect for both sunrise and sunset. Highly recommended and worth the cost! We did a little bit of stargazing before going to bed, and woke up early to watch the sunrise.

Classic view of monument valley, including "the mittens."

Cabins perched above the valley.

Here comes sunset.

Brilliant colors across the mittens as the sun set behind us.

And a brilliant sunrise.

The view from our cabin was unmatched.

Classic desert southwest vistas.

In the morning we entered the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park loop drive, which started just a few hundred feet from our cabin. It's a dirt road that takes about an hour or two and has several great viewpoints. They were limiting the number of cars due to COVID, but since we started right when it open we got in with no wait. The scenic road has amazing views and lets you get closer to some of the rock formations.

Sunrise from the loop trail.

Great views all around.

Our trusty rental car.

We left Thomas here holding up a boulder.

Classic Southwest scenery.

Tiny Paul on a ledge.

The rest of the day was a meandering road trip all the way to Moab, Utah, passing through a variety of desert landscapes. Just a short distance to the north we passed through "Forrest Gump point," a part of Highway 163 where the famous running scene was filmed. It's known for views of the long straight highway dipping across the desert toward the monuments. Further down the road was Mexican Hat, a tiny town (population: 31) perched alongside the San Juan River.

You'll tell us if a car is coming, right?

Hasta luego, Monument Valley!

Mexican Hat has seen better days, but the buildings look cool perched above the river.

We continued north to Goosenecks state park, a small park with several overlooks of giant bends in the San Juan River set deep in a winding river gorge. There's not much else to do here, but it's worth the stop for the views alone. A bit further down the road we made a quick stop at the Sand Island petroglyphs, then had a late lunch at Patio Diner in Blanding.

The Goosenecks viewpoint overlooks a couple of huge "entrenched meanders"

Double goosenecks!

Some of the petroglyphs at Sand Island

Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!

Monument Valley was just a stop on the way to Moab and the National Parks there, but we're really glad we spent a bit of extra time here. The pandemic has really impacted operations at restaurants and hotels in the Navajo nation, so make sure you plan ahead (especially for food) if you're thinking of staying here a bit. Next stop... Arches and Canyonlands!