Moab is the outdoors lover’s Adventureland. We had five days of canyoneering, mountain biking, and so much hiking! Here is our ultimate 5-day itinerary!
What is MOAB?!
Moab is a small hiking town in the far southeast corner of Utah and is uniquely placed in the middle of two amazing national parks, Arches and Canyonlands. Even though it is not the biggest town, United flies into the Canyonlands airport. It is completely worth it to not have a 3–4-hour drive from Salt Lake City!
Day 1: Arrive in Moab in the afternoon and hike Delicate Arch:
This hike is in Arches National Park and is probably the most famous arch of all time. It’s a 52-foot free-standing arch that is like nothing you have seen. Delicate Arch trailhead is about a 30-minute drive from MOAB, and it’s only about an hour hike to this amazing view. We suggest going for the sunset and hanging out for a while to take it all in. The hike is about 3.4 miles round trip. It’s not terribly strenuous; however, there is very little shade. We hiked back to the car after the sunset and didn’t have any trouble.
Day 2: Check out Canyonland National Park
This is about a 40-minute drive. We dedicated the morning to this park because of the famous Mesa Arch sunrise. There are two parts to this park. We decided to spend our time in the “Island in Sky part.” It offered breathtaking sunset, fun hikes, and all-around amazing views. It was similar to the Grand Canyon National Park. Here are some of our favorite hikes:
Mesa Arch: This is probably one of the most photographed spots in the park. It is famous for its incredible sunrises. We decided to just go mid-morning and found only two other people there. This hike was less than a half mile and had beautiful views!
The White Rim Overlook: This trail has two trails and easy one and a hard one. The Park Rangers lead us onto the harder one and we loved it! For this trail, you will have to follow the cairns (the little rock stacks) to the left and you will see a set of pretty steep switch backs that will lead you all the way down the canyon, to a creek bed, and eventually to the white rim of the Canyon.
Green River Overlook: This overlook is a quick walk to an amazing sunset. There were not too many people there when we went, and it was gorgeous!
Day 3: Book a Canyoneering Adventure and check out the rest of the Arches National Park
What is Canyoneering? This is repelling down a canyon and it is super fun! We booked through MOAB Adventure Center and highly recommend them. We are pretty new to Canyoneering but definitely fell in love with it. We had about 3 miles of hiking and did 2 rappels. The first one was down into a narrow canyon and the second was down a stone arch. It was seriously the most fun! We started at 700 AM and didn’t finish until the afternoon.
Arches National Park: This park was absolutely gorgeous! There are over 2000 arches and so many hikes! We spent a day and a half here but could have spent so much more. Here are some of our favorite hikes.
Tapestry Arch: This trail was not crowded at all, and the arch was amazing! We actually had to drive into the camping area and took the trail to broken arch. We entered the Broken arch trail and then followed the signs to Tapestry Arch. It was only about 0.6 miles and was pretty easy.
Park Avenue Trail: This trail actually did not have any rock formations; however, the scenery was amazing! This was a 1.8-mile out-and-back trail that was very easy.
Day 4: Go Mountain Biking
Moab is known for its amazing mountain biking trails. We rented an SUV that fit our bikes, thankfully! We biked the Bar- M trails which are about 20 minutes north of MOAB. They have trails for all levels, but we did the easy ones as I am pretty inexperienced.
Day 5: Dead Horse Point State Park and head home
This park is about 45 minutes from MOAB and we were not able to go check it out. The views looked incredible though. If I could have a perfect itinerary, this park would absolutely be in it!
I hope this inspires you to check out this awesome town!
Until Next Time,
Dez and Jordan
