National Parks in (and around) Moab
08 Mar 2019 - Michelle Ho
My brother Andrew and his girlfriend Kim came to visit us in SLC and we all drove down to Moab to see the national parks in the area for a couple days.
Highlights:
- When we arrived, we did a sunset hike to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. It was so windy when we arrived at the Arch, I wished I brought my ski goggles because it was impossible to open your eyes with the sand flying everywhere. I think I ate a few mouthfuls of sand too. But definitely worth it! My mom said Delicate Arch looks like a giant pair of legs.
- Sunrise hike to Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park. Upon arriving, we see a hushed crowd of photographers huddled in front of the arch, cameras at the ready on tripods, all gazing towards the horizon. It was like a weird religious gathering. We brought our Jetboil and made ramen noodles and oatmeal. It was cold.
As the sun rises, it lights up the arch a brilliant fiery orange. Highly recommend– it’s worth waking up to see.
With such an early start, we drove to all the other viewpoints the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands AND saw Dead Horse State Park before noon.
We took an epic afternoon nap and then did a bonus sunset hike to Corona Arch, a dog-friendly trail, with Andrew’s dog Mochi. She was very happy.
- We returned to Arches National Park the next day to see Landscape Arch and the many other arches along the Devils Garden Trail.
- Along the drive to Corona Arch, we saw there was some good climbing along Potash Road, so we decided to camp there.
Since we’re not really crack climbers, we decided to warm-up on the slab climbing in the area. We discovered that “easy” slab climbing is nothing to scoff at. It’s just so hard to trust your feet when the sandstone beneath you is literally crumbling to little grains and your last bolt is five feet below you. Lucky for us, a local climber recommended we head to Owl Rock in Arches National Park to climb the west route, a 5.8 single pitch trad climb. We rock-paper-scissored for the lead (I won) and we spent the rest of the afternoon on Owl Rock. I took a long time on lead, since this was my first trad climb since the fall at the Gunks. I thought it was fantastic, lots of features and almost gym-like. Plus you top-out on a desert tower and people driving along the road below wave to you. I thought it was a very special little tower.
- We had pho at 98 Center and we highly recommend it. Super delicious and fresh food. We lingered after dinner until closing trying to figure out what our next plan was (Arizona? New Mexico? Las Vegas?) and a waitress who was also a rafting guide overheard us. She not only offered recommendations, but also her front yard if we needed to camp! We decided to drive onwards to Vegas to escape the cold of Utah, but first to visit Capitol Reef and Bryce National Parks on the way.
- Fisher Towers. It was lightly raining this day, so we chose not to climb and just went for a hike around the towers. We did, however, see a party top out on Ancient Art, an especially squiggly-looking (and delicately balanced) sandstone tower. We were mildly concerned, but nothing toppled that day.
