We arrived in Utah on the thirty-second day of our travels; a first visit to the state for us both. We had a five-night stay planned in Moab, because we wanted to visit both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.

A visit to Arches requires some advanced planning as from April 1 to October 31, the park is so popular that timed entry tickets are required unless you arrive before 7 AM or after 4 PM. We found that the earlier in the day, the better, as both vehicular and trail traffic become quite heavy after 11:00am.

The park is popular with foreign visitors and we were surprised at the number of different languages we heard. Indeed, a significant number of visitors we’ve encountered on our trip thus far have been foreign. In general, we’ve also been surprised by the large number of rental RVs we see at campgrounds and parks.

Like many of the parks in the west, the geologic conditions that eventually resulted in unique rock formations first began under the sea that covered the region. After the sea receded, tectonic forces and erosion created the the rock formations that are present today.

It is important to keep in mind that the natural stone arches, pinnacles and rock fins present in Arches NP today are impermanent. Water erosion will continue to widen the arches until they eventually collapse and diminish the other rock structures. The Park Service has before and after photos of many of these changes.

We explored Arches for two days and then transitioned to Canyonlands NP. Canyonlands is divided into three major districts by the Colorado and Green Rivers. We visited the Island in the Sky district which is a 40 minute drive from Moab. Canyonlands, Utah’s largest national park, protects a vast wilderness containing countless canyons and numerous buttes carved by the Colorado River and its tributaries.

After securing a park passport stamp at the visitors center, we drove to Grand View Point and walked the 1.87 mile roundtrip trail to the point. On the way back to the RV park, we visited Dead Horse State Park and checked out several BLM camp sites for our next visit.

While Canyonlands is busy, they have not yet felt the need to require timed entry passes. We sense that may change in the future with more and more people RVing and visiting the parks.

Arches and Canyonlands National Parks both are well worth a visit but the popularity of these parks and volume of visitors came as a surprise to us, especially coming from back east.

Moab is an interesting town filled with small shops (we were also able to wash our rig and have the oil changed) but there is a major 4-lane highway through the center of town that is quite busy with motor traffic. We were disappointed that the town was not more pedestrian friendly. That said, we enjoyed a terrific lunch of hot dogs under the evaporative misting cooler at the Moab Food Truck Park.

Our next stop is Zion National Park in Springdale, UT. Thank you, as always, for stopping by.

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