Anniversary Trip To Moab

Our wedding day in Rocky Mountain National Park!

It’s crazy how fast time flies. Trenton and I have already been married for one whole year! It’s been the best year getting to do life with my best friend. We have been able to travel, camp, and adventure to many places together, so it seemed only fitting that we go somewhere for our anniversary. We decided to head to Moab and visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Neither of us are experts in either of these places, so we decided to just share our experience and what we did while there. We hope this helps you all on your next trip to Moab!

We decided to stay at a campground about 15 minutes outside of Moab called Sun Outdoors Canyonlands. It was a super convenient location because it was about 10 minutes from Arches and about 30 minutes from Canyonlands. It was also a very nice campground with plenty of trees, nice bathrooms with showers, and a decent sized pool. We picked this campground specifically for the location since we were planning on hitting both of the National Parks in the area, and it didn’t disappoint.

Trenton cooking dinner at our campground.

Our first stop of the trip was Arches National Park. We spent about a day and a half here, and we were able to see quite a bit of the park. Arches isn’t a huge park and is great for a short trip because you can see a lot of it in a short time. In our day and a half we hit most of the iconic sights, and I definitely have my favorites from them. Make sure to check out the reservation system for a timed entry pass into Arches.

First, we went to double arch. This is a must see in my opinion. It’s only about a 0.3 mile walk from the parking lot, and once you get there you will be in awe. The two arches are massive and provide a bunch of shade for you to escape the heat. I recommend just sitting on the rocks and enjoying the view for a while. While we were there it was a bit crowded but there were still plenty of places to sit and relax.

Next, we hiked to the infamous delicate arch. This is 100% a must see. It is maybe the most iconic rock formation in all of the US National Parks. The hike to get there is about 3.2 miles round trip with only 630 feet of elevation gain. Even though you aren’t gaining much elevation it’s still a bit tough. All the elevation gain is in one spot in a short distance, and with the heat, you will get tired pretty quickly. Once you finally round the corner to see the 52 foot arch, it will definitely be worth it though. Bring lots of water and maybe some snacks to enjoy once you make it to delicate arch.

Lastly, we made the trek to sand dune arch and broken arch. In my opinion, sand dune arch wasn’t as cool as I expected. It’s a very short hike and is completely in super fine sand (hence the name). The arch is in a little cove and was kind of underwhelming. The cool part about this arch is that if you keep walking there a small slot canyon that you can climb up into. Trenton and I climbed up to a shaded area to enjoy our lunch. There weren’t any other people around, and it was fun to have a little picnic surrounded by the beautiful red rock.

After our lunch, we went over to broken arch. You can catch the trail from sand dune arch. The hike there was completely in the sun, so make sure you have sunscreen and a hat. Once you are there, broken arch is huge and provides so much shade. It was one of my favorite arches that we were able to see. You can also see the mountains from the top side of the rocks, which provides for an awesome picture.

On the last day of our trip, we headed to Canyonlands National Park. I wasn’t sure what to expect here, but it’s exactly what you would think, a giant carved out crack in the earth. It really is spectacular how massive it is. This is another national park that isn’t too big, so you can see a lot in a short time. The time we spent was in the section known as Island in the Sky, and we ended up seeing mesa arch, hiked the Murphy Point trail, and climbed whale rock. My favorite of the three was whale rock. It’s an easy climb to the top for an incredible view. You get a 360 degree view of the whole park. Highly recommend this one. There are also several look out points that you can drive up to so you can see different parts of the canyon. A couple of them are Grand View Point Overlook, Green River Overlook, and Buck Canyon Overlook.

There are so many more hikes, viewpoints, and things to do in both of these parks that we just simply didn’t have time to get to. I can say that I really enjoyed what we were able to see, and I highly recommend checking some of these places out on your trip to Moab! I know we will definitely be heading back to check out all of the sights we missed. As always, if you have questions or comments feel free to leave them in the comments or DM us on Instagram.

- The Mings

Summer is Here!

Mahana Peak - Off trail summit

The Adventure Mings