Moab, Arches and Canyonlands National Parks – Road trip in the American West #6

After driving non-stop from Monument Valley, we arrived in Moab in the early afternoon. Check-in at the hotel isn’t until 3 PM, and we had to keep wandering around. We were a bit tired and stopped for gas (and beef jerky) in Moab before visiting Arches National Park nearby.

We spent 5 nights in Moab. Normally 2 nights are enough, but we were right in the middle of Thanksgivingweek, when the whole country is on vacation, and we wanted to be in a small, quiet town (5,000 residents) to recharge our batteries, do laundry, and get some work done. The day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday, then Cyber Monday, all the more reason to avoid big cities because JB can’t stand shopping. Plus, Moab is right next to three parks: Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park, and Dead Horse Point State Park, so we wouldn’t get bored.

This article is part of our series of articles on the American West road trip. If you haven’t read the previous travel diaries, here they are: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5

Part 1: Travel Journal
Part 2: Practical Tips

Part 1: Travel Journal

Day 7 of the road trip (afternoon):

Arches National Park

We visit Arches National Park because it’s just a few minutes from downtown Moab, whereas Canyonlands is about an hour away. At the entrance, we showed our America the Beautiful pass and an ID (a French ID card). The ranger spoke to us in French and gave us a brochure in French!! It’s the off-season, so we could enter the park at any time, whereas during the high season (April to October), the park will implement a timed entry system to limit visitors (https://www.nps.gov/arch/planyourvisit/timed-entry-pilot.htm). In fact, the parking lots in the park are quite limited, and there’s no shuttle system shuttles. Even in November, we had to wait 5 minutes to enter the park, and for some lots, we had to circle around several times waiting for a spot to free up.

What you can do is:

• visit part of Arches as soon as you arrive in Moab (Balanced Rock, the Windows, Double Arch, Delicate Arch overlook)
• the next day, visit Canyonlands early in the morning (sunrise at Mesa Arch, and check out the overlooks)
• and in the afternoon, do the rest of Arches (Sand Dune Arch, Devils Garden, Landscape Arch)

What I really love about American parks is that you hike up right away for a great view from above, then you can choose to get closer to the points of interest via hikes (short or long). If a spot is particularly beautiful but hard to reach, there’s always an accessible overlook. For the athletically challenged like me, it’s perfect. I feel like you could even stay in the car and see a large portion of the sights.

Arches National Park has over 2,000 arches!! Luckily, we didn’t visit all of them, but we did see the most impressive ones. This diagram explains perfectly how they form.

The story geologists tell is remarkable. The park sits on an underground salt bed that is the origin of the arches, spires, sandstone, and eroded monoliths. Over a mile thick in some places, this salt bed was deposited 300 million years ago on the Colorado Plateau when a sea flooded the region and then evaporated. Over millions of years, the residue left by flooding, winds, and oceans that washed over covered the salt bed. The debris was compressed into rock a mile thick. Because salt under pressure is unstable, and the salt bed below wasn’t strong enough to support the weight of this dense rock cover, the salt shifted, folded, liquefied, and repositioned, thrusting rock layers upward into domes. Entire sections dropped into cavities. Deep faults in the earth made the surface even more unstable, and you can observe a 2,500-foot displacement resulting from the Moab Fault, visible from the visitor center. Vertical faults then contributed to the formation of arches. The underground movement of salt sculpted the earth’s surface, and erosion gradually removed the younger rock layers. Except for a few isolated remnants, today’s major formations are mostly composed of the salmon-colored Entrada Sandstone, like most arches, and the tan Navajo Sandstone. These formations stand like a puff pastry over most of the park. Over time, water seeped into cracks, joints, and folds. Ice formation in the cracks exerted pressure on the rock, causing it to break into pieces and fragments. Later, wind cleaned out small particles, leaving behind a series of standalone structures. Wind and water attacked these structures until the cementing material in some gave way, causing chunks of rock to fall. Many of these damaged structures collapsed, but others, more robust and better balanced, survived. That’s how the famous arches emerged. Horizontal arches form by chemical weathering as water pools in natural depressions and eventually wears through to the layer below. That probably sums up the geological history of Arches National Park, although the evidence is largely circumstantial.

I’ve highlighted in pink what I liked the most:

On the road to the Windows, you can admire a few points of interest:

1. The Moab Fault
2. The La Sal Mountains
3. Courthouse Towers, massive rock formations
4. Three Gossips
5. The Garden of Eden where you can see someone climbing
6. and Balanced Rock, which is the park’s emblem

This first part reminds me a bit of Göreme, but less impressive. Yes, there are phallic shapes everywhere, like in Love Valley in Turkey.

Then we turn right and arrive at a double parking lot. Next to it is the Double Arch and on the right are the Windows Arches and the Turret Arch. This is my favorite part of the park. These arches are beautiful, large, and impressive. I knew the arches were big, but I didn’t imagine they’d be this impressive.

Nature shows us that you can become exceptional despite very humble beginnings. All it takes is patience.

Work Windows really impress me, as does the Turret Arch on the right.

We make one last stop before heading back to the hotel: Delicate Arch Overlook. There are two viewpoints: a small one 10 meters from the parking lot (Lower Delicate Arch Overlook, see the first photo) and another one, where you walk up a bit on an unpaved road, but the view of Delicate Arch is not more satisfying (see the 2nd photo; it looks like the arch is very close, but there’s a canyon between the viewpoint and the arch). I did both to give you a little report, but honestly, the viewpoint 10 meters from the parking lot is already very good. To get closer to Delicate Arch, we would have had to do a 2-hour round-trip trek. It’s said to be very impressive, but to motivate me to walk for 2 hours, it would have taken something even more wow.

Our friend N. sent us a photo of Delicate Arch, which he visited at dawn. The arch is very tall and is featured on Utah license plates.

I have a headache! It might be due to dehydration, but I drink a lot. During the 5.5 days we’ll be in Moab, I’ll notice that the air is even drier than usual. My skin turns into crocodile skin, and despite tons of moisturizer, it’s never enough. The air is so dry that we get static shocks several times a day. But the upside is that dry cold (with bright sun) is super pleasant. We even wondered if the car thermometer showing 5°C was broken, because it felt like autumn. Now we finally understand how our Canadian friends survive when it’s -30°C.

We check in at the hotel. Usually, we stay in motels with no common areas. But here, we deliberately chose a real hotel with a gym, a laundry room ($2.5 to wash, $2.5 to dry), and a spacious, well-equipped room. We jump for joy when we discover high-speed internet (we’ve had nothing but bad connections since we arrived) and a very comfortable chair in the room. Finally, we can work in good conditions.

The receptionist gives us a 10% discount voucher to use at The Broken Oar, across from the hotel. The burger is so exceptional that JB dreams about it for days and doesn’t want to leave Moab without having a second one. My barbecue steak is also flawless.

Day 8: Canyonlands National Park

The most motivated go to Canyonlands at dawn to watch the sunrise at Mesa Arch. But this park is 1 hour from Moab, which means leaving at 5:30 a.m., fighting with other photographers to get a decent spot at 6:30 a.m., and seeing the sunrise around 7 a.m. I’m not here to suffer, OK! We go there calmly after a well-deserved sleep-in. The park is almost empty. Entry is included with the America the Beautiful pass.

We drive to the end of the road (Grand View Point Overlook) and visit the missing (and most beautiful) points on the way back. This park has three sections, but we only visit the northern part (Island in the Sky), which is the most famous and easily accessible.

From Grand View Point, we see a huge plateau stretching as far as the eye can see, carved with very deep furrows that remind me of dinosaur footprints. There are roads down below accessible by jeeps, I think; they look so tiny compared to the furrows. It must be really impressive for the brave trekkers who go all the way down.

The park has several viewpoints to observe this immense plateau in three directions: the one you just saw, another with a view of the river, and a last one with a view of snowy mountains. That’s it. It feels like the Grand Canyon in a less varied mode, which is why I think you can visit it in one morning (without trekking). Photos don’t do it justice because the colors are subtler than that. It reminds us of the Blue Mountains in Australia, which will struggle to compete with American landscapes.

At Green River Overlook, a child exclaims at such beauty: “it’s like in the movies,” “it’s like a painting.”

I save the best for last: a short, not very difficult walk takes us to Mesa Arch. Everyone is here. It’s too beautiful. However, be careful where you step. One more step and you’re 600 meters down. The arch is very, very large, and I have to use the wide-angle to fit it all in one photo. I understand why people crowd to watch the sunrise here, but it’s beautiful all day, for late risers like me. I’ve boosted the contrast a bit to show you what you really see on site. Cameras can’t do justice to these places.

I ask JB if he wants to visit Dead Horse Point State Park, which involves a bit of walking to see a meander. It’s a state park, so it costs $30 per vehicle. JB says no, this park is smaller than this one, costs money, and he’s never seen Thelma & Louise, so it doesn’t appeal to him. This park is quite similar to the Grand Canyon, so the movies are mostly shot there. The famous final scene of the movie Thelma & Louise was shot there, and you can easily recognize the park. It’s the story of a road trip that goes wrong. The ending really shocked and saddened me, but that’s what made it unforgettable. I could never watch it again; it would have been too painful for me.

We return to the hotel and work. In the evening, I decide to go to dinner at one of the 3 Asian restaurants (more Thai), the best rated in Moab, but I’m shocked to see people queueing for 1 hour to eat Asian food. What happened? Is it always like this? Is it because of Thanksgiving? This long wait happens every night, whether we come at 7pm or 6pm. I decide to go to the restaurant with the worst rating (due to service) Bangkok House Too and finally not only did we not wait, but the food and service were superb. So, in the US, reviews aren’t necessarily representative: people have expectations that are too high and don’t hesitate to give 1 star for nothing.

In the US, I try to go to Asian or Mexican restaurants because the food is more balanced. And since we don’t eat at noon, to have more time to visit, we have to eat well in the evening.

Day 9: total rest today. JB took me to the only bookstore in town. It’s very “wild west,” “nature,” “trek”… the only book I found was The hidden life of the trees. It’s a book written by a German forester, which I had wanted to read for a long time. I’m surprised to discover the hardcover version extremely well made, with eco/recyclable paper, and a layout that I really like. I read the graphic novel adaptation a month ago and wanted to dig deeper into some points, so it’s good to have the text version.

I take advantage of having the car to read paper books (which I’ll resell after reading). It makes me very happy to touch real paper again. Because of my new knowledge of typography, layout, and bookbinding, I can no longer read just any paper book. Likewise, I can no longer buy a leather product without thoroughly examining the seams. Luxury craftsmanship has cured me of consumerism.

I really like being able to check the quality of a book before buying it, and accessing deluxe editions in the US for much cheaper than in France. I read The Postman, Easton Press edition (gilt edges, archival quality paper etc.), bought in Las Vegas, in one day. It’s nice because for once, I didn’t know the story before reading. The story is believable and gripping, I highly recommend it.

Day 10: Thanksgiving & Arches National Park

Today is Thanksgiving. We wanted to book a buffet at noon, near the river, but despite an attempt to reserve 3 days in advance, it was way too late. Full!

We visit Arches National Park a second time, focusing on the places we didn’t have the energy to visit last time. It’s 10 degrees, but since the sun is absent, I feel it to the bone. The icy wind doesn’t help at all.

We start with Devil’s Garden. The rock formations here are at the second stage shown in the diagram. In a few thousand (million?) years, we’ll probably have lots of arches one after another, and it will be even more beautiful.

At one point, we squeeze between two rock walls to walk to Landscape Arch. We can trek much further and see other arches, but I’m not very ambitious; my goal is just Landscape Arch.

It’s still 91 meters long ! In 1991, a huge chunk on the right side fell off, making the arch more fragile. You can see it clearly: on the left, it’s a bit dark, and on the right where the piece fell, the rock is all nice and clean. A tourist managed to photograph the exact moment the stone fell, and his name is forever mentioned on the park’s explanatory sign. Well done!

Sand Dunes Arch is a very accessible and photogenic place. There’s a sudden concentration of children, and their screams echo a bit too much in this semi-enclosed place, making the visit less pleasant.

JB and I notice that we haven’t seen many people of color (POC). Lots of whites and Asians. Where have they gone? Keep in mind that 1 in 8 people in the US is African American. A quick search on Wikipedia will teach us that blacks represent only 0.5% in Utah. The Asians I met seem to come from California (you can see the state name on license plates). Our rental car has Utah plates, so we pretend to be locals, until we open our mouths 😀

JB is all excited to eat his burger tonight. After a 30-minute wait (it’s Thanksgiving evening, there are more people than usual), we finally get our table and poor JB discovers a special Thanksgiving menu, and burgers are not on it. I try the famous turkey for Thanksgiving. Luckily for me, they didn’t have the awful cranberry sauce the traditional way. I even found it tasty. They served me penan pie (apparently on Thanksgiving they feast on pumpkin pie, here, they seem to also like penan pie). In this restaurant, asparagus is on every plate, which doesn’t bother me.

Day 11: Rest. It’s Black Friday today and I have to work for my client. The city doesn’t seem to have entered a shopping frenzy. I’m rather taking advantage of Black Friday deals online (Amazon Lockers are super handy for receiving packages when you don’t have a fixed address). We do grocery shopping and fill up on gas to leave early tomorrow (the road will be long and the towns even smaller than this one). I’m speed-reading my books so I can resell them in a few days in Las Vegas. JB books our hotels and shows for the coming weeks. Some hotels are offering Black Friday deals.

We have lunch again at the Thai place Bangkok House Too, the lunch menu is more interesting than dinner. JB enjoys his green curry while I make the most of the Thai Iced Tea (I’m addicted; I used to drink it every day when we were in Koh Phangan). We’re glad we visited the past few days because it’s pouring today and very cold. JB finally gets his dream burger in the evening at The Broken Oar. That’s how we end our stay in Moab beautifully.

The rest of our adventure, is right here

Part 2: Practical Tips

All our routes and points of interest are available on this Google Maps map. I’ve already explained how to use our custom maps here

Budget

• Accommodation: Comfort Suites Moab near Arches National Park (Booking link) 120€/night, breakfast included
• Laundry inside the hotel: $2.5 to wash, $2.5 to dry
• Food:
  • Thanksgiving dinner at The Broken Oar: $48/person, tips included
  • Regular dinner at The Broken Oar: $25/person, tips included
  • Lunch at Bangkok House Too: $20/person, tips included
  • Dinner at Bangkok House Too: $35/person, tips included
• Gas: $55 at City Market to fill up