The Mighty 5

Moab is the perfect jumping off spot for visiting the Mighty 5 U.S. National Parks of Southern Utah. The Mighty 5 encompass Arches, Canyonland, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, and Zion National Parks. We took a three-day trip with Moab Express, arranged through Rocky Mountaineer (although you can also book directly). Initially, I was worried we might not get to see everything we wanted – but happily, we did.

I’m going to blog about this portion of our trip in three posts, this first about Arches and Canyonlands, followed by Capitol Reef, and finally Bryce Canyon and Zion.

Arches National Park – Minutes Away

After an overnight in Moab, we set off early under direction of our wonderful, relaxed, and efficient guide, Mark. Our van was well equipped with plenty of water, snacks, and phone charging ports. These parks do not have food concessions or many facilities. Bathrooms are at the Visitor Centers and that’s about it.

First up, Arches National Park, home of 2,000 catalogued arches. I’m going to let the pictures tell this story, even though they do not begin to do justice to the majesty of any of these incredible parks.

The “Balanced Rock” Trail circled around this massive fear-inspiring formation seen below. I didn’t linger.

The Most Famous Arch

We got plenty of steps in walking around the arches and formations, but we did not hike to “Delicate Arch”, the iconic image on Utah license plates. As you can see from this photo, the image on the tag is shot from the opposite perspective. It was getting very hot and we were very content to see it from a distance.

Canyonlands

After a picnic lunch outside the Arches Visitor’s Center (arranged and brought in advance by the Moab Express folks), we headed a little over 30 miles towards Canyonlands. Here our perspective dramatically changed from looking up to looking down.

Canyonlands is considered a “wilderness of rock” and is very large, with several entrances. We visited the Island in the Sky section. This area features a broad mesa between the Colorado and Green Rivers. It gets less than 10” of rain a year. The horizon semed to go on forever.

Moab Tips:

In Moab, the Hoodoo Hotel Curio by Hilton was really lovely but don’t stay in room 117! It is over the laundry and one wall and the beds vibrate when the machines are in use (which is very often). It feels pretty much like you are over the engine room on a cruise ship.

The Sunset Grill which is a famous local restaurant was a huge disappointment. It has a wonderful view and an interesting history as the former home of Charlie Sheen the “Uranium King,” but fell short of delivering us a good meal. It turned out to be the only real disappointment on this trip.

Across from the Hilton there is a Food Truck Park with lots of choices, and really delicious gelato.

Be forewarned that Utah has strict liquor laws, including that mixed drinks can only have 1.5 ounce of liquor. And, they won’t serve a second drink until that one is consumed. FYI – my bourbon Old Fashion at Sunset Grill was $25! I should’ve asked for extra cherries.