During our recent 2 1/2 week vacation to Utah, we peeled off for three days for a trip to Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. Sam and I had never been and I have always wanted to see Delicate Arch in person. I loosely planned this trip a few months ago and happily everything went perfectly.

It’s a little odd taking family trips without Simon; we are always aware that one of us is elsewhere and when we see or do things we know he would like we miss him. How could we not? I’m so glad that he is in Kenya and at the same time I can’t wait until the six of us can take a trip together to a place like Arches. Moab is Simon’s JAM. He would love it. Heck, we all did.

I fell hard for Arches National Park and I can’t quite quantify why. Perhaps it is the completely different environment than we live in. The staggering height and vastness of the red rock and the arches and structures. The adorable little town with fantastic shops and art. The fabulous food (we ate so good on this trip). The insane heat that I couldn’t wait to escape and then kind of…missed? The sunset? The stargazing? I think it was just all of it. It was a trip that I didn’t know I needed and am so glad we took.

We stayed at La Quinta in Moab. I chose it for it’s close proximity to the park entrance (8 minutes), outdoor pool and easy accommodations for the 5 of us. The kids all had their own beds in one room and Sam and I had a king in another. Plus breakfast was included which is always a win with kids. Staff was super friendly and helpful (front desk gave me some good tips for stargazing inside the park) and the hotel was super clean. The outdoor pool was also a win since one day it was 112 actual degrees. Everything about the hotel looked way better in person than on the website. It may be time for a website refresh for La Quinta.

Downtown Moab is really charming, filled with touristy shops, art galleries, fun restaurants and if you are into rocks or crystals lots of those kind of stores too. It is easy to walk around with ice cream and cold drinks in multiple locations. The only thing that makes walking around challenging is the heat. Remember how I said it was 112 degrees? Seb and I walked around in that and it was almost laughable. We just could not believe how hot it was.

The main reason we were in Moab was to spend the day in Arches National Park. Knowing that the heat was an issue and that crowds would grow throughout the day I booked our entry ticket to the park for 7:00 AM. If I had to do it again I would book even earlier (I think the earliest time they had available was 6:30 but check the parks site to be sure…). We beat most of the people and the worst of the heat. We drove directly to the trailhead to hike into Delicate Arch and once we visited that, worked our way back out towards the entrance to the park stopping at the remaining sites we wanted to see.

The hike to Delicate Arch is 3 miles round trip and it is not a simple, easy hike. It is about 75% gentle to steep uphill going in towards the arch and then a little tough on your knees descending back out. It was more challenging than I was prepared for; I’m glad that we were all in shape. Add the heat and this can be pretty tricky if you are not prepared. Also, Delicate Arch stands on the edge of a large bowl that slants straight down. People have died tripping and sliding into the bowl. If you have kids or clumsy people in your party, you may want to reevaluate taking them on a hike to Delicate Arch. I’m sort of glad I didn’t know how sketchy parts of it were until we were there or I may not have wanted to go out there; luckily my kids are all pretty solid on their feet.

From the Delicate Arch area we made our way over to the Double Windows and Window Arch. This was less of a hike and was really easy to navigate…which was good since it was getting hotter. We really loved it over here.

We came back to the hotel to swim and cool off, ate an awesome lunch and then made plans to head back into the park to stargaze. Our parking pass (it is $30 for a car/van to enter the park and is good for 24 hours; it is $2 to get your park reservation) allowed us to enter without cost so we came back around 9:30 PM. We were filled up on tacos (not that great, sadly) and ice cream so our bellies were comfy. The heat had faded with the sun so we rolled down all the windows in the car while we drove in the dark listening to the new Arcade Fire album (which is GOLD, btw). We definitely made some good core memories with this drive.

We headed back to the Double Windows section, climbed up under the arches and sat in the stillness, watching the stars emerge. The moon was really bright that night (would have had better visibility if we had come around 2 AM but we aren’t ballers like that; we LIKE our sleep) but it was still stunning to watch all of those white pricks of light pop out of the sky. It was so quiet and still. I’ve heard people refer to Arches as a sacred place and now I know why. Sitting among these GIANT red rock structures with no light pollution in the dark, very few people and no buildings was really special. We almost didn’t go to stargaze; we were tired and our beds seemed like a great idea. But when Sam asked what I wanted to do I said let’s just go for it. We made awesome family memories that night; I’m so glad that we did it. The below photos are a little blurry but I’m impressed with the night time resolution on the iPhone 13. These photos represent such happy memories.

After we checked out of our hotel the next day, we headed to a fairly new dinosaur museum called Moab Giants. Before we came to Moab I had no idea that there are SO many dinosaur bones/fossils that have been discovered here. This museum recreates (in an entertaining way) what the dinosaurs may have looked like in this particular setting. Their tag line is “Stand face to face with dinosaurs” – it’s legitimately pretty cool. Seeing these reproductions against the cloudy skies and red rocks was really unique. I highly recommend going just to walk through the outdoor portion of the park.

This was such a fun family trip. We of course missed our Simon; it wasn’t complete without him. We kept saying that once he is done with his mission we need to return here with him and show him around. We all loved our time in Arches. The world is so fascinating, so varied and wild and diverse and I love it. If you haven’t made it to this extraordinary national park, make a plan to visit!

Share