We ventured outside of Colorado for a long weekend trip to Moab. We’ve always wanted to go and finally got the chance to camp and explore the National Parks.

Road-Tripping

The drive from Denver to Moab takes about 5.5 hrs. We started at 7:30 and got to our site around 1:30 PM, with just a couple of stops for gas and snacks along the way.

Camping

We did some research before heading out and wanted to find dispersed (i.e., first come first serve) camping along the Colorado River. There are a few completely free sites, but by the time we arrived on Friday, they were all full. The good news is that there are plenty of sites that are around $15-20 per night. We ended up at Hal Canyon, which was about 6 miles from Moab. Our site was perfect, situated between beautiful red mountains and along the river. There were plenty of people kayaking and stand up paddle boarding, we thought it was a bit too chilly to get in the water (just more reason for us to come back in the summer!).

Parks

We ended up going to Canyonlands and Dead Horse State Park while in Moab. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to make it to Arches, and a few people in our group had previously been.

Canyonlands

We drove into the park, and our first stop was the Mesa Arch. This was about a .5 mile walk from the parking area to the arch, with ample photo opportunities and amazing views. We were in the park on a Saturday in early October, and luckily it wasn’t overly busy.

Next we drove down to another parking area, to a trail head. We chose to do the Murphy Point Trail, which was a 3.6 mile round trip hike, that was actually more of a “nature walk”. Enjoyable none the less and again with vast views for the length of the trail. We stopped to eat lunch and relax at the end of the trail.

Dead Horse State Park

We would argue that Dead Horse State Park had some of the most amazing views in Moab. It’s a (much) smaller park than Canyonlands, and because it’s a state park, dogs are allowed leashed on the trails. There’s a trail that borders the canyon rim, which we walked along for about a half mile.

In Town

We didn’t spend a whole lot of time in town, but they do have a walkable downtown area and a lot of restaurants. Our favorite food we grabbed was actually at a Quesadilla food truck nearby the Food Truck Park in town. Highly recommend grabbing a quick bite there if you have a chance.

Traveling with a Dog in Moab

As most people know, dogs are not welcome in National Parks (for pretty good reason). So, if you plan to bring your pooch, making arrangements is necessary. We camped, and doggos were allowed at the campsites (since they weren’t in the National Park) but there were a lot of advertisements in town for dog friendly hotels and motels. Unfortunately, camping left the problem of what to do with the dogs while were exploring Canyonlands. Luckily, we were able to find an awesome dog daycare called Karen’s Canine Campground. It was $30 for the day, and the reservation process was super easy. The only downside was that we had to cut our exploring a little short as the daycare closes for the evening at 5 PM.

Have you been to Moab? What was your favorite part of the trip?