Moab, Utah: 6-Day Itinerary
- Kelly Risk
- Jun 9
- 11 min read
Here is my 6-day itinerary for exploring Moab, Utah! My parents and sister were taking a 3-week road-trip across western Colorado and decided to spend their last week in Moab, Utah. My husband and I said we would meet them there and then some extended family joined in and it turned into a fun mini family reunion in a beautiful national park haven.
We traveled in mid- to late May: the Sunday-Friday before Memorial Day. We had beautiful weather with only our last full-day getting really hot (90s F). I thought this was a perfect amount of time in Moab, but you could definitely see a majority of the sites in 4-days. The longer amount of time allowed us some flexibility when it came to securing permits for an in-demand hike (Fiery Furnace), which we were so glad we were able to do. With all the family members in Moab, we had a group of 12 people which was manageable at restaurants when we had some dinners out together. With the varying ages and activity level that we had, there was plenty we could do that interested us all but also allowed us to break off and do our own thing when we wanted.
Moab the town is pretty cute, with a lot of restaurants and shops and was very walkable. It is about a 10-minute drive to Arches National Park, where we personally spent the most time, and about 40-minutes to Canyonlands National Park. Both of these parks are more primitive in that they do not have any food or restaurants inside the park (or national park lodges). There are a few snacks in the Visitor Centers and water only sold by the gallon. There are also refilling stations for water bottles and primitive bathrooms at almost every major stop. We typically would go into the park in the morning and come out for lunch with the possibility of going back into the park after 4pm once reservations stopped. As with other popular parks, Arches requires reserved timed entry (Canyonlands does not).
Day 1: Arrival
My husband and I had an early direct flight on Delta from the DC-area to Salt Lake City (SLC) and landed around 10:00am local. We chose direct to SLC, versus flying into one of the closer, smaller airports (such as Grand Junction, CO) because we like the ease of direct flights. My favorite airports have rental car pickup attached to the terminals, so SLC has been added to my favorites list! I had reserved a good deal for Enterprise with Expedia, which even the agent was impressed with. It was raining pretty badly on this day, so we grabbed a quick lunch and immediately started our 3 hour and 45 minute drive to Moab.
By the time we arrived to Moab, the rain had stopped and it was a beautiful day. My husband and I stayed with my parents, sister, and their three dogs in a nice rental house that was walking distance to town. We ended the evening by meeting up with my extended family for a dinner at the Spoke on Center, which we chose because it was open on Sundays and had some large table spaces we could pre-warn the hostess about (they did not take reservations). The food was just alright, which we found to be the case with many of the restaurants in Moab.
Day 2: Delicate Arch in Arches National Park
Our first full-day in Moab was spent in Arches National Park. We lucked out with absolutely gorgeous weather in the 60s F, but it was very windy. I regretted only bringing shorts! (I thought the desert was supposed to be hot??) When all of my family reserved our entry passes when they released in January, I was easily able to secure 4-days worth of passes for entry at 9am. Apparently everyone else in my extended family reserved their entry at 8am, so they headed into the park earlier than us and went to the easy Lower Delicate Arch Viewpoint trail for a distant view of the famous arch. After a quick stop at Snake Oil Coffee Company, my husband and I met them at the trailhead as they were finishing up. My husband and I wanted to do the actual Delicate Arch trail, which my cousin and uncle decided to join us on since the viewpoint trail did not cut it for them. The trail is 3.2 miles and considered moderately difficult with 639 feet of elevation gain. We lucked out with the weather being extremely cool and some fluffy clouds, but on hot days it would be very crucial to bring a lot of water and sun protection as there is not a lot of shade on the trail and it is a pretty steady climb up. At the very beginning of the trail (which can be accessed by a completely flat, easy walk) were some really cool petroglyphs!
After finishing the hike, we headed back to town for a late lunch. We ate at Trailhead Public House, which was our favorite restaurant in Moab--I think my husband and I ate there at least 4 times! Some of my other family members also really enjoyed the food truck park across the street. We spent the afternoon relaxing at the house, doing some souvenir shopping, and grabbing dinner. The forecast at night was clear so my husband and I took my dad back into the park to Panorama Point for some amazing star gazing. We also got to listen in on a session with the park's astronomer as he explained the constellations--he was very fun! It is hard to find information on the ranger-led talks, but the program we happened upon started at 9:30pm on a Monday. Arches was designated an international dark sky park in 2019, making it a spectacular spot for astrophotography, which my dad enjoys.
Day 3: Landscape Arch, Double Arch, and Moab Hikes
We started the day with most of my extended family on an easy hike to Landscape Arch, with the trailhead being the farthest point you can drive to in the park. The hike was an out-and-back trail just shy of 2 miles roundtrip and was mostly flat mixed in with some easy ups and downs. Two of my cousins opted to do the Devil's Garden loop trail, which starts at the same parking lot and passes by Landscape Arch. It is a 7.6-mile loop and considered the hardest hike in the park! They really enjoyed it. The rest of us enjoyed our easy portion that had nice views and the reward of a unique arch at the end.
Afterwards, my husband and I split off to do an easy hike that the rest of my family had done the previous day: Double Arch Trail. It is a flat little walk up to this amazing double arch that we were able to rock scramble around the bottom of. It was very cool!
We left the park for a late brunch at Cactus Jacks, which was pretty good (the bacon was by far the star of the show). My sister and her dog spent the afternoon completing the 2.3 mile Corona Arch hike, which she really enjoyed. My husband and I happened to find a trail on Google Maps called Mill Creek and decided to check it out. It was a really fun, easy 1.6 mile out-and-back hike with several water crossings that ended at a lovely waterfall. It appeared to be a favorite local swimming spot--we wish we had brought swim suits! We ended the night with a big family dinner at the Broken Oar, which had nice vibes with outdoor games and a big dining area. They also took reservations, which was a plus.
Day 4: Fiery Furnace Hike in Arches, Canyonlands National Park
My husband and I were extremely lucky to have been able to secure permits for a self-guided hike of Fiery Furnace in Arches National Park. It was no easy feat! This is often considered the best hike in the park (for very good reason) and the permits to hike it open up for reservations exactly 7 days before the day of your hike at 10am EST. There are only 75 slots per day (there is also a ranger-led hike with a similar amount of slots) and the permits are $10/person on reservations.gov. I had pre-saved all the info I could on my reservations account so when the time came to book, it would only take a few clicks. We initially tried to secure permits for Day 3, so my husband was logged into my reservations account on his phone a few minutes before 10am the week before our trip. As soon as the clock struck 10, he refreshed the page and the slots had already reduced from 75 to 14. By the time he selected the date/amount of tickets and continued the check-out process, the slots were filled. He was determined to get these tickets so that night he "vibe-coded" a java script plugin with the help of ChatGPT that would run and automatically select our date and amount of tickets upon refresh. The next morning, he set up his laptop before 10am, had the Atomic Clock pulled up on his phone, and refreshed the page 10 seconds before 10am. With the script and my saved info making it faster, we were able to secure the tickets. The permits must be picked up during limited office times either the day before or day of the hike at the Arches Visitor Center. You also need to ensure you have a separate park entry permit for the day of your hike (or enter before 7am).
When we picked up the permits, we had to watch a little video and chat with a ranger about the rules for the trail. What makes this trail so popular and unique is that it traverses a maze of slot canyons, arches, and other sandstone formations and you are able to follow a suggested loop trail, which is around 2 miles, or create your own trail. Exploration and getting lost is highly encouraged. The ranger warned us to bring 3 liters of water per person and that the hike could take 4-5 hours. We were maybe slightly underprepared and only had a 24oz water bottle each and a few snacks (the ranger suggested packing a lunch). We were able to buy a gallon of water at the visitor center and on the 40 or so minute drive from the visitor center to the trailhead, we chose the "cameling up" method and chugged our entire water bottles. Once at the trailhead, we were able to refill our bottles from the gallon we purchased and use the bathroom. We completed the trail in 2.5 hours following the suggested path, but we definitely got lost multiple times and opted to explore some other parts. We hiked from around 10am-12:30pm in weather that was in the mid-70s and sunny. Our single 24oz water bottle was fine for each of us. We also ate one granola bar. The canyons offer a good amount of shade, but there are times you are in direct sun.
The hike itself was the coolest hike we have ever done. I felt like I was in a Zelda video game getting to climb rocks and canyons and choose my own path! We barely saw other people and distantly saw one ranger-led group, but it felt like we had the place to ourselves. We saw one gopher snake sunning itself at the start and plenty of lizards. We chose to follow the suggested path and make little detours as we pleased, but following the path was definitely difficult. The signs are tiny little brown and white arrows on brown rock, often making them hard to spot. Towards the middle/end, their appearance seemed to be quite sparse and we had to circle back a lot and explore potential paths multiple times to finally find an arrow but it was all part of the fun.
After completing the hike, we were craving a steak, so we left the park for lunch and ended up at Dewey's which was pretty good. We then met up with my family, who had spent the morning doing a thrilling hummer tour, and drove out to Canyonlands National Park Island in the Sky area. The national park is about a 40 minute drive from Moab with beautiful views along the way. After the visitor's center, we went to the most popular and easy trail: Mesa Arch. It is under a mile and quick with great views of the canyons and an arch you might recognize as a popular Windows 7 background. We were pretty tired from our morning hike, so we stopped at a viewpoint afterwards and then headed back to Moab. Some other hikes we would have considered were Whale Rock and Grand View Point Trail as well as watching the sunset at Dead Horse State Park ($20 entrance fee, outside the national park). Instead, we came back to Moab for dinner then took a Golden Hour/Sunset drive down Highway 128 along the Colorado River. We went to about Big Bend before heading back. It was really pretty!
Day 5: Boat Tour
This was our final and hottest day in Moab with temperatures hitting close to 90. It was a day for any hiking or activities we had missed in the parks, but my husband and I opted to sleep in and take it easy. My family went back to Canyonlands to drive around some more to the Grand View Point Overlook. Other extended family went to Dead Horse State Park, too. My husband and I slept in, did some shopping and got brunch at Moab Garage Co, which was actually delicious and had a great vibe! My friend who had recommended this place also recommended Milt's Stop and Eat but it was closed while we were in town. We considered doing some river tubing or renting bikes, but ultimately spent the rest of the afternoon reading and relaxing before our Sunset Jet Boat Tour and Dinner at 6pm. My whole extended family of all ages loved this tour! It was at a cooler time of day and the breeze from the jet boat was nice. Our guide Brandon was great--he expertly navigated the river and stopped at various points to point out cool formations and tell us stories. He was able to help us spot some huge beavers and we also saw lots of herons and egrets as well! The boat ride ended at the starting location where they had a large room set up with a buffet-style cowboy dinner. The food was pretty good and you could help yourself to as many servings as you wanted (which my husband definitely took advantage of). We ended the night at our rental house with all my extended family hanging out before the end of our trip!
Day 6: Salt Lake City
We checked out of the rental house by 10am and all of my extended family started their road trips back home. My husband and I had a more leisurely day--we had to drive the 3-4 hour trip back to Salt Lake City, but we were on an 11pm red-eye flight that night. We started our drive right at 10am and pretty much drove straight through to Provo, where we made an extremely important stop: lunch at Culver's. This is my favorite fast food burger chain. In my book it is definitely better than In-and-Out and yes, I know that is controversial. After lunch, we were thinking of doing a mountain hike, like Cecret Lake Trail (about 1.8 miles with some elevation gain). But ultimately, we didn't want to get sweaty before our flight and instead chose to take the scenic Big Cottonwood Canyon drive and make little stops along the way. This drive was gorgeous and the greenery was nice to see after being in the desert for the week! The weather was also nice and cool in the mountains. We took Big Cottonwood Canyon Rd all the way up to Brighton where we were able to then take S Guardsman Pass Rd--which had just opened for the season that week--over to Park City. We stopped in Park City for a snack, saw the Banksy artwork, and made our way back down to Salt Lake City.
By the time we got back to the city, it was around 6pm and we headed to Red Butte Garden and Arboretum which was absolutely amazing. It was $16/person to enter and well worth the price. They have an amazing display of flowers and plants with gorgeous views of the city. They also have a natural area attached to it--only accessible in the park--that has a few hiking trails that were so nice and pleasant. We spent so much time wandering, enjoying the pleasant weather, and taking in the views. We ended the day by checking out Weller Book Works before heading to the airport and grabbing some PF Chang's for a late dinner--an airport favorite of mine.
I wish we had decided to spend even one night in Salt Lake as it was a way cooler city than I was expecting! There is so much great hiking in the mountains less than an hour away, and the parts of the city itself that we were able to explore a bit were very fun and vibrant. Some ideas for next time we are in the city (other than hiking in the mountains) are: the Natural History Museum of Utah, Antelope Island State Park, and Utah Olympic Park.
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