What to See in Beautiful Canyonlands National Park

The last two parks we visited on our road trip through Utah were located in Moab.  In this one town, you could easily spend a few days.  We wrapped up our trip by spending one day in Canyonlands and our last day in Arches.  If you’ve been following us on this journey, you know that Utah has some pretty spectacular sights—and Canyonlands certainly didn’t disappoint.

What make Canyonlands a favorite park?

Each of us have had a favorite park, but Canyonlands was my oldest son’s favorite.  Bryce was a close second for him, but his reasoning for bumping Canyonlands to his number one spot was the fact that you can see so much without have to do a lot of hiking.  He is definitely our laziest kid and probably the one who likes hiking the least, but he’s not wrong.

Canyonlands is a perfect park to visit if you don’t want to/can’t do a ton of hiking, but want to see incredible views.  A lot of the hikes are either really short with a big payoff or they are just viewpoints that are easy to park, view and go.

Hikes & Overlooks

Our drive from Capitol Reef to Canyonlands was a good two hour plus hike so we only spent about half the day in the park.  In that time, we were able to see a ton.  Mesa Arch was definitely one of our favorite viewpoints.  This is a hike, but it’s a short one and totally worth it!  The arch is cool and what’s below is kind of scary—so definitely keep your little ones close!  This hike was one of the kids’ favorites, not only for the view, but for the rock climbing.  That was probably the thing they enjoyed most about our hikes in Utah—there were so many places to climb!

Grandview Overlook was also pretty amazing—it reminded me of a mini–Grand Canyon.  This was not really a hike—we were able to park and follow a paved walkway right to the overlook.  We hit a few other overlooks including Green River Overlook, Orange Cliffs overlook and Buck Canyon Overlook.  The landscape was gorgeous and the backdrop of the La Sal Mountains just added to the beauty.

Hoodoo Moab, Curio by Hilton

We stayed at the Hoodoo Moab, Curio Collection by Hilton, which was a pretty fancy hotel.  I will say this is not our typical choice when it comes to hotels.  We tend to stay in more budget-friendly hotels, like Hampton Inn, whereas this was a luxury hotel.  That does not mean that we won’t stay in luxury hotels when we can though! This one was beautiful and I’d certainly stay there again in a heartbeat!

I’ve mentioned in other posts that I’m a Hilton Honors member and I have the Hilton Honors credit card.  This hotel was over $500 a night, but I earned a reward stay through my Hilton credit card.  I was able to use this on any room, as long as it was available.  They say “Go big or go home,” right?—so I booked it! 

Since we’re Diamond Members with Hilton, we also got $30 in food credit.  When the kids were enjoying some night swimming, we sat out on the patio of the restaurant/bar and ordered some drinks and appetizers.  Can’t beat a free stay AND free food!

Moab Food Truck Park

For dinner, we walked right across the street to a Food Truck Park.  There had to be 10+ food trucks set up with a variety of choices.  From Tacos and Sushi to sandwiches and ice cream.  Our kids like choices and this gave everyone the ability to get something they really liked.  Our youngest had tacos, our middle one had sushi and our oldest had Chinese.  I think my husband had a little bit of everything and I went with a caprese sandwich.  Everything we had was really good too.

Dan Mick’s Jeep Tours

When I was planning our time in Moab, I read so many great reviews for Dan Mick’s Jeep Tours.  We considered renting a Jeep, but rentals are a little scary when you’re going to be off-roading.  I didn’t want to get stuck with some crazy bill because a rock flew up and dented the vehicle or cracked a windshield.  Instead, we opted to have someone else do the driving for us!

We booked a Sunset Tour so our driver picked us up right at our hotel around 5:30pm.  I watched some of the videos of what we’d be climbing and it seemed a little scary; however, it looked fun as heck!  I figured our boys would love it and I was 100% right!  This excursion ended up being one of their favorites.  Although they were a little nervous at times too, they still had a blast. 

Hell’s Revenge

We climbed one of the most known slick-rock trails in Utah, Hell’s Revenge.  I swear, it seemed like we were driving up a 90 degree hill!  There were all sorts of trails we did, most of which made me think that if vehicles were superheroes, Jeeps would definitely be Spiderman!  I don’t know how we managed to not flip over!  What I do know, is that Jeeps are incredible!

Our guide took us to a cool spot just before sunset overlooking the Colorado River.  He had some snacks and drinks for us too. We were able to take in the beauty and snap some pictures and then we were on our way to do some more Jeeping!

By the time we got back to our hotel, it was completely dark.  The tour was a good 3 hours and was a blast.  If you’re in Moab, I’d highly suggest taking a tour with Dan Mick’s!

What do you recommend?

Have you been to Moab or Canyonlands?  What would you recommend?

If you need more Utah inspiration, check out our other posts on Zion, Bryce Canyon, Kanab and Capitol Reef.