Traveler II
Planning 5 days in Moab area, never been there before I was wondering if anyone could make trail suggestions, must sees for the area?
Thanks for any suggestions!
Thanks for any suggestions!
Moab - Canyonlands and Arches
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Member III
First, what time of year and where do you plan to stay? How much of a trail challenge are you up for?
Traveler II
Middle of April and I am up for moderate trails but would like to majority of easy/moderate no difficult. Plan to camp in the truck camper.
Member III
April will be nice (except maybe for crowds). Let me know if you need any camping suggestions.
For the Canyonlands side, one suggestion would be to make some sort of loop combining Potash Rd to Schafer Trail and back on Gemini Bridges or Long Canyon. Or the other way around....
For Arches, you could go out Salt Valley Rd to Tower Arch and back on Eye of the Whale. You'll be there at Willow Springs Rd. It's a back door to Arches where a lot of folks camp. Lately we've been camping on the next road to the north, Dalton Wells Rd.
The run over Hurrah Pass and out to Chicken Corners is fun, but makes for a long day.
Also, TrailsOffroad.com is a great resource for these trails.
For the Canyonlands side, one suggestion would be to make some sort of loop combining Potash Rd to Schafer Trail and back on Gemini Bridges or Long Canyon. Or the other way around....
For Arches, you could go out Salt Valley Rd to Tower Arch and back on Eye of the Whale. You'll be there at Willow Springs Rd. It's a back door to Arches where a lot of folks camp. Lately we've been camping on the next road to the north, Dalton Wells Rd.
The run over Hurrah Pass and out to Chicken Corners is fun, but makes for a long day.
Also, TrailsOffroad.com is a great resource for these trails.
Member III
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I recommend Charles Wells books on Moab.
Member III
I still have mine from about 20 years ago before they were spiral bound. Many of the pages are falling out, but I got a lot of use out of it back then.
Mrprez
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Enthusiast III
We have this for Moab, N and S Colorado, they are excellent.
We visited Moab for the first time this past year (Summer 2020). I put my wife into a Barlow Adventures offroad driving course. Nadi was an excellent instructor. You can contact him directly here: 4x4guide.com We learned everything we needed to know about driving trails in that area. We went from being nervous on what we thought were harder trails to being confident on what was actually harder trails (those other trails were very easy.) The group rate cost was about $325 for both of us ($250 for the driver and $75 for the passenger). I highly recommend that you get with Nadi on day 1.
Also, purchase the Guide to Moab, UT Backroads & 4-Wheel-Drive Trails book. You can get it on Amazon or at any adventure shop in Moab. When you are on trails that interest with a bunch of other trails, it is easy to get confused. This book will keep you on the trail and guide you back to civilization. Get Gaia Maps too (GaiaGPS.com). Learn how to use it before you get there.
I hope this helps.
-B
Also, purchase the Guide to Moab, UT Backroads & 4-Wheel-Drive Trails book. You can get it on Amazon or at any adventure shop in Moab. When you are on trails that interest with a bunch of other trails, it is easy to get confused. This book will keep you on the trail and guide you back to civilization. Get Gaia Maps too (GaiaGPS.com). Learn how to use it before you get there.
I hope this helps.
-B
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Traveler II
Thank you for the info I am not against training but not seeking it at this time. I have already purchased local Moab (North, South), Canyonlands, Arches NP and UT backroads trail book. I also have a few GPS apps that I use for navigation. I am primarily looking for suggestions on trails since you can only gleam so much from books.
Traveler II
Since this is a trip with significant other I will skip trails that have too much pucker factor!
Member III
We did Chicken Corners, Dome Plateau and Cameo Cliffs prior to taking the class. Barlow suggested these trails, they are all pretty good. Most take 4 to 5 hours.
Traveler II
Influencer I
Are there any easy trails that make a loop with a main road? Wife is going with me in a few weeks and she said I could do a couple of hours of off-roading, which really means gravel roads. I won’t have any recovery gear as this will be part of a longer trip. Any suggestions? The above sound interesting, but I think 4 hours will be too long.
Traveler II
Check out Willow Springs Rd. it will take you directly into Arches NP super easy and neat place to see dino prints along the way.
Member III
You could make a really neat loop with Long Canyon and then Schafer / Potash Rd. Not sure if it would meet your time constraints, but those are pretty quick routes. We could look at Trailsoffroad.com and see how long they put it at.
Influencer I
Thanks. I actually subscribed to TO yesterday and recall downloading Potash Rd among others. I’ll have to look for the others. Mineral Bottom road looks neat, but that may take too long. Sure is easy to import those tracks into GaiaGPS now. Thanks again for suggestions.
...So, while I was standing here, I checked out Shafer Trail on TO. That looks more fun than Potash and would be a neat end to that route. Not sure how I missed that. Already imported!
Member III
Yes, Schafer is the attraction. Potash is just the route to/from. Oh, and War Eagle, BTW. ;)
Here's a photo I took recently from just above Schafer:
Pioneer II
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Yep!
Canyonlands - Mesa Arch - It's only a 1/4-mile hike there - World Renowned Arch - A must-see Arch - Get there early! It's already crowded before sunrise to vie for the best position for the awesome morning shot.
Arches - Delicate Arch - The other world-famous arch - It's on the Utah License Plate - A much longer hike to get to, but totally worth it.
Other than that, get the map/guide from the gate and start choosing based upon your ability and time available.
Best of luck - no matter where you go or what you see, you'll not have enough time, so enjoy what you do see - I've been multiple times and still need much, much more time there!
