When I was planning a trip to Colorado a few years ago, I was trying to find somewhere new and exciting we could visit that wasn’t more than a 5-hour drive to get to. Somehow I hadn’t realized it was actually a reasonable drive from Denver – just around 6 hours. Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park looked really cool to visit and I was excited to see it all with the kids. We decided it would be too long of a drive to go straight there and since my husband hadn’t been to Vail in Colorado, it felt like a good way to break up the drive and it was right along I-70. We had also planned to stop at the canyons at Colorado National Monument, but we ended up feeling too tired after Vail and figured we’d be seeing canyons in Moab so it was fine to skip it. I also wanted to make sure we had time to check in, get something to eat, and then get to Arches National Park for sunset.

Luckily for anyone going this year (2026) and after, you won’t be required to get a timed-entry ticket and can go anytime! You still need to buy an admission ticket at the gate to enter though, which is $30. Or, you could do what we did and purchase the American the Beautiful National Parks pass in advance (here) that is good for a year and covers the cost of both Arches and Canyonlands, among many others. It’s a good deal at $80 for U.S. citizens and residents if planning to visit 3 or more parks within a year. For non-residents is it’s $250 so, maybe not great if you won’t be seeing too many parks. You can buy it far enough in advance to have it mailed to you or, pick it up at a federal recreation site or, get a digital pass.

The drive to Moab from Vail took about 4 hours, which wasn’t bad. We checked in at the Element by Marriott hotel. It was fairly new and clean and a good location, being less than 10 minutes from Arches National Park and about 10 minutes to the start of UT-313, which leads into Canyonlands National Park. We grabbed some food from Quesadilla Mobilla (food truck) and some pizza from Canyon Pizza. Both places were good. After eating, we headed to the North Window Arch at Arches. Arriving near sunset time was perfect as most people started leaving the park so it wasn’t too crowded and the temperature was much cooler. We hung out at the arch until the sun had mostly gone down and then drove around the park some more, waiting for the sky to darken for some stargazing. We parked at the Balanced Rock and enjoy the stars until the kids really started complaining! Since we were planning to get up for a sunrise, I didn’t want to push them to be up too late so we headed back.

The next day we headed to Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park for sunrise photos. As I say in many posts, I absolutely love the morning and catching a sunrise!! It was still enjoyable even with the kids complaining! We stopped at some viewpoints along the way to Mesa Arch that were so amazing. The kids had no interest in getting out of the car so, my husband and I took turns running and catching a view. Mesa Arch was a slightly further hike (1/2 mile loop) to reach from the parking lot though, and my husband felt it would be too long for both of us to take turns going so, I quickly went to the arch and snapped some photos before heading back to the car. (I think he was honestly too tired to do it like the kids lol.) We had grabbed some bananas and bars in case they were hungry, which they ate and were still hungry and wanting an actual breakfast by the time we finished at Mesa Arch.

We headed back to the hotel for the breakfast there, which was decent. We then got ready to go Arches National Park. It was such a hot day, with full sun and mid-90s, and we unfortunately started a little late that we weren’t able to do too many trails. We snapped some photos at the Double Arch and Park Avenue Viewpoint and were quite hot and done by then. We maybe could have lasted a little longer if we hadn’t gotten up so early for the sunrise, but that was 100% worth it. Going in early August probably isn’t the best time if you want to avoid the heat. I’m sure going in the fall would be amazing and maybe another time we will do that. Or maybe we’ll go at that time for the other beautiful parks in Utah one day!

After the arches we started our drive back to Colorado where we stopped for some lunch along the way, and then headed towards Glenwood Springs, where we would stay for the night so that we could visit Maroon Bells for another sunrise!

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