Utah: Exploring Moab
Today was my final final, meaning my first semester of graduate school is complete! It’s actually bittersweet, especially when I look back at just a few months ago when I was just starting to get to know other students through this track trip to Moab.
I had wanted to visit Moab since last year when we took this short trip. So I was excited when just before the start of graduate school, the marketing track trip was to Moab! It included a hummer tour ride, hikes to Corona Arch and Delicate Arch, a river rafting trip (don’t have photos of that — but it was intense!) and a lot of meeting great people and eating good food.
If you’re planning to visit Utah or want a weekend or a day trip from within Utah – here are some fun things you can do:
Hummer Tour
I was most excited about the Hummer tour although I think the river rafting and hikes became more my favorite. The Hummer tour was almost like a tour to show how crazy amazing the Hummer is by it’s ability to traverse rocks going straight down and straight up, over large rocks, and at one point even doing a sort of Hummer “wheelie”.
My favorite part was when we got out of the Hummer (they let us out a couple times to give us background on different parts of where we were driving through) and there was a canyon that resulted in echoes. So we yelled a bunch of different things like “moist,” “Cougars,” and “BYU Cougars” to see if we could get multiple echoes going. It worked!
If you’re looking for something for the family that’s safe, exciting, and a good way to see the surroundings, this is a good choice.
Bowtie and Corona Arch
In all honesty, I liked Corona Arch over Delicate Arch. Both were extremely beautiful, and maybe it was the time of day, but the hike was easy, pretty fast, and the arch itself stood out so beautifully against all the rest of the red rock.
Roundtrip it’s about 3 miles. Along the way to Corona Arch is another arch called “Bowtie”— a two for one hike! My only regret was not having enough time to climb to the top of the arches (although part of the reason was because it can be dangerous when coming down).
River Rafting
River rafting in Moab is not like river rafting in Colorado or in Tennessee. It’s more of a relaxing ride down the river. You barely have to paddle and there’s only a couple rapids. I’m not sure the tour company we used, but it’s probably best not to say because the best part of the trip was jumping out of the rafts and dragging others in from the other rafts (which is technically not allowed). It was intense but so much fun.
Each group had a bucket that we were all trying to get (we all know each other and are part of the same program — people who did not want to be pulled in went on the “Canada” raft before the tour started). At one point I was sitting in the raft, and someone was pulling my life jacket to get me out of the raft, while someone else had commandeered the raft, lifted my legs up and I went over into the water backwards. It honestly became my favorite part of the trip. I laughed so much once I let go of “will anyone get hurt?” caution. Luckily no one did.
Delicate Arch
On the last morning, before driving back to Provo, we all hiked to Delicate Arch together. It’s also a moderate 3 mile hike. For some reason, it felt slightly more intense than Corona Arch, but what a beautiful site it was. I believe this one is so well-known because it’s really sort of a stand-alone, versus Corona which is still part of the larger rock.
The light opening beneath the arch is 46 feet high and 32 feet wide, making it the largest free-standing arch in the park. — Source
I understand why this arch is on all the license plates and I would love to come back and see it at sunset.
Moab is full of many fun things to do. From Arches National Park to good restaurants, hummer tours, and beautiful scenery everywhere it’s worth a good stay.
