Happy New Year!!  We had the best time celebrating Christmas with our family and wanted to get in one last trip before the years end, so we headed down to Moab for a few days to get in some hiking and enjoy the outdoors. If you don’t mind the colder weather this time of year can be great to visit because there are less crowds, cheaper hotel rooms, and you’ll get to see the iconic landscape during the winter season.

Since this was a quick trip, our plan was to fit in as many sites as we could in a short amount of time, so our first stop into Moab was Arches National Park. One of the cool things we loved about Arches were the views you could see simply driving the road through the park. There are many short hikes to choose from and we wanted to go to Devil’s Garden to Landscape Arch and Navajo Arch. Even though the trail was packed with ice and snow the short hike was well worth the cold weather. Next we went to see Double Arch in the Window Section of the park. What we loved about this section were the snow covered La Sal Mountains in the background. Plus there is just something special about being able to walk right up to this arch and stand underneath such a massive monument. 

The next day we woke up bright and early and headed south of Moab to see Newspaper Rock on our way to Canyonlands.  Newspaper Rock is one of the largest and best preserved rock art panels in the southwest. It is covered with so many different petroglyphs it’s exhilarating to sit and look at all the different symbols and images and imagine what they might mean. We then went on to the Needles District in the southeast corner of Canyonlands to make lunch and go on a short hike. The wild terrain in this area made it fun to search and explore and we wandered around for hours. We were all a little sad when the sun started to go down and we knew it was time to head out of the park and make the long drive back to Moab. 

Our last day we decided that we couldn’t go home before seeing Dead Horse Point since none of us had been there before. All the pictures I have seen of this place can’t compare to being there in person and seeing the vast landscape laid out before you. It is so cool to see the way the river has carved itself through the rock and everything feels endless as you can see for miles. We loved being able to stand on the edge and glance below us and see the many layers of rock. 

We were in denial we were heading home and didn’t want the trip to end so we drove back into Canyonlands to Island in the Sky and stopped at the Grandview Point Overlook. Thank goodness that’s where the road ended so we couldn’t keep going, because this was definitely one of those trips where you never want to go home! 

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54 thoughts on “Red Rock

  1. We love this area and all of the parks! We return every April, which use to be a good time but is now more crowded. There is just so much to see and do that our month is never long enough. Winter is probably the best time since the parks are becoming way overcrowded. What a fun holiday!

    1. We never feel like we have enough time anywhere! There is always so much to do and see! Every time we go somewhere we are already talking about return trips! Lol thanks for reading!!

  2. Looks like the perfect way to end the year and welcome the new one in! I absolutely loathe the cold but will power through for just what you said, less crowds and better views of the mountains! Great pictures!

    1. Thank you!! It was definitely cold but so fun to see everything covered in snow! And it was much warmer than back home too where the snow has been unreal lately! Best way to end the year for sure! Now we just need another trip to go on to start the year off right! 😊

    1. Thanks! It was so pretty and we loved it! We went just our little family…the three of us! It was perfect and so fun to do something like this together! Happy new year to you! Hope you had a fabulous Christmas!

  3. Wow how incredible! I’m always amazed at the beautiful natural landmarks, canyons, mountains, everything that this world has to offer! The pictures you took to capture it all are beautiful, I feel like I’m practically there, although I wish that I was actually there! Ha Thanks for sharing this little slice of beauty with us!

    xo, JJ

    1. Thanks so much! We love that there is so much versatility in Utah and you can drive around and see so many incredible sites! We have so much fun seeing everything in the different seasons! 😊 although, I am getting ready for summer and the warm weather again… and it’s only January! I have a long ways to go! Lol

  4. Love the mountains! It’s very sweet to see that you can share such passions with your other half – inspirational post as always. ☺️

    1. Thanks for reading! We love to do this type of stuff together so we always have the best time going out! Makes it fun to have other people that like to see our adventures too!

    1. Yes everything is so amazing! The scenery you get all around you kinda blows me away! There is so much to see and do that we never feel like we have enough time to fit everything in! We are already wanting to go back and we were just there last week! Lol

      1. The first time we went, we happened to time it for Jeep Week. Oops. But it actually wasn’t that bad as there’s lots of places to escape the off road vehicles and the drivers were very good about waiting for you to get up a hill, or to a good point in the trail before passing you (we were biking mostly that trip).

      2. Wow I bet it was so busy during that week! Lol.. glad you could still enjoy your trip! Sometimes when there are so many other people around it’s hard to truly enjoy things the way you wanted! That’s why we started to like off seasons to visit places like this!

  5. Thanks for giving me a chance to revisit those wonderful parks. My daughter, mother and I spent two weeks years ago exploring that area, and your pictures allowed me to remember the beauty.

  6. With the main picture and title, I was thinking this was going to be a post about somewhere in Nevada or Arizona but nope! Totally forget about Utah sometimes haha.

  7. I know those kinds of feelings, when leaving a trip, all too well. Looks like a beautiful np to visit.

    1. How cool you were there too! It was the perfect time to go between the holidays. We were a little surprised by how busy Arches was for the off season. Everyone must have had the same idea we did to go during the winter! Haha

  8. WOW! I am pumped by this post!!! We made it to almost all the same places when we were down there a couple years ago. Most of what we did was cycling, but we did do a little hiking as well. We did cycle through Arches park, to Island in the Sky, and to Needles point. What a beautiful area!! Being in the desert was really peaceful for me.

    Thanks for sharing!

    1. How fun to cycle through all of those areas! Island in the sky is so pretty and MASSIVE! I already want to go back there is so much to do! I would love to bike these trails sometime!

  9. Hello! Saw your comment on my blog and came to return the favor of checking out your blog. And boy am I glad I did! What gorgeous pictures. Trying more hiking would be great..just need to avoid the heights if i could haha.

    Would love to invite you to follow me on my blogging journey

    https://holisticbeautyy.wordpress.com

    -From a new follower 😁

  10. Wow! You have such great adventures and lovely pictures! I’ll defiantly follow, love travels and adventures wish I could do more of them. Be nice to see more of these! Inspirations❤ if you want to find helpful tips if you ever stuck for inspiration on fashion and beauty tips come check out my blog or follow if you like any of my reads? Hope you do like the reviews! Thanks a lot!

  11. The very top photo catches my eye. It reminded me of when we were in Pitt meadows the other day boating and the sky looked like this, beautiful

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