… “because the Hoodoo know the voodoo that you do!”

~ B. Taylor

A last minute trip took us to Moab, UT. Didn’t camp this time, like we normally do when visiting the area. Our camper is parked and winterized for the season, but we still wanted and needed a quick getaway.

Made a couple of calls. One to a local hotel and another to the National Park Service to check on the current crowd situation, etc. Was excited to hear, since temperatures were in the mid to high 30’s, tourists are staying away for the most part; we know this is a temporary thing. Another month, and the town will be hopping; COVID or no COVID. On the dining front: most restaurants had indoor dinning with limited seating. We opted to do takeout, and enjoyed in-room dinning.

We stayed at the SpringHill Suites, Marriott property, because it’s a new property and north of town. We wanted to go into Arches the following day and this made it convenient. Nice property. Lovely pool area. I’m sure it’s the place to be in the summer months. Now it was closed; the hot tubs were open.

We’ve made many trips to Moab over the years. The last 5 or so years, the crowds at Arches National Park have made visiting this wonderful park impossible. Locals say that several times during the peak season (March-October), they will close the park for periods of time to allow people to leave before allowing others to go in. Would be difficult to enjoy the serenity of the area under those circumstances.

The park was our main destination on this trip. It did not disappoint. There were a few other visitors, but not many. The rock formations had a light dusting of snow on them. This was a first for me; I had never seen the red rocks with snow on them, outside of photos. Most of the trails were fine to walk on. The one trail we did encounter a bit of snow, was at Delicate Arch. But, the Yaktrax pro-system was all we needed to navigate the trail safely. I’ll leave you with some of the images I captured.

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For the sunset, we drove over to Island in the Sky at Canyonlands National Park.

Another section of Canyonlands we had been wanting to visit was the southern part; the Needles. Would have loved to do Chesler Park hike or even the overlook, but I wouldn’t of lasted on a 6 mile hike. My old hiking shoes hurt my feet the previous day. I ended up having to purchase new hiking shoes in town, and just couldn’t go for a long hike; we ended up enjoying smaller hikes. We first stopped at the Pothole Point, a real short loop with beautiful views of Chesler Park. On our second stop, at the end of the road, we had Confluence Overlook and Slickrock as possible hikes; we choose Slickrock. This was an easy 2.4-mile loop with 4 viewpoints along the way. Click here for more information on all of the hiking trails.

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We are already planning a return trip to the Needles. Will have to wait until October or November.

Until then, we have spring camping to plan. What are your plans for the spring? Share some of your favorite camping spots. Look forward to hearing from you.