Most national parks are a once-in-a-lifetime trip.
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Arches is more of a once-a-year problem.
We’ve now rolled the Monster Van into Moab five separate times, and every single time I think, “Surely we’ve seen everything by now.” And every single time, Arches makes me look like an idiot.
So at the risk of sounding like the unpaid tourism board for a place that has never once comped my family a hotel room (I remain available, Moab), here’s why we keep coming back.
1. It Looks Like Another Planet (In a Good Way)
There are only a handful of spots on earth that look like this, and most of them are CGI. Two thousand–plus stone arches, red rock stacked in ways that shouldn’t physically work, and that Delicate Arch you’ve seen on every Utah license plate — except in person it actually lives up to the hype.
Then the sun goes down and it somehow gets better. Arches is a certified Dark Sky Park, so once it’s dark out there, the sky fills up with more stars than my kids have ever counted (and trust me, they tried).
2. You Can See It Without Becoming a Backcountry Hero
Here’s the underrated part: Arches sits right outside Moab. No backcountry heroics — you grab a place in town, drive a few minutes, and you’re standing under a 100-foot arch before your coffee’s cold.
We’ve done it both ways, and honestly both are great:
- Stay close: an in-town hotel or Airbnb puts you 5–10 minutes from the gate — clutch when you’ve got little kids who hit a wall at 2 p.m. and need a pool.
- Stay out: Red Cliffs Lodge sits about a half hour out along the Colorado River and turns the whole thing into a once-in-a-lifetime setting — horses on the property, red cliffs out every window, and service at Chick-Fil-A levels (about the highest praise I can give a business).
That convenience is the whole reason we’ve pulled this off with everybody — toddlers, and Sarah’s grandparents, Papa and Granny, who in their 80s soaked up big chunks of the park right from the car.
3. The Hikes Are Bite-Sized (Except the One That Isn’t)
This is the secret sauce for families. Most of the showstoppers are short walks, not death marches:
- Double Arch — basically a parking lot away, and the kids can scramble right up into it. It’s our most-photographed spot for a reason.
- The Windows — two giant arches, a flat little loop, maximum payoff for minimum whining.
- Balanced Rock — 3,500 tons of boulder doing its best impression of something that’s about to fall on you.
And then there’s Delicate Arch, the one real hike — about 3 miles round trip with zero shade, which in June feels roughly like jogging across the surface of the sun. But even that one our kids have done. The last stretch hugs a ledge that’ll make any parent want to yell “stay to the RIGHT,” right up until you realize the second you say “Hudson…” he’ll spin around and walk off a cliff. So you just hold your breath instead.
The first time we made it up there at sunset, a kind stranger named Eduard offered to take our family photo. Turned out he was a professional harp player from Canada, touring the country. You meet the most random, wonderful people on a rock in the desert.
4. It Grows Up With Your Kids
This is the real reason we keep coming back, and you can see it in the pictures.
In 2019, the boys were little — Jackson was 8, Hudson 7, and Grayson barely 5 and more interested in the dirt than the arches.
By 2024 they were 13, 12, and 10, and now they’re the ones scrambling ahead of me, hunting down the sketchiest rock to climb and looking back like “you coming, or what?”
Same red rock, totally different kids each time. Arches doesn’t change — they do — and going back every couple years has turned into this accidental time-lapse of our family growing up against the prettiest backdrop in America.
So, Five Trips In…
People ask if we get bored going back to the same park.
We don’t. Because we’re not really going back for the arches — they’ve looked exactly the same for the last 100,000 years and they’ll look the same next time. We’re going back for who we get to bring, and who they’re becoming each time we do.
So if Arches is on your “someday” list, do me a favor and make it a “this year” list instead. Grab Moab, grab a couple of short hikes, and stay out past sunset.
#Worthit
