Other Moab Must-do's?

[azm]

My wife and I are going to the Moab Off-Roadeo in October. Staying at Red Cliffs for 3 nights, then 3 more nights downtown. First time to Moab. Any tips on what else to do, eat, drink?

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[GoTigersGoBronco]

Arches Thai was amazing.

Dead Horse Point State Park is def worth a visit.

 

[azuano3654]

Delicate Arch and the rest of Arches NP - must do.

 

[Bullitt]

I loved Delicate Arch when I was there. (I took this pic back in April) Lot's of parks to visit in that area.

I enjoyed eating at the Blu Pig, downtown Moab.

 

[Rick Astley]

If you enjoy good beer: Bring your own. Utah beer is not that great, and capped at 4.9% ABV as well. It's a strange mix of "sin laws" over there.

Canyonlands is fantastic to rent a Jeep and go explore in. The White Rim trail requires a permit you purchase in advance (either at the explorer center in downtown Moab or online, the online system is pretty bad) and is a lower level skill environment so if you're brand new to it, it's soooooo much fun and beautiful the entire way.

Schafer Trail is fantastic and not as difficult as it looks. Unless it's raining hard and the whole road turns to slick clay, as it was when we went.... Pretty scary when water flows over the clay.

I can't talk up Twisted Jeeps enough, they were amazing to rent a rig with. The most capable rigs you can rent which ended up being fantastic for us beginners as we were drastically more comfortable than those we encountered with stock Rubicon rentals. Since it's not your rig, just get the built one and crush everything!

Rent in advance, they book out quickly! https://www.twistedjeeps.com/

Arches is more of a "drive to enjoy" park without as many hikes or places to get out as the other S.E Utah NP's. The only viable hike of any difficulty/great views is Devil's Garden and only if you include the primitive trail, which is a nice hike, but other than that, you're pimping a parking lot and paved walking path.

https://www.nps.gov/arch/planyourvisit/devils-garden.htm

 

[OU812]

Lots of national parks to see and things to do in them.

If you are going on the off roads or back roads, be sure to check road conditions. The White Rim trail is pretty straightforward in good conditions, but if you happened to catch some rain, there are a couple sections that could get interesting. And once you are out there on the White Rim, there is no easy shortcut to get off of it. Start with a full gas tank!

National Parks road conditions
https://www.nps.gov/cany/planyourvisit/road-conditions.htm

 

[azm]

If you enjoy good beer: Bring your own. Utah beer is not that great, and capped at 4.9% ABV as well. It's a strange mix of "sin laws" over there.

Canyonlands is fantastic to rent a Jeep and go explore in. The White Rim trail requires a permit you purchase in advance (either at the explorer center in downtown Moab or online, the online system is pretty bad) and is a lower level skill environment so if you're brand new to it, it's soooooo much fun and beautiful the entire way.

Schafer Trail is fantastic and not as difficult as it looks. Unless it's raining hard and the whole road turns to slick clay, as it was when we went.... Pretty scary when water flows over the clay.

I can't talk up Twisted Jeeps enough, they were amazing to rent a rig with. The most capable rigs you can rent which ended up being fantastic for us beginners as we were drastically more comfortable than those we encountered with stock Rubicon rentals. Since it's not your rig, just get the built one and crush everything!

Rent in advance, they book out quickly! https://www.twistedjeeps.com/

Arches is more of a "drive to enjoy" park without as many hikes or places to get out as the other S.E Utah NP's. The only viable hike of any difficulty/great views is Devil's Garden and only if you include the primitive trail, which is a nice hike, but other than that, you're pimping a parking lot and paved walking path.

https://www.nps.gov/arch/planyourvisit/devils-garden.htm

Were you able to do White Rim trail and Schafer Trail in the same day? Trying to decide if renting a jeep for the day will be long enough.

 

[azm]

Thanks to all of you for the tips.

Thinking about a jeep rental one day and a side-by-side on another. Arches tour seems doable by regular rental car, although we won't look as cool.

 

[Briley]

Plenty of gear shops in town. They can set you up with a guide to go canyoneering, rafting, whatever you want. Moab is the outdoor playground.

 

[Rick Astley]

Were you able to do White Rim trail and Schafer Trail in the same day? Trying to decide if renting a jeep for the day will be long enough.

Technically, yes.

We drove the highway from Moab to Canyonlands, where almost upon entry into Canyonlands, you take the first left and are on Schafer Trail's upper elevation.

Once you're at the crossroads down on the flats you just keep going straight at the intersection and you're on the White Rim Trail. That would be the trail heading straight up through the middle of the photo above.

(pro tip: This is your best chance at a quality outhouse along the trail. Pack it in, pack it out, or use this outhouse if you don't feel like carrying your human waste!)

We took WRT for about 5 hours, including stops, photos, and scattering some ashes in the Colorado River. Then we turned around and came back to the junction and outhouse (hit that thing for a second time!). Finally we took the alternate route from the junction home, this was, if I remember correctly, Potash road. It was bumpy, fun, beautiful and long. Overall we did about 12 hours in the saddle to get back by 4pm to hit Hells Revenge (short loop, didn't do the off-limits spots) and drop off the rental.

There were very few sections which required any great offroading skill considering the beastly rental rig we had. We felt comfortable and in control for the entire trip, yet we also had an amazingly fun time and LOVED being offroad. Folks who had rental non-modified Rubicons looked to be getting beat up pretty badly, especially on Potash road, where we were having more fun, seeing more, going a little faster and crushing obstacles. If we had the base Rubicon I bet we would have gone 1/4 the total distance and needed a hot tub and massage evening.

Note: I don't plan on modifying my Badlands nearly as much as the Twisted Jeeps rig was set up, but i'll still have plenty of fun. It was a treat to drive their rig though!

Edit: mentioned in my first post: Call up the Twisted Jeep guys the morning BEFORE your rental day and say you would like to possibly pick up the rig the night before your rental day. SOME of the rigs come in before the 6PM drop-off and closing time. The rigs that come back right at 6 pm (like ours!) aren't available), but there's always folks who do a shorter day and drop off by 5 pm. If the rig checks out, they will let you take that rig. They will suggest some easy trails for you to do even as the light is failing. Use this opportunity to get acclimated to the big rig you've rented! If you're a billion-view YouTube famous, multi-platinum selling rock star like me, you don't have much experience with vehicles like this. It helped us feel comfortable and took the edge off for the next day.

Then you already have your rig so you don't have to pick it up at 9 AM. By 9AM we had already been on the trails for a few hours to maximize our rental day.

You can easily do both these trails (note: Absolutely not the entire White Rim Trail, it's just too many miles and too slow of a MPH). Pick your spot where you'll turn around. I guarantee you that even driving back on the road you took in will be different and will be fun.

 

[JKBL4]

If you enjoy good beer: Bring your own. Utah beer is not that great, and capped at 4.9% ABV as well. It's a strange mix of "sin laws" over there.

Canyonlands is fantastic to rent a Jeep and go explore in. The White Rim trail requires a permit you purchase in advance (either at the explorer center in downtown Moab or online, the online system is pretty bad) and is a lower level skill environment so if you're brand new to it, it's soooooo much fun and beautiful the entire way.

Schafer Trail is fantastic and not as difficult as it looks. Unless it's raining hard and the whole road turns to slick clay, as it was when we went.... Pretty scary when water flows over the clay.

I can't talk up Twisted Jeeps enough, they were amazing to rent a rig with. The most capable rigs you can rent which ended up being fantastic for us beginners as we were drastically more comfortable than those we encountered with stock Rubicon rentals. Since it's not your rig, just get the built one and crush everything!

Rent in advance, they book out quickly! https://www.twistedjeeps.com/

Arches is more of a "drive to enjoy" park without as many hikes or places to get out as the other S.E Utah NP's. The only viable hike of any difficulty/great views is Devil's Garden and only if you include the primitive trail, which is a nice hike, but other than that, you're pimping a parking lot and paved walking path.

https://www.nps.gov/arch/planyourvisit/devils-garden.htm

Not going to argue the strange sin laws at all, but for what it’s worth utah beer is not in any way capped for ABV. Tap beer is limited to 4.9% statewide regardless of where it’s made. Bottled can conversely be any ABV (at the liquor store) regardless of origin.

 

[Destroyer]

Do a SXS rental. Don't worry about paying for a guide or tour through certain trails. Just rent one for a few hours and do the stuff on your own. Since SXS's rentals are street legal there in certain areas, you can drive from trail to trail through the town of Moab.

 

[Rick Astley]

Not going to argue the strange sin laws at all, but for what it’s worth utah beer is not in any way capped for ABV. Tap beer is limited to 4.9% statewide regardless of where it’s made. Bottled can conversely be any ABV (at the liquor store) regardless of origin.

I should clarify that when traveling, I specifically go for tap beers as they will generally be fresher and higher quality. Utah was a great disappointment in this.

Also, the grocery stores in Moab seemed to only stock the same 4-5 local beers that were on tap and some basics (bud light/coors), all of which were also capped at 4.9% or just crappy beer.

As we didn't like the grocery store selections, the employees said we had to go to a state-run liquor store to get any other beers. The tax on them was obscene and we were pretty much fed up with the state-politics by then.

 

[Daktari]

I've only been once, a couple things we did in a rented Wrangler sport with 2 inch lift and larger tires:

Gemini Bridges + side trail to stop for a hike ending up under the Gemini Bridges, then Shafer Trail back down to Moab.

Arches National Park, a day spent on pavement and hiking

Onion Creek and a bit further on the top, then back down and over to Fisher Towers for a hike, bizarre wonderful landscape! Lots of creek crossings on the creek trail, gorgeous landscape, easy trail.

Chicken Corners all the way to the end, the last two turns were a bit heart rate increasing, Colorado River 450 ft down to the side, while "driving into the sky"

Canyon Lands - Needles District out to the start of Elephant Hill trail, hiking from there, an other day on pavement. I hope to do Elephant Hill with my Bronco, but I'll wait to see videos of others trying to squeeze it through that short super narrow part, devil's something something.

Dinosaur tracks/bones at Copper Mill, then part of the 3D trail to Thrusher Tunnel, then up to the top of the mesa and down Long Canyon, and then we managed to squeeze in the southern part of Fins’ and Things before going back to Moab so the kids could select some souvenirs and we grabbed a last dinner.

As for food and drink, I don't remember the names of the places, but everything was decent, same as any other touristy place. Pizza, Mexican, Thai, Burgers etc, mostly all on the main street through town. Nothing spectacular, but nothing bad either.

 

[BFizzy]

I should clarify that when traveling, I specifically go for tap beers as they will generally be fresher and higher quality. Utah was a great disappointment in this.

Also, the grocery stores in Moab seemed to only stock the same 4-5 local beers that were on tap and some basics (bud light/coors), all of which were also capped at 4.9% or just crappy beer.

As we didn't like the grocery store selections, the employees said we had to go to a state-run liquor store to get any other beers. The tax on them was obscene and we were pretty much fed up with the state-politics by then.

I think it’s a nice feature that all styles of draft beer are “sessionable” in Utah.

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