Sights When Visiting Moab and Arches

An Overview of Moab and Arches

Best known for its extrodinary number of outdoor activities, Moab is a large city located in Grand County, Eastern Utah. The dramatic landscape in the surrounding region includes vast deserts, rugged rock formations, eroded cliffs, imposing stone pillars and unique arches. The area is especially famous for Arches National Park, which is home to over 2,000 stone arches, amazing rock fins, balanced boulders and red-gulley formations. As one of the best places in the world for hiking, ATV driving, rock climbing, mountain biking, canyon kayaking, desert exploration and horseback riding, there are many sights when visiting Moab and Arches.

Sights When Visiting Moab and Arches

Moab Museum

The Moab Museum focuses on the immense natural history of the region, with exhibits describing geology, paleontology and archeology. The museum also touches on the pioneer and mining history of the region.

Corona Arch

This is an especially elegant natural sandstone arch in Moab, found after hiking a 1.5-mile trail from Utah State Route 279. The arch can be found near the other formations, including Pinto Arch and Bowtie Arch.

Jug Handle Arch

This is a unique arch formation extending from the side of a squat cliff into the ground. The arch can be found near the Colorado River off of Highway 279.

Courthouse Towers

The Courthouse Towers are a series of massive monoliths and towering walls offering distant views of the imposing La Sal Mountains.

Eye of the Whale Arch

This is a remote arch with a narrow gap roughly formed into an eye-shape.

Moab Giants

Found along the main highway, this open-air museum doubles as a dinosaur park with a small desert trail wandering through life-sized models of prehistoric creatures.

Balanced Rock

Widely recognized as one of the most distinct landmarks in Arches National Park, this 128-foot-tall rock formation is a large boulder precariously standing atop an eroded pedestal of Dewey Bridge mudstone.

Delicate Arch

This is an impressively narrow 52-foot-tall freestanding stone archway.

Petrified Dunes

These unique rock formations show ancient sand dunes cemented into solid formations.

Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite

This site is home to an expanse filled with Early Cretaceous dinosaur footprints preserved in stone.

Devil’s Garden Trailhead

This is a busy trailhead loop which passes several prominent sandstone formations.

Potash Road Dinosaur Tracks and Petroglyphs

These are unique dinosaur footprints found on a muddy sandbar and hardened into sandstone, eventually revealed by surface erosion. The tracks can be reached after a 200-yard hike across rocky, hilly terrain. This is roughly a two-hour hike.

Birthing Scene Petroglyph

This is a large boulder-rock-panel decorated with Native American Rock Art. There are several images depicted on the structure, but the rock gains its name from one piece of art which is widely interpreted as a breech birth.

Grandstaff Canyon Trail

This is a popular, moderately challenging out-and-back trail leading past streams and scenic canyon overlooks. The trail is 5.7-miles-long.

Potash Evaporation Ponds

These are unique ponds which glow a bright blue due to copper sulfate in the water. The evaporation pools are found roughly ten miles south of Moab. The colors of the ponds change drastically depending on their current depth. The ponds are on private property and visitors are forbidden from swimming within.

Gemini Bridges

This is a popular, strenuous 8-mile mountain bike or climbing trail leading to a series of ridges overlooking Moab. The Gemini Bridges are a pair of natural stone arches hanging over Buck Canyon.

The Moab Rock Shop

This is a popular rock shop which sells various minerals, geodes and types of stones found in the region.

Mill Creek Swim

This is a unique swimming area tucked into a canyon. The natural swimming pool has a low waterfall tumbling into a built-up pool secluded in sandstone formations.

Read more about unique sights when visiting Moab and Arches and seeing the world by checking out the Leftfade Trails Blog

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