Moab, Utah

Moab is a small town on the Colorado River in eastern Utah, the seat of Grand County, with 5,366 people at the 2020 census. It is the base for Arches, five miles north, and for the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands, 32 miles away. Around it, the Bureau of Land Management runs the slickrock bike trails, 4x4 routes and riverside campgrounds that Moab is also known for.

The things to do in Moab fall into three groups: the two national parks, the free public land around town, and the river. Arches and Canyonlands have no food, fuel or hotels inside, so every night of a visit is spent in or near Moab. We checked every figure here on 26 October 2026 on the Park Service's, the Bureau of Land Management's and the state's own pages.

Why stay in Moab for Arches and Canyonlands?

Moab is the place to stay for Arches and Canyonlands because it is the only town close to both, and neither park has lodging or restaurants. The Park Service sends visitors to Moab for fuel, food and beds.

The Moab Information Center, at Main and Center streets, opens daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and sells Arches passes. A free shuttle ran from downtown to the Arches visitor centre, the Windows and the Delicate Arch trailhead from 1 September to 31 October 2026, free with a park pass. Moab's tourism office lists its return as March to June 2027, without exact days.

Which free sights near Moab are on public land?

Moab's free sights are on Bureau of Land Management land, where the trailheads below charge nothing and need no national park pass. Four of them make good half days from town.

• Corona Arch: a moderately strenuous 3-mile round trip off Potash Road, with cables and a ladder on exposed slickrock. More than 80,000 people hike it each year.
• Potash Road dinosaur tracks and petroglyphs: a short side trail at the Poison Spider Mesa trailhead, 6 miles from town, to footprints left by at least ten meat-eating dinosaurs about 190 million years ago.
• Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite: over 200 footprints on a boardwalk, about 15 miles north of Moab and 0.6 miles down a gravel road most cars can drive.
• Fisher Towers: a 2.2-mile trail around the base of tall red towers, 22 miles up Highway 128 along the Colorado River.

The petroglyphs and tracks are easy to damage. Do not touch the rock art, and do not walk on, scrape or mark the footprints.

What does Dead Horse Point cost, and does the park pass work?

Dead Horse Point costs $20 per vehicle of up to eight people, according to Utah's tourism office, though Recreation.gov still lists $10. It is a Utah state park on a mesa 2,000 feet above the Colorado River, on the road to Island in the Sky.

The state runs it, and the America the Beautiful pass lists only federal agencies, so a national park pass is unlikely to help at the gate. We could not load the state park's own fee page to confirm either point. The park has 16.6 miles of hiking and biking trails and is an International Dark Sky Park. Its campsites cost $50 with electricity and $40 tent-only, booked through Utah State Parks rather than Recreation.gov.

How do Moab's bike and 4x4 trails work?

Moab's best-known bike and 4x4 trails start in the Sand Flats Recreation Area, east of town, where the Slickrock and Porcupine Rim trails begin. The Bureau of Land Management runs it with Grand County, and it has its own fees.

• Sand Flats day passes: $10 per car or $5 per bicycle or motorcycle, each for seven days, or $35 a year. National park and Utah State Parks passes are not valid.
• Sand Flats camping: 140 first-come sites at $20 a night per vehicle.
• Hell's Revenge: a 6.5-mile 4x4 route of two to three hours, rated extremely difficult and for very experienced drivers only, not ATVs. It starts just past the Sand Flats entrance and passes a site with over 50 dinosaur footprints.

The Bureau of Land Management's page lists these fees without a year, and we could not load the county's 2026 schedule. During the Easter Jeep Safari each spring, the event takes over several popular 4x4 trails.

Which stretch of the Colorado can you raft from Moab?

The stretch of the Colorado most visitors raft from Moab is the Moab Daily, 13 miles of Class I to III water through the Fisher Towers section. The Bureau of Land Management calls it Utah's most popular river trip. Its map lists no permit for the day run, and every boater must wear a life jacket at all times.

Two harder canyons need permits. Westwater Canyon, 17 miles of Class IV water, needs a Bureau of Land Management permit all year, booked two months ahead. Cataract Canyon in Canyonlands, 14 miles of rapids up to Class V, needs a Park Service river permit at $36 plus $25 per person.

When is Moab too hot?

Moab is too hot for comfortable hiking from June to August, when July averages a high of 99°F. The averages below are NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals for the Moab station, at 4,053 feet.

October is the wettest month and June the driest. Arches is busiest from March to October, and in summer many trailhead car parks fill by 7:30 a.m. as hikers try to beat the heat. April to May and late September to October are warm without that rush to dawn.

Where do you camp along the Colorado near Moab?

The cheapest beds near Moab are the Bureau of Land Management's riverside campgrounds on Highway 128, which follows the Colorado River upstream from town. The agency's map shows twelve of them, all first come, first served, and every page we read charges $20 a night.

• Goose Island: 1.4 miles from the junction with US 191, 20 sites, cash or cheque. It fills in the morning from March to October.
• Drinks Canyon: 6.2 miles up, 17 sites.
• Oak Grove: 6.9 miles up, seven tent-only sites, with stays capped at 14 nights in 30 days.
• Fisher Towers: five tent-only sites by the trailhead.

Inside Arches, Devils Garden Campground is reserved from March to October and first come, first served from November to February. Grand County's lodging tax, charged on hotel bills, rose to 4.5 percent in October 2025.

How do you get to Moab?

Moab is reached by road from Interstate 70 or by a short flight to Canyonlands Regional Airport, 16 miles from town. SkyWest took over the airport's flights on 1 October 2026, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. It flies for Delta to Salt Lake City, with a winter pause, and for United to Denver all year.

No train reaches Moab itself. Commercial vans run to Moab from Salt Lake City, Grand Junction and Green River. Moab keeps Mountain Time with daylight saving, like the rest of Utah.

What happens in Moab around Easter?

Moab's busiest week is the Easter Jeep Safari, a nine-day 4x4 event run by the Red Rock 4-Wheelers club around Easter. Its 60th edition ran from 28 March to 5 April 2026. During the event, the Bureau of Land Management gives participants exclusive use of several popular trails, such as Moab Rim and Poison Spider Mesa.

The 2027 dates have not been published. Easter falls on 28 March 2027, so a visitor planning a quiet spring trip should check before booking that week.

Moab is the last base on a Utah road trip from Zion, about three hours past Capitol Reef. Salt Lake City is about four and a half hours north, on a map router's estimate.