Waking up and coming off the previous day spent in Arches National Park was quite the high. After spending days in the vehicle, getting to stretch our legs and fully breathe in the fresh air, let alone being one of very few people actually inside the park. WE could not have asked for a better first day experience heading into Canyonlands National Park.

That morning after making a short stop back at Arches, we headed over towards Canyonlands, where we experienced a slight backup at the station waiting to get in.

We slowly made our way out to Grand View Point Overlook, taking in various stops along the route.

The coolest stop was for sure Mesa Arch, over looking incredible views into the canyon. This also made it quite busy with a lot of people making the hike out to see it and parking can be a little difficult to secure.

While there are always more ways to dive in deeper and really explore the area, we took a birds eye approach, seeing the various canyons from above. Hiking where we could, most notably out to Upheaval Dome.

We also took the opportunity the night before to stock up on some deli items, veggie and fruit trays, etc. and had a wonderful lunch inside the park. This is really a key thing we planned for on both our trips, trying to pick up some groceries to make easy meals when in the middle of no where. Then we use the money saved to try and make our dinner the only sit-down restaurant meal of the day.

Overall Canyonlands was ok, but definitely did not rank up there with Arches.

Side note, having now done two National Park road trips, one thing is I am very cognizant on is our experience and how they are very similar. I say that because our whole family’s favorite part of the 2019 National Park Road Trip happen to be the Badlands. Which happen to be the first National Park on that tour. Yet here we are on our second National Park road trip and the first park we visit is also our initial favorite.

So sure there is that initial rush one gets from the first experience. However, I feel it might be just more of a coincidence that we loved the first parks best. We will see how it all ends up once we get to the end of this trip report.

As a total unexpected surprise, we also happen to run into friends that used to work at some of our favorite amusement parks from our CPFoodBlog business. They are fulltime nomads, traveling the world, and quite the inspiration for this wanderluster.

Overall we spent about 3 hours inside Canyonlands National Park, enough to get a feel of what the area entailed, but not enough to fall in love with the park.

Later on that evening we had arranged a Sound and Light Show Jet Boat Tour with Canyonlands by Day and Night.

The evening started out with and included cowboy-style buffet with terrific food!

Once it started to get dark, we boarded a flat-bottom boat that took us up river, explaining the various sites. We got very lucky because we thought the tour was going to be cancelled for thunderstorms in the area. However, they luckily skipped this area and we were able to do the whole tour.

Once we made our way up river and the sun set, we began the lights and sound portion of the tour. Here, audio narration played stories of early settlers and a truck along the road illuminated the canyon walls.

This ended up being a really cool core memory experience for our family. The staff were really fantastic, and at about $100 per person, was a very unique way to spend the evening in Canyonlands, especially when it also included a meal.

That evening we returned to our same hotel as the night before in Moab. The two free nights in the same hotel made it easy and affordable.

Daily miles driven- 100 miles
Accommodations Cost- Free (20,000 IHG points)

Continue reading about our journey below.

Just like our 2019 National Park Road Trip, we will break down the trip each day in separate posts as highlighted below.

Epic Road Trip: National Park Tour (Part 1)
Epic Road Trip: Cleveland to St Louis (Part 2)
Epic Road Trip: Silver Dollar City (Part 3)
Epic Road Trip: Rt 66 to Texas (Part 4)
Epic Road Trip: Texas Surprises to Santa Fe (Part 5)
Epic Road Trip: Four Corners and Arches National Park (Part 6)
Epic Road Trip: Canyonlands National Park (Part 7)
Epic Road Trip: Capitol Reef National Park (Part 8)
Epic Road Trip: Bryce Canyon National Park (Part 9)
Epic Road Trip: Zion National Park (Part 10)
Epic Road Trip: Knott’s Berry Farm (Part 11)
Epic Road Trip: Universal Studios Hollywood (Part 12)
Epic Road Trip: Meow Wolf Las Vegas (Part 13)
Epic Road Trip: Worlds of Fun (Part 14)
Epic Road Trip: Trip Wrap Up (Part 15)

Save Money, Travel More!