In a couple of weeks I will be taking my 5 year old on a quick 3 day father son trip to Moab. The main goal is to see Arches and Canyonlands. I would also like to do some offloading with him. Because of his age I was thinking of doing an organized tour with either RZR's or jeeps and staying away from an ATV. From my reading it seems Arches is better for hiking and Canyonlands is better for the off roaring. Does anyone have any companies to recommend? Are there any other places that would be good to visit with a 5 year old? We are coming in from DEN and stopping over night in Grand Junction to see Colorado National Monument.

I recommend you think carefully about age-appropriate activities. I don't know your son's interests or capabilities, but consider mine: I have loved the outdoors and natural scenery for most of my life, but only since about age 8. Prior to that I had little patience for things that merely could be seen. And I was precocious compared to my peers at that age. A boy of 5 years is mostly focused on things he can touch and do. To that extent, he'll probably form more memories of climbing on the statues of animals such as the desert tortoise and bighorn ram at the Arches Visitor Center than any of the arches, windows, or balanced rocks he sees in the park.

That said, I'll offer a few suggestions about each park:

Arches is a small park and is all about the hiking. There are no offroad vehicle trails. You can see a fair amount from the paved roads and pullouts, but taking even a short hike opens up a lot more. I'd suggest sticking to the shortest trails and letting your son climb around on the rocks. And definitely plan to spend time on the statues of the desert tortoise and the bighorn ram at the visitors' center.

Canyonlands is a much more expansive park and basically requires some form of transportation. Teens might get a huge kick out of renting mountain bikes and biking the White Rim trail. With a young boy you should stick to driving, as his energy may give out at any point. And for that same reason, renting a vehicle yourself might be better than taking a guided tour. Otherwise, what if your son decides 45 minutes into a 4 hour group tour that he's bored, tired, unhappy, etc? There are several outfitters in town where you can rent a Jeep and go off on your own.

Arches is very good for a 5 YO (or anybody else, really). Easy to get around by car with lots of easy hikes that a youngster would enjoy. I took my 5 YO there last year.

Getting down into Canyonlands is much more challenging but, OTOH, there are scenic overlooks if you just want to drive up and check it out from above.

The drive from the interstate to Arches along the Colorado River (128) is very scenic. There are a couple of resorts along the way that offer trail rides and whatnot.

Thanks for the feedback as I incorporated much of what was said. We spent a day in Arches and did the hike to Delicate Arch first. It made for some great photos up close. For the altitude, heat, and distance my son did pretty well. I only had to carry him on my back the last 1/4 mile. He was a little worn out when we went to Landscape Arch but got his energy back to run up the sand hill by the entrance to the trail. Rather than attempt a Canyonlands hike we did a 2 hour Hummer tour around Moab and a 4 hour jet boat tour up the Colorado River into the National Park. Canyonlands by Night and Day was the company.

I'm pretty sure child abandonment is a crime in Utah.

Good catch. I do need to be more careful to review when posting from my Ipad. The auto correction gets my emails as well.

My 5 and 6 year olds loved the dinosaur tracks just south of the interstate. I have great video of them excitedly discovering dinosaur fossils (rocks to us) along the path. The tracks were interesting but do not venture there if it is or has been raining.

Moab's air service will hopefully soon get much better. Right now, the only scheduled air service come from Contour. They fly to Phoenix (as American Eagle) and Denver (as United Express). https://www.contourairlines.com/plan...tems/route-map

Their contract is expiring and the Moab and Grand County officials are eager to return to getting service from Skywest to SLC and Denver. The only question is whether the feds will approve the change. It was the feds that forced the change to Contour back in 2023. https://www.moabtimes.com/articles/m...ecommendation/ Grand County officials really wanted a resumption of service to SLC so that they could more get to meetings with state officials without having to connect via Denver or drive all day. IIRC, the reason why Contour got the contract in 2023 was because they underbid Skywest on the EAS contract.

i am not sure there is enough tourist infrastructure at moab airport to make it practical for visitors - rental cars or other transportation options plus those fares are gonna be out whack.. rather than spreading thin i would prefer more flights into GJT which aside from relatively manageable drive to moab also works for points south like telluride or ouray..

There is enough tourists to support a rental car facility and improved airport. The issue is about time and costs.

expanding service to grand junction from Salt Lake City would be dumb. It�s still faster to just drive from SLC than to go to GJT then rent a car. 1 hr security, hf flight, hr to get car, 90 min drive vs 3.5 hr drive from SLC

you also have montrose and durango. Delta serves neither. Southwest serves montrose.

Agreed. And Moab is highly seasonal. It's miserable from mid-May to September, and the middle of winter is too cold as well.

yes and that why running a year round tourism facility like rental car shop at CNY is probably not practical

i agree that for those in utah, flying from SLC to GJT to go to moab or western colorado is pointless - ppl drive there but for all connecting traffic GJT is a sustainable year round destination with easy driving to skiing, fall colors, summer everything, moab/canyonlands/capitol reef in spring and fall etc etc.. as a frequent visitor i'd rather see more flights to GJT than once or twice daily cr2s CNY-SLC which will probably benefit some local residents and maybe international tourists on packaged tours who do not drive...