Two Parks ONE DAY: Off the Beaten Path (HI0 & HA0)

The Big Picture

This half-day expedition gets you out there to see the spectacular wide-open spaces of Canyonland National Park "Island in the Sky" and the phenomenal rock formations of Arches National Park. Your trip includes stops at dinosaur tracks, a portion of the White Rim Trail, an exciting drive under a fallen boulder and cowboy inscriptions! This expedition makes you feel like the adventurer you were born to be!


The Details

Your adventure begins at the Tag-A-Long office at 7:15 a.m. for check-in.  By 7:30 a.m., you board comfortable, air-conditioned four-wheel drive rigs for an expedition into the backcountry of Canyonland National Park, Island in the Sky region and Arches National Park.

Our route takes us along a Utah Scenic Byway where you’ll enjoy wonderful views of the Colorado River. We’ll also stop along the way for the first set of dinosaur tracks. Be sure to bring your camera and lots of film! Just a few more miles down the road and you’ll spot Jug Handle Arch.

A few miles more and we leave the paved road behind to begin the 4x4 expedition into Canyonland backcountry! The off-road winds through a spectacular landscape with towering rocks, wide open spaces and deep canyons. You’ll stand 400 feet above the Colorado River at "Thelma and Louise Point," where the two desperate women roared off the cliff in the movie by the same name. We’ll start our slow drive out of the park toward the steep switchbacks of Shafer Trail, an historic cattle and mining road, climbing a 1200 ft section of cliff. All the while, you are surrounded by the most awesome scenery in America. After returning to the pavement briefly, we exit the mesa top via another four-wheel drive road where our route takes us under a giant fallen boulder!

After lunch, you are transported to a myriad of rock features that sets Arches National Park at the top of the list-to-do for Moab.  Along the way, there are opportunities to make photographs and get out to stretch your legs. Cool months we offer the Park Avenue hike. We visit the Windows section of Arches to exit the park by Balanced Rock via Willow Springs Road. We navigate arroyos on this shorter 4x4 route, accessing a few seldom visited points of interest of Arches Park and contrasting Park preservation with multiple use lands.

Our clear desert days allow an outstanding vision of the unusual rock spires and outcroppings against the back drop of a small mountain range beside Moab. Throughout the day your guide will bring each National Park to life with information on the local region.  Return to Moab around 5:00 p.m.

Please note this itinerary could be run in reverse.