Moab and Family Activities? (St. George: spring break, hotel, safety)

[coolcats]

My wife and I are looking for a short getaway during Spring Break next week. Since St. George will be crazy, we were thinking of going to Moab/Arches, since we’ve never been to that part of the state.

Question is though – are there enough activities for a family with small kids (ages 3 and 4)? I found a good deal on a hotel with an indoor pool, so staying in place with a pool will be a huge bonus for them. But specific to Arches and Moab – are their enough easy hiking trails and things to keep us occupied for a couple days? And of course safety is important – don’t want any falls off a steep trail or slippery red rocks etc.

[chazcrew]

Your kids will love you if you stop in Goblin Valley on the way. They can run and climb to their heart's content. I would plan on mostly driving through Arches, not doing too much hiking, with kids that age.

[coolcats]

Originally Posted by chazcrew

Your kids will love you if you stop in Goblin Valley on the way. They can run and climb to their heart's content. I would plan on mostly driving through Arches, not doing too much hiking, with kids that age.

Thanks --yeah we are pretty much limited to short, flat, paved trails. But it should be fun I think.

[Elder_Shawn]

The hike to Delicate Arch may be do-able with the kids. I've seen plenty of 3-4 year olds up there. We carried a two year old up there last year and he loved it! The Delicate Arch hike has one of the best pay offs too!

[jdavid93225]

Originally Posted by coolcats

Question is though – are there enough activities for a family with small kids (ages 3 and 4)?

If your kids were just a couple years older, I'd suggest the Junior Ranger program that they can participate in at the National Parks. Each park has its own program that is specific to the park, and the kids get a badge or a patch for completing the program. My kids have done this at quite a few parks, and one summer we made it our goal to get as many as they could on our vacation. They each earned eight of them in a two week period. It would be worth asking about, though, because the program may accommodate children as young as yours.

Besides Arches National Park, there is also Canyonlands National Park just to the west. Depending on where you're traveling from, you can also travel through Capitol Reef and Zion National Parks, and visit Bryce Canyon National Park (with a short detour off the highway) as well. You mentioned St. George, so if that's where you're coming from, you could visit several of these places in just a few days.

If you are interested in visiting these places and want to know more about the route(s) to take, I would be more than happy to share my experience with you. There really is a lot to see in that part of Utah, and having a few days will get you started, but it's not really a lot of time to see very much. When your kids are a little older, I would suggest you go back to that area so they can see what they will miss this time.