Travelling Utah with a Campervan: Moab

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After staying at Arches National Park for three nights, my parents and I moved to a commercial RV campground in Moab, Utah. The campground was perfectly functional, but rather cramped and austere, with none of the lovely surrounds or space that we were granted at Devils Garden Campground. Staying a night in Moab, though, allowed us to clean up a bit and explore the super active, outdoorsy town.

It seemed like the majority of vehicles in Moab were meant to be used in the surrounding rugged desert.

Even though we spent the majority of our days hiking in the desert, compared to seeing all the armoured mountain bikers, Colorado River rafters, and dusty dune bashers, I felt like a lazy noob!

The main street of Moab had some interesting shops and fun-looking restaurants. I ended up treating my parents to enormous portions at a Tex-Mex restaurant – a nice change to some of our campfire cooking.

The tourism brochures we got at the airport in Salt Lake City and at the Visitor Centre in Moab showed exciting pictures of Jeeps and buggies climbing the slickrock at almost-impossible angles while their passengers were gleefully bouncing around inside. I took a look inside one of the buggies parked on the main street, and all the passengers had bars to hold onto while being jostled during a exciting drive. I want to come back and go out on a tour, although I’d be way too scared to drive myself!

After a day spent hiking in Dead Horse Point State Park, we returned to Moab and walked along the main street. At that time, late in the afternoon, it seemed like all the outdoor groups were returning from adventures in the desert. Jeeps and buggies were coated in red dirt and went to line up at the big carwashes, where the water runoff was dyed red.