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Hello- I'll be spending some time in Moab around Nov 11th. What are some good sites to see for day hikes? Figuring on Canyonlands and Arches. Any must see sites anyone can recommend? Thanks in advance.

All the trails in Arches are nice and you can see them all in two days.

I assume in Canyonlands you mean Island in the Sky? What kind of vehicle do you have?

If you have a 2wd, here are the best hikes in Island in the Sky:

Easy to Moderate

Mesa Arch
Lathrop Trail
Upheaval Dome Overlook
Upheaval Dome Loop
Alcove Spring
Steer Mesa

Challenging

Monument Point Route (not on the park maps)
Junction Butte (semi-technical)

If you have a 4wd:

Easy to Moderate

Fort Bottom
Zeus and Moses
Monument Basin (probably the most interesting part of Island in the Sky)
Walking Rocks and Musselman Arch
White Crack, Stove Canyon, and the Confluence (2 days is best)

Challenging

Holeman Slot Canyon
Art Murrays Cable Bypass "Trail"
Junction Butte
Musselman Canyon to the Colorado River
Shafer Canyon

The hike through the Fisher Towers is well worth it, and it only takes about half a day, you could easily do Arches in the morning and Fishers for the afternoon/evening.

what about non-technical slot canyons, 2wd accessible? (4wd Jeep Cherokee rental)

fsclimb wrote:what about non-technical slot canyons, 2wd accessible? (4wd Jeep Cherokee rental)

Moab actually has relatively few slot canyons.

I'd recommend Professor Creek from the bottom and the slot side canyons of Onion Creek if you are looking for something non technical and 2wd accessible.

I'd recommend heading down to the Needles district for a day and hiking in to Druid Arch. It's around an 11 mile out and back hike with a low clearance 2WD accessible trailhead.

The arch is at the end of a canyon, about as far into the middle of the needles as you can go, so you really feel like you're exploring the depths of the place. The needles in general are a spectacularly bizarre wonderland of geology, and Druid Arch is one of the most awesome natural features I've seen. Its shape really does make you think of stonehenge, except this is nature's version amped up to much greater scale in size and even more so in age. This arch feels more remote and wild, and would be a lot less crowded, than the major ones in Arches NP. And it's just as spectacular if not more so in my opinion.

If you're feeling energetic enough to tack on another 5ish mile loop to that you can also do a side jaunt through a rather large, beautiful meadow in the middle of the otherwise solid rock maze of needles called Chesler Park, which is a cool place to camp if you were backpacking. I mention this specifically because you asked about slots, there are slot like features there called joints which are very narrow separations between giant monoliths of sandstone. There's an official trail that climbs down into them (the joint trail), and you can also explore off into side passages, some of which get just narrow enough to shimmy through sideways. Do note that these slots are much more straight and plain than the intricately carved true slot canyons, like Antelope Canyon.

And of course besides those specific destinations, there's ample opportunity to randomly scramble around the different levels of the canyons. I read a story once of some people finding a pristine Native American pot while scrambling up on one of the hundreds of saddles between the dozens of canyons, just sitting there for a thousand years or so in a little rock alcove. They left it undisturbed of course, but decided to revisit like 20 years later, after they had all had families and kids, to see if they could find it again. Spoiler alert, turns out a giant chunk of rockfall had obliterated the whole saddle. Was a bit sad, but it was also a good example I thought of how the place both has very interesting history, geologically and human, but it's still just as wild as it always has been all those thousands and millions of years it took to make it what it is today.

Anyways, whatever you do you can't really go wrong with any part of Arches or CYL. If it's your first time to the red rock desert, you're going to be blown away no matter what. Have fun!

Thanks everyone!

I've been before to the Western side of UT and it was amazing. Can't wait, leaving tomorrow.
so many beautiful places, so little time...