Where to Stop on a Road Trip Between Moab, Utah, and Cortez, Colorado

In late April and early May, Korri and I went on a long road trip through southeast Utah and southwest Colorado, hitting up a bunch of national parks and monuments along the way. Of course, I had Moab on the itinerary—we spent two full days in Moab hitting up Canyonlands and Arches. After that, it was off to Cortez to spend two full days checking out Canyons of the Ancients and Mesa Verde! Neither of us had been past Moab before, and for Korri the whole trip past Provo was new.

Here’s where we stopped on the section of our road trip between Moab and Cortez. I also included a few other ideas that we didn’t have time for and other routes you can take! It was quite a whirlwind to fit all of this into one day but I’m still happy we managed to hit up everything on my list.

If you plan a national parks road trip, be sure to pick up an Interagency Annual Pass for $80—this will get you entry into all of these parks (and all of the others) for a full year! Each park entry is $30 per vehicle if you do not have a pass, so the pass pays for itself if you go to only three parks.

Where to stop on a road trip between Moab and Cortez

HOLE ‘N THE ROCK

Hole ‘N The Rock is 20 minutes south of Moab along Highway 191. The turn comes up VERY quickly if you’re driving south from Moab—it’s literally on the other side of the painted rock. I missed the turn and decided to skip it since it was low on my list of things to do. It’s basically just a house that someone carved into the rock (not sure how that’s legal lol) and turned into a museum with an adjacent petting zoo. I love quirky tourist traps, so you may enjoy it if you do, too!

Related: Southeast Utah and southwest Colorado national parks road trip itinerary

WILSON ARCH

Wilson Arch is a random arch on the eastern side of the highway between Moab and Monticello (30 minutes south of Moab, 10 minutes south of Hole ‘N The Rock). You can’t miss it as you’re driving south, and I think it’s easy to spot if you’re headed north, too. You can hike up to it but we opted not to after two long days of hiking, plus we had hikes planned elsewhere later in the day. Korri flew his drone through the arch! Since he couldn’t fly it at Arches, this was the next best place to actually fly THROUGH an arch (though I’ve since learned there are other arch options in the Moab area…next time!). I do not remember there being any facilities near the arch but there are wide pullouts.

NEEDLES OVERLOOK

About 30 minutes from Wilson Arch and 1 hour south of Moab is Needles Overlook. To get there, continue south on Highway 191, then turn right onto Needles Overlook Rd (there’s a small sign). Follow the road to the overlook! This is kind of a long detour, but the views are incredible from the east side of the canyon! You can see Canyonlands Island in the Sky District in the distance to the west and Needles District to the south. This overlook is not part of the national park, and there is no entry fee. Korri also flew his drone here. There are outhouses and picnic tables and lots of rocks to hike on. Do be mindful of the cliff edges! (There are barriers in most places but not everywhere.)

Related: What to pack for a long road trip to Utah and Colorado

NEWSPAPER ROCK STATE HISTORICAL MONUMENT

The next stop was at Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument en route to Canyonlands Needles District (about 50 minutes from Needles Overlook or 1 hour from Moab if you skip Needles Overlook). This is a huge and well-preserved petroglyph. I found it very cool so definitely don’t miss this if you’re headed to Needles! Plus it’s right off of the highway so you really shouldn’t skip it!

CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK, NEEDLES DISTRICT

Canyonlands Needles District is down in the canyon, so the drive in is jaw-dropping (the visitors center is about 30 minutes from Newspaper Rock). There are parts of it where you drive right next to the canyon walls and it’s a little terrifying to see all of the giant fallen boulders all around!

After stopping at the visitors center, we drove out to the end of the road, Big Spring Canyon Overlook, for stunning canyon views and even a glimpse at Island in the Sky in the distance. We then backtracked, stopping at Pothole Point for a late lunch and a quick and somewhat flat hike on slickrock (with more beautiful views of Island in the Sky and Needles in the distance), the Wooden Shoe Overlook, and finally the Roadside Ruin (a small-scale cliff dwelling).

The Needles District is more primitive than the Island in the Sky District and there are a bunch of long backcountry trails in the area that we (obviously) didn’t do! I do wish we had time to visit Cave Spring, which is a short hike featuring a historic cowboy camp and prehistoric rock paintings. There are two ladders along this trail that you have to climb.

NATURAL BRIDGES NATIONAL MONUMENT

Our final stop of the day before driving on to Cortez was at Natural Bridges National Monument (about 2 hours from the Needles). This monument is quite out of the way; you drive past Monticello south to Blanding and then west to Natural Bridges on UT-95 and UT-275 (the whole drive to Natural Bridges is part of Bears Ears National Monument). There is one spot where you drive through a cliff and it’s pretty awesome!

We arrived at Natural Bridges pretty late in the day and didn’t see anyone else at the park. It was super eerie! I don’t think I’ve ever been the only one in a national park/monument before. (And there were clouds nearby that looked threatening, so we were cautious of lightning.)

There are three arches (natural bridges) in the monument and we stopped at the overlook of each: Sipapu Bridge, Kachina Bridge, and Owachomo Bridge. I read that the views of the bridges are much cooler if you hike down into the canyon, but we didn’t have time for that (and honestly I don’t think our feet/legs would have survived—the hikes are short distance-wise but require significant elevation change!). We also hiked out to the Horse Collar Ruin Overlook (located between the first two bridges) to see cliff dwellings. We were most nervous about lightning on this hike because it was exposed! The whole driving loop is about 9 miles.

OTHER STOPS BETWEEN MOAB AND CORTEZ

If we had more time, besides doing more hikes, I would’ve loved to stop at the Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum (for preserved cliff dwellings) and the Dinosaur Museum. Both are located in Blanding, which is about 1.25 hours south of Moab without stops and about 50 minutes east of the Natural Bridges visitors center.

ALTERNATE ROUTES BETWEEN MOAB AND CORTEZ

We took the northern route to Cortez from Monticello. Another option is to head south on UT-261 from Natural Bridges and drive through the steep, unpaved switchbacks of Moki Dugway, which is said to have incredible views of Valley of the Gods. You can also go further south through New Mexico and hit up Monument Valley and Four Corners (if you’re feeling super ambitious and have the time!). If you’d prefer more cliff dwellings, you can hit up a Canyons of the Ancients pueblo and Hovenweep National Monument in between the two cities. Anyway you go is bound to be gorgeous!