Moab and southeastern Utah
Guided hikes in Moab, matched to how you want to hike
Every guided hike, canyoneering trip and park tour around Moab, compared on real prices, real distances and what each one actually gives you. Whoever you are hiking as, there is a version of this landscape that fits.
Three ways to spend a day
What is actually bookable here
Every trip below is run by an independent Moab operator. We compare them, we do not sell them, and you book direct at their own rate.
18
canyon routes
Canyoneering
Walk into a slot canyon and rappel down it. No experience needed, all gear provided, and the one thing near Moab you genuinely cannot do alone. Beginner canyons from about $140 per person in a group of four.
16
guided hikes
Guided hiking
Private hikes at Fisher Towers, Grandstaff Canyon, Professor Creek and into the Canyonlands backcountry. Your pace, your route, and somebody who can tell you what you are looking at.
32
park tours
National park tours
Arches and Canyonlands with transport, entry and a guide. We sort these by how far you actually walk, from half a mile to seven, because that is the thing people are anxious about and nobody else publishes it.
How to choose
Two good ways to spend a day in this landscape
Most trails around Moab can be walked without a guide, and plenty of people do exactly that. Plenty of others book a guide for the same trail and get a better day out of it. Neither is the clever answer. They suit different people, and often the same person at different points in their life.
Reasons people book a guide here
All of these come up constantly in Moab, and every one is a sound reason.
- Confidence. Unfamiliar country, heat you are not used to, and somebody alongside who knows the route and what to do if the day goes sideways.
- Not having to plan it. Holiday time is finite. Someone else handles the route, the timing, the water, the trailhead parking and the entrance fee.
- Understanding what you are looking at. Geology, rock art, desert ecology. The difference between photographing a landscape and reading it.
- Travelling alone. A guided trip means company for the day and someone who knows where you are.
- Coming back to hiking after time away, an injury or an illness, with the pace set by somebody watching how you are actually doing rather than how you say you are.
- Heat. From May to September, judgement about pacing and when to turn round matters more than fitness, and it is the hardest thing to learn on your own.
- Route finding. Cairned routes where the path is a line of stacked rocks rather than a trail.
- Photography. Being in the right place at the right hour is mostly local knowledge.
- Anything technical. Canyoneering needs rope work and anchor judgement, which is not something to pick up from a video the night before.
- Wanting the day to be easy. Which is a complete reason on its own and needs no justifying.
Reasons people go without one
- The headline Arches trails are signed, mapped and busy, and many visitors are perfectly comfortable on them alone.
- Setting your own pace, stopping where you like, turning back when you feel like it.
- Budget. A park pass is $30 per vehicle and covers seven days.
- You hike often, you read conditions well, and this is familiar ground.
Three miles return, 480 feet of climbing up open slickrock, no shade, and a ledge section near the top. Thousands of people walk it unguided every week without incident. It is also the trail rescue teams are called to most often in the park, and there have been deaths on it in both summer heat and winter ice. That is worth knowing rather than worrying about. Whether you want somebody with you depends on the season, your experience and how you feel about exposure, and both answers are sensible ones.
Answered properly
The questions people actually arrive with
Geographic scope
Arches is the famous part. It is not the whole of it.
Most visitors plan a Moab trip around two national parks and then discover that the best walking is often outside both of them, on public land ten minutes from town where nobody needs a permit and nothing fills up.
- Arches National Park. Delicate Arch, Devils Garden, the Windows, and the Fiery Furnace, which has its own rules and its own page here.
- Canyonlands National Park. Island in the Sky for the overlooks, the Needles for Chesler Park and Druid Arch, and Horseshoe Canyon for the rock art.
- Bureau of Land Management land around Moab. Grandstaff Canyon, Fisher Towers, Professor Creek, Corona Arch, and every guided canyoneering route in this area. No entrance fee, no reservation, and far quieter.
- Dead Horse Point State Park. Separate fee, flat rim trails, and arguably the best single view in the region for the least effort.
- Further afield. The La Sal Mountains for altitude when the desert is too hot, and the canyons out towards Hanksville and Cedar Mesa for multi day technical trips.
Timing
When to come
Short version: October and April are the best months, summer works if you go at dawn and pick shade or water, and winter is emptier than people realise.
- Best months
- Apr, Oct60 to 80°F
- Hottest
- Julyavg high 99°F
- Quietest
- Dec to Febice, short days
- Flash flood risk
- Late summermonsoon
Who writes this
Written from the trail
Most pages about Moab hiking are assembled by people who have never stood at the trailhead. This one is written by someone who guides here, holds a Wilderness First Responder certification, and spends the season on the ground this site describes.
- We do not run trips
- No vehicles, no guides on payroll, no tickets sold here. You book direct with the operator at their published rate.
- Primary sources only
- Permit rules, fees and access come from the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management and Recreation.gov, with the date each page was checked.
- No paid rankings
- Nobody pays to appear here or to appear higher. When that changes it will be labelled on the page carrying the link.
Start here
Operator details, prices and park rules across this site were checked in August 2026 and each page carries its own date. Rates change seasonally and permit rules change by the year, so confirm with the operator or the National Park Service before planning around anything here.