Chalk The Block at the Riverwoods

Every year in September the Riverwoods outdoor mall in Provo, UT hosts one of my favorite events, Chalk the Block. Artists from around the area come to do their best drawings in parking stalls at the Riverwoods in support of a good cause. We have attended Chalk the Block three years now and this coming weekend (September 22-24) will be our fourth time.

How to Get There

The Riverwoods mall is located in the northern most part of Provo just before the mouth of Provo Canyon. You just take University Avenue north in Provo and the mall will be on your left. There is a large sign with electronic screens on it at the entrance. 

It is not hard to find, but during events parking can be difficult. This is especially true of Chalk the Block where all of the parking spaces at the front end of the mall are being drawn in by artists. Normally it is best to turn left at the entrance sign and head west until you get the the parking lot for the movie theater and try to park there. If you luck out and find parking it is just a short walk across the parking lot to the mall. If you don't find parking follow signs to the overflow lots where they have shuttles to bring you back to the mall.

What You Will See

You will see lots of amazing chalk art. Beyond that it is hard to say, you can see many different types, styles, and themes of art at Chalk the Block. Depending on which day you go will determine how finished the drawings will be when you see them. If you go on the Thursday you won't see much done but you will see lots of artists working on their pieces. If you go on Saturday most of the pieces will be done so you won't see much of the drawing taking place. 

You just walk up and down the rows of parking spaces looking at the different drawings. There are many different skill levels at the event so you will see all kinds, including special "featured" artists who get large spaces and do more complex drawings. Some drawing will be "perspective" drawings and will have a certain place where you should stand to appreciate the full effect. 

Here is just a sampling of what we have seen at Chalk the Block:

Sum Up

Chalk the Block is a really fun free family activity. It is great for kids because so many of the pictures are often of things kids like. It is hard to predict what the weather will be like in September in Provo so make sure if it is hot that you bring water with you. Of course since it takes place in a parking lot the event is fully wheelchair and stroller friendly. Plan on at least and hour or two to see all the drawings. 

Delicate Arch Overlooks in Arches National Park

I'm sure I made it abundantly clear in my last post on the Delicate Arch Trail that I absolutely love this iconic and natural wonder, and I would recommend to everyone to go and see it. But what if you can't go hike to Delicate Arch because you have accessibility concerns, or you can't make the hike with your kids, or you just don't have that much time in Arches, or the weather is too bad to hike the trail? There are a lot of reasons you might not be able to make it out to the arch, or maybe you did hike it, but like me you really wanted to see it again before you leave Arches National Park for good.

This is where the Delicate Arch Overlooks come in. The Overlooks give you the chance to see Delicate Arch from a distance without the physical exertion and mobility required by the hiking trail to arch itself. That being said, if you are questioning whether you can make the hike up to Delicate Arch please read through our post on that hike and really consider it because being up inside the arch itself is not to be missed if you can possibly make it. It is not overly difficult, but not as simple as some other hikes in the park.

How to Get There:

Arches is not a difficult park to navigate since there are only a few roads to go to most of the top destinations, and the Delicate Arch Overlooks are no exception. Stay on the main road until you come to the road to turn right to the Delicate Arch Trail, take this road until it ends which will be in the overlooks parking lot. 

Once you get to the parking lot you will see that there are bathrooms and plenty of parking. You will then have the option of which overlook you want to go to, what you choose will depend on your reason for coming to the overlooks in the first place. If you came for accessibility concerns you will need to stay with Overlook 1 which is about a one minute walk from the parking lot and fully accessible as long as you don't mind pushing your wheelchair or stroller on a dirt path.

The second overlook is significantly more difficult to get to and will take you about 15 minutes. You take the left side of the fork in the path to get there, you have a short flat walk and then you begin a fairly steep assent (walking, no climbing) to take you to a high point where you can get a very clear view of Delicate Arch.

Ben on a rock at the top of the second overlook trail.

What You Will See:

From either lookout you will be able to see Delicate Arch. The view is not much different form one overlook to the other, except that you are more on a level with Delicate Arch from the second one because it is so much higher.

The view is nice and affords you more of a perspective on the area surrounding the arch then you get when you hike up to the arch itself. It is less awe-inspiring though because you can't actually get a grasp on Delicate Arch's enormity from so far away.

Outside of looking at the arch there is not much else to do here. There are some boulders along the trail that you could climb on (like I did in the picture above).

Sum Up:

If you cannot make it out to Delicate Arch then be sure to make the overlooks a stop while you are in Arches. Nobody should leave the park without having seen this truly incredible piece of nature. If you are able to do the whole hike to the arch then this isn't a must-stop, but its a nice little stop over if you just want to see Delicate Arch from the other side.

Canyonlands National Park Overlooks

Canyonlands National Park is broken up into three areas or districts: Island in the Sky, Maze, and Needles. If you are also visiting Moab, you are going to want to stay in the Island in the Sky district. While this district is small, it is also the most family friendly and is the easiest district to do. Two of our favorite things to do were an easy sunrise hike at Mesa Arch and a fun hike up Whale Rock.

Even though the Island in the Sky district is pretty easy, we were still pretty tired by the afternoon after doing about 3 hikes. We still wanted to see more of Canyonlands but didn't want to do more hikes. So we stopped at a few of the outlooks in the Island in the Sky district and were not disappointed by the views.

How to Get There: 

We went to two outlook points on our trip to Canyonlands National Park. The first we went to was the Green River Overlook. From the Visitor's Center head southwest. Once you get to the fork in the road turn right. Follow the signs a short while later and take the first left. Follow that road to a nice parking lot. 

We tried going to Grand View Point Overlook, but with limited parking it wasn't going to happen. From what we have heard, it is the best overlook in the Island in the Sky district. So if you want to go there make sure that you're early. To get there just take the south fork where the three main roads converge. It is the farthest point South. 

After not being able to go to Grand View Point, we went to another overlook on the way called Orange Cliffs Overlook. This one had way less people but still offered a beautiful view.

What You Will See: 

The Green River Overlook was where I really saw why this National Park is called Canyonlands. For miles all you see is beautiful canyons. There is a nice paved path from the parking lot to the overlook. At the overlook there is a fence to keep you away from the edge of a cliff face and there are also large boulders that are fun to climb on and offer a slightly different view. There are also signs that give you different information about the canyons that are before you.

The Orange Cliffs overlook is very small but gives another beautiful view of the canyons. There is not a paved path;  you just walk out onto large rocks. We went off the main path a little bit and Ben was able to climb up a small mountain pretty easily and quickly.

Sum Up:  

Overlooks at Canyonlands are a great break from hiking the beautiful trails of the park. They offer incredible views that really show you why this place is called Canyonlands National Park. 

Chimani Arches and Canyonlands National Parks Apps Review

As you have probably noticed we had a fantastic time down in Moab visiting both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. The area is absolutely amazing and full of beautiful places and natural wonders. There is so much to do though that it can be a little overwhelming, so for both parks I used the respective Chimani apps to help plan and carry out our adventures. I used the apps on a iPhone running iOS 9, but they are also available for Android.

These apps function very similarly to the Chimani Grand Canyon app that I reviewed a while ago, but it was my first time using the new interface that they updated too. And I have to say that it worked ok, but not as well as I was hoping. The new interface looks nice, but finding what I wanted wasn't always simple, more on that in a minute.

The Arches app and Canyonlands app are almost identical in form and function, only the specific information is different, so I will treat them as one thing for the sake of this review.

App Organization 

When you open the app you will be presented with a menu screen like the one shown below.

 There are a bunch of different categories to help you out so it is suppose to be easy to find what you want to do. Unfortunately I was not always sure where different activities would show up, for example the line between auto touring and hiking is very blurred with some of the same locations showing up in both places. That confused me for a bit, but I guess it makes sense if it is an attraction that can both be hiked to and seen from a pullout or parking lot. If you are not sure what category a particular attraction or activity might be found under chances are that it is under multiple.You can also use the search feature if you want to find something specific.

The menu grid is easy to navigate, although all the topics can also be found in list form under the side menu. One thing I wish though is that you could arrange the sections in the order that you most use them. For example the tab trip planning was not something I used, so if I could have replaced it with the hiking tab that would have been more useful to have at the top of the screen. 

Planning Your Trip

These apps are very useful in planning your trip to the parks because they will tell you how difficult the hikes are and about how long to expect on each. There is a section of the app called "Trip Planning" but I did not find this to be useful at all. It doesn't really help you to figure out what you want, so I would avoid it.

The best thing to do is just go look at the sections of things you like to do, in the case of these apps mostly hiking. When you find an activity that you want to do on your trip, or might want to do, just bookmark it by tapping the bookmark in the upper right hand corner of the details screen.

Now I'll do you a favor and tell you where to find those bookmarks later, since it is not apparent from the app itself, in fact I did not figure it out until after we had already come home from Moab. From the Home screen tap the banner at the very top, the one that says the name of the park and shows your rank (normally scout). This will take you the "My Chimani" section of the app where one of the sections is "bookmarks." This will make your trip much easier. Simply bookmark the activities that you want to do and then you will be able to easily find them while you are in the parks. This will prove useful when using the maps as well. 

Maps in the App

When using the app on are trip I thought the map portion of the app was virtually useless because it looked like this just a couple big orange circles and numbers.

You have to zoom in for individual places to appear and when you do you are so close that you can't see it in relation to anything else.

For this reason I relied mostly on the park guide that the rangers give you when you come in for navigating.

Since the trip though I have figured out how to make the map portion much more usable, which is good since some National Parks are no longer handing out the park guides to save paper. In the settings section of the app (at the very bottom of the side menu) turn off cluster map pins.

Although this still is not perfect (it would be nice if you could set some filters) it is much more usable. If you have bookmarked any spot it will appear as a tan pin making those easier to find. I hope to see more improvements to Chimani's maps in the future.

Also remember that you can download the maps to the app before you head out so that if you run into dead zones (you will) the map will still be available to you.

Badges and Account

As mentioned above there is a section of the app hidden in the title banner (also appearing on the side menu) called my Chimani. This is the area that stores your bookmarks and also your badges. Because I couldn't find this portion during our trip I never used it. So I don't know a lot about the badges, but it appears that if you hit the plus icon on an activity or place in the app then you will get the badge for that thing. I tried it on a bunch of the things we did down in Arches, but never got close to leveling up my rank, so I think the "verified" visits must be worth more, but I haven't tried since I am not on location currently. The badges are a nice way of keeping track of what you have done though.

Sum Up

The Chimani apps are really useful, despite a few drawbacks they will help make your trip to Arches and/or Canyonlands a lot better. You can't complain too much about something that is free. If you use my tips in this post it should work out even better than it did for us on our trip. Remember that Chimani has apps for most of the National Parks, but they all have different features depending on what the park has available (such as shuttle bus schedules in the Grand Canyon). 

Corona and Bow Tie Arch

On our last day in Moab, we did not go to either of the national parks. Instead we went a little bit out of the way to a free hike to two amazing arches. While it is probably the most difficult hike we did while in Moab, the view was definitely worth it.

How to Get There:

From Arches National Park, head South on Highway 191for about half a mile. Then turn right onto UT 270 S. Keep left and stay on the road for about 7 miles. You will see a small parking lot to the right where you can park and get to the trailhead. If the parking lot is full, there is another parking lot on the left side of the road where you can park. 

Once you get to the trailhead, there will be a sign with specific details for the hike. You will start out climbing a trail that is pretty steep until you get to some railroad tracks. As you cross the railroad tracks, you will see a pretty well marked trail that leads all the way to the arches. 

Once the trail switches from dirt to mainly slick rock, you are about half way to the arches. As you start hiking on the slick rock, you will encounter some different types of experiences on the hike. First, you will come to some cables that will help you travel up the steepest part of the trail. Shortly after that there is a small ladder to climb up to the last part of the trail. 

What You Will See:

Once you get to the top of the ladder, you will have a nice view of both arches. This is a good spot to take pictures because you can get you and your family nicely framed with the arch. As you finish your hike you will come to Bow Tie Arch first. This arch is smaller and slightly more difficult to hike up into, but it can be easily enjoyed from below. After you pass Bow Tie Arch, you will see Corona Arch. You can hike right under the arch and it has a nice open area to sit down and take a rest. 

Sum Up:

Bow Tie and Corona Arch are two beautiful arches. While this hike is more on the harder side, it is still doable for most families. At 3 miles round-trip, make sure to bring water and snacks as there is no water on the trail.

Double Arch in Arches National Park

Double Arch was by far my favorite hike in the Windows District of Arches National Park. And it was probably my second favorite hike of our whole time in Arches. (My first favorite was definitely Delicate Arch.) This is an easy hike and is really quite a sight to see. Everyone can do this hike and once you get to the arch there are definitely ways to make it more difficult if you want. After your hike, don't forget to stop over at the Window and Turret arches

How to Get There: 

Head North from the Visitor's Center and turn right after you pass Balanced Rock. As you enter the Windows District, you will pass Garden of Eden on the left and will continue down the road until you come to a parking lot that will loop around. The Double Arch trailhead is on the North side of the parking lot. But when we were there, parking was pretty terrible. We would suggest parking wherever you can find a spot and then walk to the trailhead. There are restrooms in the South side of the parking lot near the North and South Window/Turret Arch trailhead. 

Once you're on the trailhead, you follow the sandy dirt path to the arch. You can see the arch pretty much the entire way on the trail. The trail is half a mile round trip, perfect for families with all ages of children. 

What You Will See:

Once you get to the base, you will see the tallest arch located in the park. You can climb right up inside of it. When we were there, it was a pretty toasty afternoon and Double Arch provided plenty of shade relief. One of our favorite things to do was to lay down underneath the arch and look straight up at it. It is really quite the sight. 

If you are feeling more adventurous (like Ben was) there are places inside the arch where you can boulder your way higher up for pretty spectacular views. I was not feeling up for the steeper climb, so I just sat underneath the arch in the shade. 

Sum Up:

This is a super easy family hike that we suggest everyone do. It is easily accessible to pretty much everyone and once you get to the arch, there are areas to challenge yourself if you wish. With only a half mile round trip distance, it can be a quick hike to see the tallest arch in Arches National Park. But you can also spend quite a bit of time hanging out and climbing underneath the arch.