How a surprise puppy changed our Arches and Canyonlands road trip—and led us to dog-friendly Dead Horse Point State Park, our unexpected favorite near Moab
We had a plan.
A perfectly good plan, actually.
We were heading from California to Utah with family to visit Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park, with a stop in one of our favorite Utah towns, St. George.
Hotels? Planned.
Itinerary? Planned.
Family? Ready.
Dog?
No dog. (We do sometimes take trips without our dogs, it’s okay. 😂)
And then, approximately one week before we were supposed to leave…
we got a puppy.
Well, this should be interesting. 😂
Surprise! Your Puppy Is Ready Early
We already knew we were adding a puppy to our pack. What we didn’t know was that he was going to become available earlier than expected.
As in: right before our trip.
He couldn’t stay where he was for another two weeks, and although we already had a wonderful house sitter arranged for our adult dogs, leaving a brand-new puppy with unfamiliar adult dogs and a house sitter he’d never met wasn’t something we were comfortable doing.
So there we were.
One week until vacation.
A puppy who needed to come home.
Two National Parks on the itinerary that are very restrictive when it comes to dogs.
A hotel reservation that wasn’t pet-friendly.
And a puppy who wasn’t even fully vaccinated yet.
Our nice, tidy Utah itinerary had officially gone to the dogs.
Literally.
Okay… Now What?
This is actually one of the reasons we started this blog.
We love sharing the fun places, pretty views and dog-friendly finds, but we also want to share the part of traveling with dogs that doesn’t always make it into the pictures.
Real life happens.
Plans change.
Weather changes.
Dogs change the equation.
And occasionally a puppy shows up early and blows your carefully planned vacation itinerary to smithereens. 😂
That doesn’t necessarily mean the trip is ruined.
Sometimes it just means Plan A needs a little help from Plan B.
And, as we were about to discover, Plan B can be pretty spectacular.
First Question: Can This Puppy Even Go to Utah?
Before deciding anything, we visited our veterinarian.
Because our puppy hadn’t completed all of his vaccinations, we needed professional advice about whether taking him on a road trip was safe and what precautions we should take if we did.
We got the okay—with precautions.
Check. ✓
That meant we had some extra preparation to do, but at least taking him was an option.
Next up: the family members traveling with us.
Thankfully, everyone had their own vehicle, so we explained that we’d suddenly acquired a tiny four-legged travel companion and might not be able to do everything together as originally planned.
Were they okay with that?
Check. ✓
Two problems down.
Now for the big one.
Two National Parks + One Puppy = Hmmm…
Our trip had been planned around Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.
Wonderful!
Except…
Neither park is particularly dog-friendly if your idea of visiting a National Park involves actually getting out and exploring it with your dog.
Pets are restricted to limited developed areas and aren’t allowed on the hiking trails. That was going to make things a little complicated.
But we didn’t want to give up seeing Arches and Canyonlands altogether.
So we didn’t.
We followed the park rules and turned both into scenic driving adventures.
Our puppy stayed safely in the vehicle, and anytime someone wanted to get out somewhere he couldn’t go, one of us stayed with him.
Was it the way we’d originally planned to experience the parks?
Nope.
Did we still get to see them?
Yep.
Did we spend a lot more time looking at giant red rocks through open car windows than originally anticipated?
Also yep. 😂
And you know what?
We weren’t disappointed.
We still experienced two extraordinary National Parks. We just experienced them differently.
But we also wanted somewhere our puppy could be more than a passenger.
So we started looking for a dog-friendly alternative near Moab.
And THAT is where this story gets good.
Then We Found Dead Horse Point State Park
Somehow, Dead Horse Point State Park hadn’t made our original itinerary.
Arches? Absolutely.
Canyonlands? Of course.
Dead Horse Point?
Nope.
Had we taken this trip without a dog, there’s a very good chance we would have driven right past one of our favorite places in the area without ever knowing what we missed.
Because when we started searching for somewhere beautiful near Moab that was also more welcoming to dogs, Dead Horse Point State Park popped onto our radar.
So we went.
And…
JACKPOT. 🎰🐾
This was exactly what we’d been looking for.
Incredible red-rock scenery.
Massive canyon views.
Trails and outdoor areas we could actually enjoy with our dog.
And views that made us wonder:
Why wasn’t this place on our original itinerary?!
Then came the biggest surprise of all.
Dare We Say It? We Liked It Better Than Canyonlands
There.
We said it.
We thought Dead Horse Point State Park was more impressive than Canyonlands.
Don’t come after us, Canyonlands fans! 😂
Canyonlands is beautiful, enormous and absolutely worth seeing. But for our trip, Dead Horse Point stole the show.
Maybe it was because we hadn’t expected it.
Maybe it was because we could enjoy more of it with our puppy.
Or maybe it was simply one of those places that hits you just right when you see it.
Whatever the reason, the park we added because our original plans weren’t working became one of the highlights of the entire trip.
There’s a travel lesson in there somewhere.
Actually, there’s a pretty big one.
Be willing to pivot.
You might like the detour better than the destination you planned.
Our Tiny Puppy Had His Own Transportation
Because our puppy wasn’t fully vaccinated, being at a dog-friendly park didn’t mean we suddenly let him wander around everywhere.
Enter one of our favorite pieces of gear for this trip:
the K9 Sport Sack Trainer dog carrier backpack.
Instead of tiny puppy paws hitting the ground, he got chauffeured around like the VIP he apparently already believed himself to be.
Honestly, he may have had the best seat in Utah. 😂
For anyone whose dog can’t or shouldn’t walk long distances—whether because they’re a puppy, senior, recovering, or simply unable to handle a particular outing—a good dog carrier backpack can open up some possibilities.
We also brought m.barc paw and hand sanitizer and a travel pack of Petkin germ-removal pet wipes. Anytime our puppy’s paws touched outside ground, we cleaned them immediately, and we were very selective about where we allowed him to go to the bathroom, avoiding areas used by other dogs.
Those were precautions we took based on the guidance we received for our puppy, so if you’re traveling with a puppy who hasn’t completed their vaccinations, talk with your own veterinarian before your trip.
One visit to our veterinarian gave us the information we needed to make better decisions—and made us feel much more comfortable taking him along.
Oh Yeah… Our Hotel Didn’t Allow Dogs Either
Remember that carefully planned vacation?
There was still one more teeny-tiny problem.
Our hotel wasn’t dog-friendly.
Of course it wasn’t. 😂
At this point, why would anything be easy?
Back to the drawing board we went.
We moved our reservation to the Fairfield by Marriott Inn & Suites Moab, and that turned out to be another change we were very happy with.
We gave our stay at Fairfield by Marriott Inn & Suites Moab….5 Paws 🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾 for cleanliness, location, dining, value for money, service and staff, and amenities.
Another problem solved.
Another change that worked out just fine.
Are you sensing a theme here?
Six Days, One Puppy and a Completely Revised Utah Road Trip
Once we’d made all the changes, our trip ended up looking something like this:
Day 1: California → St. George, Utah
Day 2: Relax in dog-friendly St. George and meet up with our family
Day 3: St. George → Moab, with a scenic drive through Arches National Park
Day 4: Scenic drive through Canyonlands National Park → dog-friendly Dead Horse Point State Park → relax by the fire pit at the hotel that evening
Day 5: Up early for sunrise in dog-friendly Moab → breakfast → back to St. George for the night
Day 6: St. George → home to California
And this is one reason we continue to use St. George as a stopping point or home base on our Utah travels. We’ve found it to be a convenient dog-friendly place to break up the drive, and you can read about some of our other St. George adventures elsewhere on the blog.
Moab itself was another pleasant surprise.
Even though Arches and Canyonlands aren’t particularly easy to explore with a dog, Moab has plenty of dog-friendly possibilities. We could easily return, stay several days and build an entirely different trip around things we can do together.
And we probably will.
Mother Nature Apparently Wanted In on the Fun
It rained on and off during two of our days in Moab.
On another trip, we might have been annoyed.
This time?
It gave us gorgeous rainbows stretching across that already incredible Utah landscape. 🌈
And since the rain probably would have interfered with some of the hiking we’d originally imagined doing anyway, we had to laugh.
The puppy changed our hiking plans.
The National Park rules changed our hiking plans.
Then the weather basically said:
“Don’t worry. You weren’t hiking anyway.”
Thanks, Utah. 😂
The Trip That Didn’t Go According to Plan… Went Pretty Great
When we look back at this trip, we could focus on everything that went “wrong.”
Our puppy arrived early.
He wasn’t fully vaccinated.
Our original hotel didn’t allow dogs.
The two National Parks we’d planned the trip around had major pet restrictions.
It rained.
We had to change our itinerary.
Instead, here’s what we remember:
We brought our new puppy on his first big adventure.
We saw Arches.
We saw Canyonlands.
We discovered Moab.
We watched beautiful rainbows appear over Utah.
We found a hotel we loved.
And because we had a dog with us, we discovered Dead Horse Point State Park—a place we might otherwise have skipped completely.
That’s not a ruined vacation.
That’s a pretty fantastic one.
This Is Why We Tell You When Our Plans Go Sideways
We don’t want this blog to make dog travel look like every trip unfolds perfectly.
Ours certainly don’t.
We want to show you the beautiful dog-friendly destinations, but we also want to share how we handle things when real life gets in the way of the itinerary.
Because sooner or later, it will.
Maybe a trail suddenly doesn’t allow dogs.
Maybe your hotel changes its pet policy.
Maybe the weather refuses to cooperate.
Maybe your dog needs something you didn’t anticipate.
Or maybe a puppy arrives two weeks early and casually rearranges your entire Utah vacation.
The goal isn’t to create a trip where nothing ever goes wrong.
The goal is to know the basics, do your research and leave yourself enough flexibility to change course when you need to.
That’s what saved this trip.
And in our case, changing course didn’t just save it.
It made it better.
Would We Go Back to Moab With Our Dogs?
Absolutely.
There are more dog-friendly things around Moab that we’d love to explore, and Dead Horse Point State Park is firmly on our “Yes, we’d go there again!” list.
One important note if you’re visiting with your dog: keep that leash on.
The scenery is spectacular, but this is canyon country, and there are serious drop-offs and cliffs. This isn’t the place for your dog to suddenly decide to investigate something interesting three feet beyond the edge.
Leash = friend. 🐕🦺
And always check current pet rules for the parks, trails and places you plan to visit before you leave home. Policies can change.
This trip definitely wasn’t the one we planned.
And we’re so glad it wasn’t.
If everything had gone according to our original itinerary, we might never have discovered Dead Horse Point State Park.
So when your dog-friendly vacation throws you a curveball—and eventually, one probably will—don’t be afraid to change things up. Sometimes a little flexibility is all it takes to turn a travel hiccup into one of your favorite memories.
After all, the best part of our carefully planned Utah vacation turned out to be the place that wasn’t in the plan at all.
And sometimes Plan B has one heck of a view. 🐾❤️
