Visiting Utah’s 5 National Parks

We didn’t plan to visit all five, it just kinda happened that way…

It all started for us when we were in Utah in 2006, doing a supported mountain bike camping trip. After that wonderful experience in the Maze district of Canyonlands, we had planned to go visit Arches National Park. But one of our fellow riders needed a ride to Green River, so we decided Arches could wait. (we just didn’t know at the time that it would be a 14 year wait.)

Arches National Park

So, in October of this year, we finally made it to the Arches after biking around north of Moab for a few days. We got an early start, arriving there around 7:00 am and we had time for 3 short hikes and lots of pullouts for photo ops, before leaving early in the afternoon. Here are some photos of our visit:

Canyonlands

We enjoyed Arches so much we decided that since we were right there, we would check out Canyonlands again. Canyonlands is divided into 4 districts, and as mentioned above, we had been there 14 years ago, on a bike ride through the Maze District, the most remote and secluded one. (The others are the Needles District, which is accessed from south of Moab, the Island In the Sky district, north of Moab, and then there are the rivers, the Colorado and the Green River forming the fourth district.) We chose Island in the Sky this time because it was not only closest to where we were staying, but it is also the easiest to reach.

We did not get as early of a start this time and only had time for two hikes, the Grandview Point Trail and the Upheaval Dome, but they did not disappoint. Quite the opposite in fact. Here are our Canyonlands photos:

Capitol Reef

Next on our itinerary (remember, we were not planning on 5 parks) was Bryce Canyon National Park. We had been wanting to see this for years and now was our chance, and as we prefer to avoid the interstates, we chose the “blue highways” route to get there. That would mean highway 24 from Green River to highway 12, and so on. And so there we were on the backroads when we came upon Capitol Reef National Park.

We had never heard of Capitol Reef before, but while hiking the Upheaval Dome trail at Canyonlands we met a couple from Sedona, AZ (who were doing Utah in the opposite direction we were) and they told us they had just been there and said we should check it out.

But it was pretty late, so we found a beautiful dispersed campsite under a tree just east of the entrance and got rested up before visiting the park the next day.

Although it was beautiful, we did not spend as much time at Capitol Reef, so we don’t have many photos. But another nice surprise came after that on our way to Bryce – Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. We only saw a sliver of this as well, but it was right there with highway 12 going through part of it, so here are some photos of that along with Capitol Reef:

And then that evening we had another great dispersed campsite, this time on Hole in the Rock road, just east of Escalante, Utah where I was able to get a good shot (finally) of the night sky with Rigby looking at Saturn, Jupiter and the Milky Way:

Bryce

And the next morning we were off to Bryce.

Wow. Nothing could have prepared us for Bryce. It sits at a very high altitude, about 7,700 feet to 9,100 at the top. And unlike most parks, all the good stuff is below you when you enter, so the first thing you see when you get to the rim is your view looking down at all the spires and hoodoos. 

We did a 3 hour hike down into the hoodoos and the forest below. Here are some photos from that excursion and a short video as well.

Zion

So as long as we were this close, we decided we might as well check out Zion National Park too, though we figured that after everything else we’d seen this week, it would just be more rocks to look at.

But oh no – even after 4 gorgeous national parks and one gorgeous national monument, Zion did not fail to impress. We only wish we would have had more time there. We drove through late in the afternoon, too late to get the bikes out, or to take a shuttle bus tour (which with Covid going on, we wouldn’t have done anyway). And a winter storm was forecast for the following day, so our visit was way too short. We will definitely return when we can count on better weather and much more time to enjoy it. 

But for now, here are a few quick glimpses of what we saw:

So our advice to you is, make it a priority to visit southern Utah and all 5 National Parks. Take the back roads, not the interstates. Be sure to take Utah Hwy. 12 start to finish and get out of your vehicle and look down the cliffs on both sides of the road at Grand Staircase Escalante. (yes, cliffs on both sides of the road!) And plan at least 2 weeks. You’ll see more than we did and you’ll have more time to enjoy it all.