National Park Hopping in Utah
I’m going to be blunt - Utah was not a place high on my list to travel. But with the world still recovering from the pandemic, and the travel itch that has been building for 1+ years, we wanted to go somewhere where we could be outdoors and relatively isolated from others for the majority of the time. Enter Utah.
I was surprisingly overwhelmed with all of the options we had with a vacation to Utah. Home to 5 national parks, there is a lot of beautiful scenery to see.
A lot of times, people will combine a trip to a few of the Utah national parks (Zion, Bryce) with a stop in Vegas and/or the Grand Canyon. We however opted into staying within the state limits for the entirety of our trip focusing on Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park and a few days in Salt Lake City.
We mainly camped while we visited the national parks. Our original plan was to rent a camper van, but the world had other plans, our van was out of commission, and we had to pivot and rent a car and camping equipment at the last minute. Luckily, we found The Camp Box, which is an amazing local small business that provides you with all of the camping essentials: a tent, sleeping bags, a cooler, water jug and more!
Salt Lake City, Utah
We started and ended our trip in Salt Lake City, with just a handful of days total budgeted in the city.
Antelope Island State Park
Before even stopping in the city itself, we went straight from the airport to Antelope Island. It’s about an hour drive, and cost $15 to enter with a car but it’s a great way to see the Great Salt Lake itself, when it’s not dried up, which it was on our visit. The park is home to some great hikes, which we did not take advantage of due to time. It’s also a wildlife refuge with free-ranging bison, deer, antelope, and more.
Hiking in the Wasatch National Forest
On our first full day in Salt Lake City we knew we wanted to head over to the mountains for a hike. We thought we were going for a moderate 5 mile hike, but ended up on an 8 mile round-trip hike from somewhere in Big Cottonwood Canyon to Lake Blanche. I think the trail we took was the Mill B Trailhead but I’m not completely sure. Either way, it was a gorgeous hike but much longer and harder than we originally anticipated. The last 2 miles was relatively straight up hill and we had to take a lot of breaks and drink A LOT of water. We also had the benefit of starting early which helped save us from the wrath of the sun.
Explore Downtown Salt Lake City
We didn’t spend a lot of time downtown, mainly because there wasn’t a lot that we were interested in doing. The biggest draws we found were the City Creek Center (the local mall) and Temple Square (which was largely under construction). To be honest, I’m not sure we’ll ever go back to Salt Lake City because we just didn’t love it as much as we hoped to.
But, we did find some great food and local breweries while we were there! Our favorite was Salt Fire Brewing where we unexpectedly walked into a pretty fun drag performance and had an amazing berry milkshake IPA (This Is Barry). We also had breakfast at Sweet Lake Biscuits & Limeade - everything we tried here was good but I had the biscuit benedict which came with a side of shredded hashbrowns.
Note: you definitely need a car in SLC as the city is not very walkable. Make sure you plan for this, or plan to spend $$$ on Ubers.
Arches National Park
Our first stop outside of the city was Arches National Park - the iconic landscape that comes to mind when you think of Utah. But, one thing we knew ahead of our travels is that Arches National Park was seeing record numbers of visitors and often blocking entrance to the park due to crowds as early as 10 or 11AM. Which was exactly the case when we arrived around noon. So, instead our first stop in the area was Dead Horse Point State Park.
Dead Horse Point State Park
Located about a 30 minute drive from Arches, Dead Horse is definitely worth a stop when you’re in the area. The drive to the park itself is scenic enough, but then once you arrive the breathtaking views of the canyon lands and the overlook of the Colorado river will really blow you away. Supposedly, this viewpoint is one of the most photographed scenic vistas in the world. Unfortunately for us, it was pretty hazy due to the sun, but even then the view was breathtaking, and there were some fun trails to explore. It’s $20 to enter with a car and we spent just enough time there that once we were done, Arches was opened back up!
Arches National Park
Arches is where we would spend our first night camping, and we were lucky enough to snag a spot at the Devils Garden Campground.
There is so much to see and do in this park, it would be impossible to mention everything. Since the campsite we were checking into is at the farther point you can drive within the park, we opted into stopping at each area one our way up. This is when we were able to see a few of the bigger attractions: the balanced rock, the windows, and the sand dune arch.
After we set up camp, we had just enough time to make it to the delicate arch by sunset. There are two ways you can see the iconic delicate arch - a viewpoint which is accessible by car. Or, you can hike the 3 mile round trip trail which is what we opted to do. The trail is moderate with the exception of a pretty difficult .5-.75 mile stretch that is pretty steep up an exposed, slick rock. Until you reach the very end, the arch is out of view for the entirety of the hike, which makes for great dramatics as you make that final turn. Of all the hikes and beautiful views we saw in Utah, this was my favorite.
Before we left for our next destination the next morning, we made a few more stops on the way back out of the park, with the highlight being the double arch.
Goblin Valley State Park
Between Arches and Bryce Canyon, there are a million places you can stop to explore. And you definitely should stop and explore, because it’s a long drive. We decided to take our break at Goblin Valley State Park which is about an hour and a half from Arches and 4 hours to Bryce Canyon, if you take the scenic route. This park is $20 to enter with a car.
Goblin Valley will make you feel like you’re visiting mars. Over time, the sandstone has eroded into shapes that resemble goblins. As you hike around the park, you’ll feel like you’re in a maze of goblins.
Bryce Canyon National Park
After a long day of driving, our next stop was Bryce Canyon where we would be camping for a night at the Sunset Campground and then checking into a hotel for a night (because the campground was booked solid). Bryce Canyon is a big park, but we were able to see a lot and hike a bunch of the major trails in one very long day.
We woke up early, packed the campsite and started at Fairyland Point to begin the Rim Trail, which is about 5.5 miles long and connects all of the major scenic overlooks. 10/10 recommend starting your day at Fairyland with the sunrise because it was breathtaking. While we started with the Rim Trail and stayed on this path for a few miles, we trail hopped a bit, switching onto the Queens Garden trail which brings you down into the canyon and eventually gives you the option to get onto the Navajo loop trail. Along this portion of the trip you’ll be able to see some of the major attractions like Thor’s Hammer. But the highlight of this loop was coming up the section called “wall street,” which is a pretty crazy series of switchbacks that eventually lead you to sunset point and back onto the Rim Trail. From here, we continued all the way until inspiration point before hopping on a park shuttle to take us back towards our car.
Note: While we started at Fairytale point, we didn’t realize the shuttle doesn’t take you back there. We had a nice driver, who dropped us as close as he could to there, but we still had another mile walk back to the car which was unexpected.
After a long and very tiring day of hiking we checked into our hotel, showered for the first time in a few days, and then ventured out to Bryce Canyon Pines Restaurant because it claimed to have world famous pie. I can’t say whether or not it’s world famous, but it was damn good. We tried the boysenberry which was the real winner, and the banana blueberry cream pie.
Zion National Park
Our final stop was Zion National Park. We originally planned to spend two nights camping here but it was so miserably hot at night that we skipped out on the second night. Which is a shame because this was by far the most beautiful campsite and the most convenient location. We stayed at the South Campground which is right near the entrance and walking distance to the visitor center, all of the restaurants and shops and the shuttle stop.
While Zion is arguably the most beautiful of the parks we visited, it also kind of felt like we were at Disney and it was the most crowded of three national parks we visited. It even had a brewery right onsite, which was nice, but doesn’t scream nature and wilderness.
The most popular trails here are Angels Landing and The Narrows, which we decided not to do. Instead, we did a few of the shorter hikes, starting with the Lower Emerald Pool trail, which is only about 1.5 miles round trip. You can extend this trail and visit the middle and upper emerald pool trails, but we had heard that the lower pool is the best part of the hike.
We also rode the shuttle to the last stop, which is where most people stop for The Narrows, a long trail that involves a lot of walking in water, but we did just the riverside walk here which is around 2 miles.
Our last major hike in Zion was the Watchman trail which left right from our campsite. This hike was about 3.5 miles round trip, and offers great views of the park and surrounding mountains and canyons. It’s also significantly less crowded than other areas of the park since most people swarm to Angels Landing and The Narrows.
