I have lived in Utah for almost ten years, and out of the five amazing national parks in this beautiful state, I have only been to Zion National Park. I’ve been to a few other national parks in the west, like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Glacier, but I have the Mighty Five right in my backyard, and it’s embarrassing to admit that I haven’t made this a priority. But that’s changing now. My husband took a job in Idaho, and it looks like I won’t be spending as much time in Utah. 😦 So, it’s time to get it done. For Mother’s Day, I told my husband and daughter that I wanted to do a ten-day camping trip and hit all five.
Now let’s just clarify a tad. By camping trip, I don’t mean tents and sleeping bags. Been there…done that…and I prefer not to do it anymore! We have a big beautiful 5th wheeler which is really a hotel room on wheels. We have all the comforts of home (particularly a bed, a bathroom and a blow dryer) and we can eat in or dine out depending on what suits us.
Zion National Park
Zion is a very easy five-hour drive from Salt Lake City. It’s not far from Las Vegas either, which makes it the most crowded of the parks. In fact, our good friends from California met us in Zion and they camped with us for the first two parks. There were eleven of us total, ages 3 years and up, so we split up for some hikes and took our time on the group ones.
We camped in the cute little town of Springdale at the Zion Campground, www.zioncamp.com. The campground is right near the entrance to the park and 360 degree views are included. The views! The views! Did I mention the views?
Zion is a unique area. You can’t drive into the park on your own, but there is a free shuttle that picks up at a number of locations in Springdale and then stops at different trailheads and points of interest in the park. I love Zion because unlike the Grand Canyon, you enter at the bottom of the canyon and you are looking up at all the gorgeous scenery. It is hard to look in any direction without being stunned by the beauty.
A quick aside: If you are visiting more than one national park, I highly recommend the National Parks pass. It cost us $80 and it paid for itself by day 3. Plus, it made it so much quicker to get in the parks each morning.
On the first full day, some of us headed to Angel’s Landing and the rest of us went to Emerald Pools. Angel’s Landing is not for the faint of heart if you plan on going to the very top. It’s 2.5 miles to the top, and most of the hike is very doable, although challenging, with gorgeous views at every turn. The last half mile requires caution, with a chain that you hold onto as you ascend and descend. Please wear proper footwear, people! It never ceases to amaze me when I see people in flip-flops and loafers making this hike.
The Emerald Pools hike is around three miles roundtrip if you go all the way to the Upper Pool, and it’s family friendly, but keep an eye on the younger ones. There are some drop offs. You will get your share of amazing views around every corner. The weather on this day was gorgeous…sunny and warm enough for shorts. It can get HOT here in the summer. I definitely recommend fall and spring for visiting. But if you come in the summer, make sure you are prepared with sunscreen, a hat, and lots and lots of water! I’ve heard winter is breathtaking with the snow, and it’s much less crowded, but you may be limited on how much hiking you can do.
Later in the day, my daughter and I went to check out the Narrows, a slot canyon with a river running through it. The last time we were here, you could hike quite a way up the canyon before the water got deep, but on this day, there were flash flood warnings posted everywhere and the trailhead was completely covered by the fast-moving river. We did have a lot of snow this winter, so it kinda makes sense. 🙂
Someday, I’d like to get the permit and hike the entire Narrows trail which involves an overnight stay. You have to bring proper gear for the water, which you can rent in town, you have to tent camp and you have to pack out everything you pack in…I mean everything. Normally those things would be a deterrent for me (oh, and my fear of flash floods) but this hike is on my bucket list.
Bryce Canyon National Park
The next day, we packed up our RV’s and headed to Bryce Canyon National Park. The drive is gorgeous. You get to drive through part of Zion, and go through the tunnel which is fun. Be prepared…if you have an RV, you have to pay a fee and you must have a vehicle escort. (Which makes no sense, as they only open the tunnel in one direction at a time and basically the entire group of vehicles has an escort.) But no matter, it’s worth it.
It only takes about 2-3 hours to get to Bryce Canyon from Zion depending on traffic. We stayed at Ruby’s Inn RV Campground which was really quite nice with pretty pine trees – the campsites are a little more spread out than most RV parks. The wi-fi was awful, but we weren’t expecting much – it is pretty isolated.
We knew from weather forecasts that Bryce Canyon was going to be a lot colder than Zion, but we were surprised by a brief snowstorm as we arrived. Over the next two days, we had every kind of weather you can think of in the west – sun, rain, wind, snow and hail. We had hoped to take a ranger led hike at sunset, but you couldn’t see the sun. So we went to the Visitor’s Center and enjoyed it quite a bit.
Then we took the scenic drive through the park to the end and back, stopping at every scenic overlook. I didn’t know what to expect at Bryce – I had heard so many people say that it was like nothing else you have ever seen. And they were right! The stone formations called hoodoos are so unique. Pictures don’t do it justice, but I’ll try. 🙂
The next day, we hiked the loop down from the rim along the Navajo Trail and the Queens Garden Trail. It took us into the hoodoos, and this might have been my favorite hike of the entire trip. The scenery was so unusual and beautiful. We were really lucky…there was a rain storm just before we set off and a hail storm just after we finished, but it was only overcast (with a few minutes of the sun peeking out) for the duration of the hike. The hike is fairly easy, other than the climb out. If you’re in decent shape, it should be no problem, but the three-year old got pretty tired. The two older kids scampered up the trail like little mountain goats. 🙂
Capitol Reef National Park
The next day, our dear friends headed back to California, and we set out for the town of Torrey and Capitol Reef National Park. Highway 12 is well-known for its scenery, and there are lots of potential detours along the way. You could take a couple of days exploring the area. Our first stop was the Kiva Koffeehouse between Escalante and Boulder. It’s a charming little building set amidst the Grand Staircase National Monument. Again, with the views! It was a warm sunny day, so we got some drinks and sat out on the patio and enjoyed the peaceful beauty. I had a delicious matcha green tea smoothie! My daughter’s iced latte and my husband’s coffee were good too, but I think they were a little jealous of my drink choice. 😉
We drove on a little further and pulled into the Calf Creek Campground. I had read about a hike to a waterfall called Lower Calf Creek Falls and we decided to give it a look. It’s approximately six miles round trip and the waterfall is beautiful. But, I must warn you…May might not be the ideal time to make this hike! Some type of caterpillar was hatching and falling from the trees, and our hike turned into a little bit of a horror movie. We weren’t in the trees for the first half of the hike, and when we got into the trees, we noticed a few caterpillars falling, and then it got worse and worse, to the point that we were running with shirts over our heads to keep them from falling in our hair. We were too far along to turn back, but it was kinda funny and kinda horrifying. We had lunch at the falls (in a caterpillar free zone) and then headed back.
We pulled into the Thousand Lakes RV Park in Torrey right around dinnertime. It had been a long day, and it was getting cold and windy, so we ate a quick dinner in the RV and went to bed. (Just a sidenote – we didn’t have much in the way of wi-fi after leaving Bryce, and cell phone service was spotty, so make sure you know where you are going and have your directions/itineraries downloaded or printed out for this part of the trip.)
The next day, we headed into Capitol Reef National Park. This was the least crowded of the parks we visited, because it is the most isolated. We went to the historic town of Fruita and stopped in the Visitor’s Center, and then took a peek at the one room school-house and the petroglyphs. Fruita was established in 1880 by Mormon’s and the orchards are still maintained by the National Park Service. There is an old farmhouse called the Gifford Homestead, and they sell fresh pies and ice cream. We had a berry pie and an apple pie that were both delicious. Then we had lunch!
After lunch, we attempted to work off the pie by hiking the Grand Wash trail which was an easy four-mile hike. It was overcast and threatening rain, so my enjoyment was tempered a little with the thought of flash floods, but I like to worry. I’m a mom! Afterwards, we drove the scenic road throughout the park which is partially on dirt roads. It was a nice relaxing break from hiking.
That night, we had reservations back in Boulder at Hell’s Backbone Grill, which is consistently ranked one of the top ten restaurants in Utah. Had I known how far the drive would seem, I would have planned this better, but I was dead set on going. And it was a nice splurge in the midst of our hiking/camping adventure. Our dinner was delicious and the setting was lovely.
Canyonlands and Arches National Parks
It’s about a three-hour drive from Torrey to the town of Moab, which is the gateway to both Canyonlands and Arches. We stayed at the Moab Valley RV Resort which was less than a mile from the entrance of Arches National Park. It is a nice clean resort (spots were a little tight), with very friendly employees.
We hit Canyonlands first, and just be warned…this park covers a huge area. There are two entrances. The turn off for Islands in the Sky Visitor Center is before Moab. The Needles Visitor Center is about 70 miles south of Moab. We headed to Islands in the Sky, and hit a few scenic overlooks including the much photographed Mesa Arch. This park can make you feel so little and insignificant, yet in awe of the immense stretches before you. We went to Alaska a few years ago, and I remember feeling the same way. Totally different scenery, but just an overwhelming appreciation of how vast our country really is.
At the end of one of the scenic roads, we stopped to hike an easy two-mile roundtrip trail called Grand View Point. You hike along the canyon edge for stunning views of the Island in the Sky Mesa, as well as surrounding vistas. I’m generally not afraid of heights, but the sheer drop offs here had me a little freaked out. There are no rails or anything to prevent you from just going right over. You can easily stay well away from the edges – the hike is flat and the trail is very wide, but I would not do this hike with small children unless they were attached to me. Don’t get me wrong…it was a wonderful hike, but it gave me chills.
We then drove to the other leg of the scenic route towards Upheaval Dome. We wanted to do this hike as well, but it was getting late in the day, so we went back into Moab and our campground. Moab is a fun little town with lots of activities. I would like to come here again and do some rafting and off-roading.
The next morning, we set off for Arches National Park. I think I was most excited about visiting this park out of all the Mighty Five because of the world-famous Delicate Arch. I mean, it’s on the Utah State license plate even! Not my license plate though – I live in Northern Utah, so I have the skier on mine.
I was also excited because we had booked a ranger-led tour on a trail called the Fiery Furnace. They only let a limited number of people onto this trail each day, so I was really looking forward to some unusual sights and no crowds.
Our ranger-led hike started at 10am, and lasted 2.5 hours. We had to leave our campsite around 9am, because we had to pick up our tickets at the visitor center and then drive approximately twenty minutes to the trailhead. There were about twenty people on our tour. It was a fun experience…the ranger shared a lot of interesting history and information about Arches. We got to squeeze through some tight sandstone canyons and walk along some narrow ledges and jump some gaps. In addition, we learned some beginner climbing techniques. The park website states that this is a demanding hike, and children under five are not allowed. However, we stopped so frequently that it didn’t feel strenuous. In the summer, it would be tougher because of the intense desert heat. If you are interested in taking a ranger led tour, book in advance online, as they do sell out.
After we climbed out of the Fiery Furnace, we drove to the Devil’s Garden picnic area and had some lunch. We hiked a bit into the Devil’s Garden, but it was getting hot and my daughter was a little burned out on hiking. We drove back to Balanced Rock for some pictures, and then on to Park Avenue and back to our campsite. We decided to look around Moab for a couple of hours, stopped at the Moab Brewery for a couple of cold ones and then made our way back into Arches for a sunset hike to Delicate Arch.
This seemed like a long hike, or maybe we were a little jaded from hiking for ten days. : ) The hike to Delicate Arch is three miles round trip. It’s mostly slickrock, so don’t wear flip-flops. A large part of the trail is very open and marked with cairns. We had fun spotting the cairns along the way. It felt like there were very few hikers with us, and you can’t see the arch until you come around the last corner, so we were getting anxious because the time was quickly approaching sunset. Finally, we rounded a canyon wall and there were like a million people there all lined up waiting for sunset! (Okay, not a million, but a lot!) Lots of photographers and big groups of people. They must have all hiked up a lot earlier than us. : )
The arch is really something else. Pictures don’t do it justice. You just want to sit and look at it forever. Everyone sat in respectful silence as the sun went down, and then quietly filed out. We stayed a few minutes to let the crowd disperse, and because we had arrived so late. It was magical. If you are going to be like us, and end up hiking down in fast approaching darkness, I would recommend headlamps or flashlights. My husband swore he had his headlamp in his backpack, but couldn’t find it! So, we used our cell phone flashlights and that worked fine. It was kinda fun watching all the lights of the people ahead of us in the dusk, and seeing the parking lot at the bottom empty out. You can watch the headlights of an individual car for miles as it drives away.
This was a great way to end a great trip. The next day, we packed up and drove to Grand Junction for an annual wine barrel tasting weekend that we do each year (see my next post). My intention is to return to these parks again…I don’t want this to be a one-time thing…but for now, I can check proudly check the Mighty Five off my bucket list!
Trails and Tastings 