A few weeks ago, during the Labor day weekend/week, a few friends and myself took a trip to Utah’s Mighty Five. The Mighty Five comprises Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, and Arches National Parks.
We flew out of LAX (Los Angeles Airport) into LAS (Las Vegas Airport). The flight went smoothly, but considering it was a pretty packed plane, I made sure to keep my face mask on the entire flight (COVID times). After an hour or so flying, we landed in Vegas, stocked up at a grocery store, and made the drive to Zion. We spent two days in Zion, two days in Bryce, a day in Capitol Reef, and a day each at Canyonlands and Arches. We finally concluded our trip in Salt Lake City, where we ate lunch at Sweet Lake Biscuits & Limeade (a must try), strolled around Temple Square and the mall, and visited/BBQ’d with a few of Evan’s college friends. After a fun but exhausting 9 days of travel, we flew back to LAX and drove home to Santa Barbara.
If you’d like to take a look at our itinerary, I’ve included it for reference below. But why don’t we skip to the good part and tell you all about where we went inside each national park (in chronological order)!
- Zion National Park is characterized by its steep red cliffs. Its scenic drive cuts through the park along the Virgin River, and visitors can get off at shuttle stops to venture out to various hikes. Because we technically had a day and a half in Zion, we spent the first day (afternoon) walking along The Narrows on the Riverside Walk. As much as we would have liked to extend our hike into The Narrows, we played it safe with avoiding the virgin river, which was found to have toxic cyanobacteria. We finished out the day by grubbing out on pizza at Zion Pizza & Noodle. During our second day in Zion, we started out with coffee from FeelLove in the cute little town of Springdale. We shopped around a little, then boarded our 3pm shuttle to hike Angels Landing. The hike was on the more difficult side with switchbacks and 100 degree heat, but the view was well worth the sweat! Due to Covid, the .5 mile chain section up to Angel’s Landing was closed, but it still didn’t stop us from having a good time! For our night glamping, we stayed at Zions View Camping in Hildale (about 50 minutes outside of Zion National Park).
- Bryce Canyon National Park was probably the group’s favorite attraction out of the five. This national park is famous for its crimson-colored hoodoos and expansive amphitheater. The first day we visited Bryce, we went on an 18-mile scenic drive. We drove all the way to Rainbow Point, then made our way back to the various viewpoints (easy right turns). These viewpoints included Black Birch Canyon, Ponderosa Point, Agua Canyon, Natural Bridge, Fairview Point, Piracy Point, Bryce Point, Inspiration Point, Sunset Point, and Sunrise Point. We then finished out our scenic drive with a hike to Navajo Loop and Queen’s Garden Trail, which is a three mile moderate loop (and my favorite hike we did). After hiking, we checked in to a motel (the original place we booked was abandoned and probably haunted), and ate at IDK Barbecue (I ordered the ribs and peach cobbler, yum). The next day we adventured out on a bit longer hike, Fairyland Loop Trail. This eight mile loop overlooked some beautiful landscapes and probably helped me loose 10 pounds, but with the 40 degree temps and winds, I didn’t enjoy this hike as much as I could have. After a long day of hiking, we went back to our motel, Red Ledges Inn, where we ordered food, drank white claws (with the exception of Evan since he doesn’t drink), and played What do you meme.
- Capitol Reef National Park is situated in Utah’s south-central dessert, and is known for its sandstone domes and mountains, as well as its Waterpocket Fold. This national park is the most over-looked of the five, but I am so glad we went! When we first arrived at Capitol Reef Resort (with traditional rooms, cabins, teepees, and conestoga wagons), we checked-in and headed to the Llama Adventure activity I had booked (I selected the two hour Traveler hike). We were each paired with a llama to lead; and my llama’s name was Chrome. Our guide took us to the backcountry and talked about the history of the land and its native peoples. I, of course, also took a ton of selfies with Chrome. When we got back to the resort, we fed our llama and the girls gave them kisses (the boys were too “manly” to do that). For our next activity, we went on a scenic drive through the park. We saw petroglyphs, water pockets in the mountains, and radioactive blocks. Finally, we finished off the day with a campfire, dinner at the resort, and hot tubbing.
- Canyonlands National Park is prized for its Moab dessert landscape and grand views. Several easy going hikes that we did included Grand View Point Trail and Mesa Arch Trail. Towards the end of the day, we even drove to Dead Horse Point State Park to overlook the horseshoe shaped riverbank (we enjoyed it so much that we came back the next morning at sunrise). In terms of lodging, we stayed at the Archview RV Resort and campground in Moab both nights, since Canyonlands and Arches are located in the same vicinity.
- Arches Nation Park is a true gem in Utah. It houses more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches, such as Delicate Arch, the imagine featured on Utah’s license plate. That said, we did a number of shorter, moderate/easy hikes. Some of the hikes we completed comprised Double Arch Trail, Balanced Rock Loop Trail, Windows Loop Trail, and Landscape Arch Trail. Of course, we had to hike the most recognizable arch trail as well, Delicate Arch Trail. Delicate Arch Trail is about three miles in length and on the moderate to more difficult side as there is no shade coverage. However, Delicate Arch is a must; we even saw five year-olds making the trek with their parents (so if they could do it, I knew I could too)!
Overall we had a pretty amazing trip! I recommend checking out all five of these national parks, because each is unique in its own respect. In fact, while the consensus was that Bryce Canyon was the group’s favorite park, I really enjoyed Zion and the cute town of Springdale, hiking with my llama buddy in Capitol Reef, and viewing the sandstone molds in Arches.
I will, thus, leave you with a pro tip: make sure to purchase the National Parks pass. This basically pays for itself and I can now use this pass for the entire year at any US national park my little heart desires. Additionally, make sure you pack sunscreen and bug spray, a wide brim hat/cap, rain jacket and winter jacket, hiking boots, clothing layers, a water bladder, sunglasses, trekking poles if you plan to do The Narrows, and a camera to capture memories!
Adventure awaits!
Sincerely, one happy camper
