We drove from Red Rocks near Las Vegas to Springdale, Utah on April 10th. The thought was to check out some parks, climb a few days, and move onto Colorado, two weeks in Utah tops. We left Utah to head back to Cali on May 9th, a month later, because we had to make it back for Eric’s graduation and PhD completion. Utah blew us away with its beauty, endless activities, and vast public lands. As far as #vanlife and the outdoors goes, Utah is an incredible destination and we could have easily spent multiple months there, never running out of things to do.
We did a loop, and here’s out rough roadmap of the places we went (excluding a lot of the significant side trips and dirt roads). Note: this summary includes Navajoland and a splash or Arizona as we visited those on our Utah loop.
Below are my highlights. I have to preface this with the note that I got serious FOMO in Utah and felt like I could never do all the things I want to. I’ll mention some of the ones that have stuck with me and you bet I’ll be back for someday!
Salk Lake City
SLC feels like a separate trip from the Southern Utah parks and lands. We were hanging out in Zion, the weather turned cold and we were trying to scheme. Eating dinner in the van at 8PM, one of us looked up the weather – it was snowing in Salt Lake. Powder time! We packed up and drove north. Over the next few days we skied Alta, Snowbasin and Snowbird, had amazing powder days and some spring skiing. Snowbird was unreal! It seems that when the snow is good, it’s GREAT here. We also hung out with friends and went on a nice trail run overlooking the city in the Federal Heights neighborhood.
I took a day to tourist around and to visit the Capitol and Temple Square. I’m not sure I’d ever need to do that again, but it did cause me to buy Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven, which has been frustrating and difficult to read, but also fascinating.
Our favorite neighborhood in SLC was Sugar House (trendy and progressive feel) and Sugar House Coffee is a great place to work with yummy food and coffee.
Zion National Park
We spent four days at Springdale, the cute little gateway town to Zion- full of food and lodging. Finding street parking is difficult during high season, but if you get into the park early the NPS visitor center lot is great and pretty big. Our favorites in Springdale were Cafe Soleil and Deep Creek Coffee Co. for coffee and working, Oscar’s Café for delicious food and fun atmosphere, and the Zion Canyon Brewing Co for beers.
Angel’s Landing is an absolute must! The view from the top looking into the valley is absolutely stunning. Definitely a crowded hike and people get fairly freaked out about the exposure and narrow trail, so going early or off-season is better. I jogged down from Angel’s Landing to Emerald Pools and the Sandy Bench Trail to the Court of Patriarchs shuttle stop and it was an awesome trail run, highly recommended.
Then the weather changed and we ended up leaving Zion without doing any canyoneering. Top on our list were: Narrows, Subway and Keyhole. I’d go back to Zion just for that!
Moab
The town of Moab is an incredible base camp for two national parks, desert tower climbing, mountain biking,Indian Creek, the Colorado river, and is an artsy and cute town in itself. It’s also incredibly homogenous (white) and trendy (baby boomer / millennial). We rented mountain bikes and I did my first MTB ride and it was awesome – the Bar M trail is a really great intro to mountain biking and has incredible views.
East of Moab, the Fisher Towers are a must-visit site, in my opinion. We climbed the Stolen Chimney on Ancient Art tower, a fun 5.8 (A0) with the last pitch unlike any other you’ll ever see. If you climb, DO THIS! If you run, the Fisher Towers trail is A MUST. We did both, obvi. These formations are so strange and cool and it’s neat to be on and around them.
I didn’t get to do this, but I really wanted to paddle board the Colorado River around Moab. It was pretty much flat water with maybe a few sections of class one to two rapids. The recommendation was to put in at Big Bend and take out at the town bridge, which is about a 7 mile stretch of a beautiful river canyon with red walls.
Arches National Park
Arches National Park – oh my heart, I fell in love. We did two days at this park, and did all the things! On day one, we mostly touristed and did short hikes to see the famous formations: Park Ave, The Windows, Balancing Rock, Double Arch, Garden of Eden. I’d say all of these are a must.
On the second day we got a permit for the Fiery Furnace and wandered in stunning narrow joints and washes all morning. You can easily spend multiple days here and see a tiny portion of the Furnace, but you get a good feel for it in a half-day. Plan on getting permits in advance (up to 2 days in advance), as they sell out fast.
In the afternoon we met up with friends and ran the Devils Garden loop. It’s a beautiful hike or run and can take anywhere from a couple hours to a full day depending on your speed and how distracted you get taking endless photos and doing side trips to all the amazing view points.
Then we jogged up to the Delicate Arch for sunset. Breathtaking time to be there, but definitely be ready for crowds.
Canyonlands National Park
This park is drastically different from Arches even though they are so close to one another. Canyonlands has three sections, and we got to visit two of them. The Island in the Sky is the one accessed near Moab. It has a variety of viewpoints and short hikes to overlooks. One of the hikes was about 2 miles, I hiked in flip flops brought my yoga mat and did a yoga session, and it was amazing. I also got really fired up to bike pack the White Rim Trail at the bottom of the canyon someday.
The Needles is the section of the park accessed from further south (Indian Creek) and has some great hiking trails. We did a fun lollipop hike including Chesler Park area and the Join Trail.
We did not visit the Maze section of Canyonlands, in the southwest corner of the park.
Indian Creek (Bear’s Ears National Monument)
If you’re a climber, you’ve been hearing about “The Creek” since you first tied a figure 8, and it lives up to the hype! I thought I had climbed splitter cracks back in Yosemite, but I was wrong. Until you need to place seven #.75s cams and five #1s on a route, you’re not climbing splitters! Note about climbing at The Creek: a 60m rope won’t cut it at a lot of the crags. A double rack of cams won’t even be close to useful. Moral of the story: make (or bring) some friends with gear!
Note for lady climbers: 5.10s suck, but 5.11s are awesome. “Thin hands” and “small fingers” scare the dudes, but work well for most of us! Ratings at the creek are totally useless. The hardest route I climbed here was nominally a 5.8 on Mountain Project. The most enjoyable was a 5.11 that was pretty much all .75s for 50 feet. Figure out “your size” and look for it. At The Creek, size matters! We climbed at Supercrack, 4×4, Selfish Wall, and Fin Wall. Supercrack is super crowded, and the Incredible Hand Crack roof ate my arm up to the elbow (not that incredible and definitely not hand), but burly dudes rate and name the routes, so beware. 4×4 has some long routes that are AMAZING, but you need a 70m rope for most of them. Selfish and Fin have some shorter moderates and are awesome. Look out for the Blue Collared Lizard on the approaches, they are so cool!
I wish we would have done the South Six Shooter, but Eric wasn’t stoked and we had to move on at one point.
If you’re not a climber, you probably won’t make the drive here, but if you do – it’s beautiful! There’s a great campground (Superbowl) and if you are here during the spring, and there are storm clouds, it’s breathtaking.
Goosenecks State Park
This is a state park and costs $5 to enter. There are picnic tables and camping, but it’s completely open to the elements and doesn’t have too much to do, other than the incredible views of the goosenecks. It’s not crowded and we loved it. We got to watch a beautiful storm approaching with hail ad lightning over this landscape. It was stunning.
Monument Valley in Navajoland
Is AMAZING! First, go to the visitor center and read through some real history as written and presented by the Diné people (native name for the Navajo). Definitely watch the sunset at photographers point, it’s right at the parking lot. Definitely drive the dirt road loop into the park: we did it in our rear wheel drive Sprinter van and it was fine. If you can drive out to Artist Point for sunrise, it’s the best view of the monument, but may be tricky driving in the dark. Note that the campground in the park does not allow dogs.
Page, AZ (Antelope Canyon, Lake Powell)
I realize this is not in Utah, but it was on our route and fits well into the Southern Utah loop, has similar topography and is a must-do stop. Lower and/or Upper Antelope Canyons are unlike any other: it’s the iconic sandstone slot canyon. You must go with a Navajo guide and they are on the pricey side, but absolutely worth it. We only did the Lower Antelope Canyon, but if we are ever back in the area, I think doing the photo tour in the Upper Canyon would be worth it.
Photo of Antelope Canyon
Horseshoe Bend is famous and awesome. It is incredibly photogenic at sunset and you can park in their lot overnight. Expect a zoo of humans there at sunset – and people tend to be pretty inconsiderate of others when they are trying to get “the shot.” It’s definitely worth seeing, but please be nice!
The other must-do in Page is Stand Up Paddleboarding on Lake Powell, specifically the Antelope Canyon section. Though I feel fairly conflicted about Lake Powell in itself (flooding cultural and natural spaces, damming fish migration paths, etc.), it is a lake like no other, so might as well enjoy it. Rent a paddleboard if you don’t have one, and paddle out to the end of the water in Antelope (it’s the same canyon but this lower section is not in the Navajo Land and can be accessed from the lake), then hike for a bit. It’s fantastic!
Photo of SUP/Powell
For dinner, the Texas BBQ in Page is great. Us vegetarians pigged out (pun intended) on some delicious meaty meals, while listening to a live country band.
Photo of BBQ
Grand Staircase National Monument
We drove the 46-mile dirt Cottonwood Canyon road south to north. It was a fun and pretty adventure and we learned a lot about local geology (we stopped at the visitor center and got a geology guidebook to the road- if you’re doing this drive, highly recommend the book!).
This is not a must-do, but if you’re driving from Page, AZ to Bryce, it’s definitely the more fun and pretty way to go.
Photo of Grand Staircase
Bryce Canyon National Park
This place is amazing. Wake up for the sunrise and watch the sunset at Sunset Point (yes both, the Sunrise Point fills with tourists and the views are definitely not any better than Sunset Point). We watched one sunset at Sunset Point while drinking tea and reading Abbey’s Monkey Wrench Gang to each other, doesn’t get much better than that.
Sunrise/Sunset photo
Hike or run the Navajo and Peekaboo loops – easily done as a figure 8 in a half-day or less. The hoodoos are magic. Hike or run the Fairlyland Loop – this was easily my favorite trail run, maybe ever.
Hoodoo Run Photo
Utah is a beautiful wonderful wild place!