Utah is known for the Mighty Five; its five National Parks- Capitol Reef, Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon, and Zion. We were on a mission to see the beautiful red rock canyons that are so different than what we typically see in Michigan. Since our drive to get out west is so long we decided to cut Bryce Canyon and Zion out from our trip. Taking our time, enjoying ourselves, and seeing the beauty of the area is more important to us than crossing off all the National Parks from a “bucket list”. Of course, the two parks we didn’t visit are amazing and we would love to visit someday. But, for this particular trip, we were very happy with our decision.
We started at Capitol Reef, the furthest west we were going to travel and from there made our way back east.
Our favorite part of this area was actually driving NOTOM road to Burr trail road. This road is at the east entrance to the park. You basically circumnavigate the park- passing through Boulder and then through Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. The road turns to dirt and is pretty bumpy/washbaordy for about a total of 18 miles. Our little teardrop did see some minor damage. We had to screw several things back into place but the drive was worth it! You go up a set of switchbacks and end up in a high desert plane. From the red rocks, you enter white rocks with juniper and sage bushes everywhere. The landscape continues to change as you drive. From there you will end up in an alpine, aspen forest and then come back down into the red rocks. The views along the way are amazing!
We spent two nights on this road. The first night we stayed a few miles before Boulder. We had the camping spot to ourselves with a spectacular view of the red rocks cliffs above us. Right after our camping spot, we entered Long Canyon. We hiked a small slot canyon the next morning and we were the only ones there. We also hiked to what was supposed to be a waterfall on the map but was dry the time of year we were there.
We got to Boulder late morning. There isn’t much in this small town, but there is a coffee shop and a grill with good food. It’s also the only area we had cell service or got any wifi. It is a good place to stop in if you need to do anything or download any additional maps.
Our second night we stayed on this road was in the alpine area of the trail. We had great views down, overlooking Capitol Reef and all the beautiful canyons and once again had the camping area all to ourselves. Highly recommend this drive if you are visiting Capitol Reef.
Within the park itself, it’s self we did do several great hikes. We really enjoyed the hike to the Pioneer registry and the tanks. The tanks were dry during our visit. We also hiked the Grand wash to Cassidy arch. We were intrigued by the fact that there was an arch and didn’t do much research ahead of us starting to hike. You can actually park closer to the Cassidy arch hike or you can park and do the Grand wash which will take you to the trailhead for the arch. The Grand wash hike is about 3 miles. After that, it is 1.5 to the arch but what we didn’t realize is that the 1.5 miles are basically all uphill. It is a challenging hike and we did not have enough water. We made it about 1 mile, to a spot with the best view of the actual arch. The hike continues to the top of the arch but we decided to turn back after getting a view since we had several miles to go to get back to our car. Our favorite hike in the park was probably the Natural Bridge hike. There is a small bridge and then further up the trail, about a mile is the larger natural bridge.
Another must within the park is to get a pie in Fruita at the store/museum that is near the visitor center. Very good, get there early before they run out. We stopped in about 10:30-11 am and they were almost out completely!
Our next stop was Goblin Valley State Park and staying the night at some BLM land just outside the park. We arrived late afternoon after a pretty full morning of hiking. The park was cool to walk through however we felt the $20 entrance fee was a bit high. We were expecting it to be less. The main area here is the Valley of the Goblins. You can get a good feel for it after walking around 45 min to an hour. We were able to top off our water tank at the campground in the park which was nice, much less crowded than at any of the national parks. Overall we enjoyed it but can’t really say it’s worth the cost.
We had planned to visit Capitol Reef at the Island in the sky entrance which is the closest to Moab. We got there late AM, maybe 10:00. We waited in a very long line of cars that were not moving for about an hour. We couldn’t even see the pay/ranger station so decided to turn around. About 4 miles back was the turn-off and entrance for Dead Horse state park so we decided to visit there instead. We had a great afternoon hike around the entire canyon- about a 5-mile hike. We had beautiful views and much less of a crowd to deal with. The entrance fee here is also $20 but there are more hiking options so we felt this park was worth the cost.
We knew now that the National Parks close to Moab were going to be packed. So we woke up super early. We had also been told by a few people to do the Delicate Arch hike at sunrise so that is what we did. We had no line to get into the park and easily found a parking spot at the Delicate Arch parking lot. We would highly recommend doing this hike early in the morning or in the evening. There is no shade and this hike would be very hot and sunny midday. Also, the parking lot was completely full when we came back down from our sunrise hike. We got back to the parking lot a little after 7 AM and there were parking attendants turning people away (don’t think you’ll be able to park in anything but a designated parking spot and if you aren’t an oversized vehicle they won’t let you take those spots either). The sunrise comes up over the canyon that is behind you when you are sitting on the rocks facing the arch. If you aren’t there early enough for the actual sunrise, don’t worry. It takes a while for the sun to fully rise and shine through the arch. If you are there any time around sunrise you are sure to get a great view and some great shots. There was a fairly big group of people there but everyone had a great seat to watch the sunrise without being on top of each other.
We did several other hikes in the park the rest of the morning before it got too hot.
Our favorites were Natural arch and Double arch (in the windows district).
Moab:
We didn’t spend much time here as our goals were to be out exploring the area. We did stop at Moab Brewing for lunch. We enjoyed the beers and the food. The portion sizes were huge which we appreciated after a morning full of hiking at Arches!
From Moab, we drove south to this entrance of the park where we found no line and much fewer crowds. We started with a few short hikes, one of which you could see needles in the distance. We then realized we really needed to do the hike at Elephant hill. This hike allows you to walk closer to and amongst the needles. By the time we started that hike, it was getting later in the morning, quite hot and we had already hiked a few miles. We ended up walking about a mile into the hike and then back out. We stopped at a very nice view of the needles. There is a viewing platform further through the hike but you will get an amazing view after only about a mile.
Driving this way you also drive through Bears Ears National Monument which is a beautiful drive. We didn’t see any signs indicating that we were in the National Monument but on the map, we clearly were in the middle of it. There are some great rock formations, cliffs, and views the entire drive.
One final stop:
After this long, we were ready to get out of the heat of the desert. We decided to head towards Telluride for some cooler temps. We found a great camp spot with beautiful mountain views. The next morning we hiked Bridal Veil falls and enjoyed a walk around town before heading further east, back towards home.
We did this trip at the end of May. The first day or two in Capitol Reef it was cooler (the 70s for highs). The majority of our trip was very hot- highs in the 90s and full sun nearly every day. That makes hiking all day kind of out of the question, at least for us. We highly recommend getting up early to hike before it gets too hot. You will enjoy much fewer crowds this way as well. This area of Utah is beautiful, it seemed like around every corner was something amazing to see. Even when you’re not driving through the parks the area is great, it’s an awesome place for a road trip! Take your time and enjoy the drive!
For advice on how to find free camping check out our post here: How to find free camping
What did we miss? Where are your favorite places to camp in the U.S?
