All five Utah national parks in one trip. Arches, Bryce, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Zion, with the drives between them nearly as good as the parks.
Utah has five national parks and they are nothing alike. Arches is two thousand stone arches balanced against the sky. Bryce is an amphitheater of orange hoodoos that looks like nowhere else on earth. Canyonlands is scale you cannot photograph. Capitol Reef is quiet and green and full of orchards. Zion is a canyon you walk into with red walls two thousand feet over your head.
Most people do one or two and mean to come back for the rest. This does all five in a single trip, with the driving handled and the pacing worked out so it never feels like a march.
The country between the parks is worth the window seat too. Scenic byways, slot canyons, and small towns where the diner has been in the same family for sixty years.
This one is ladies only, just us.
Delicate Arch, Balanced Rock, and the enormous canyon country around Moab.
Hoodoos in orange and pink, best at sunrise. Nothing else looks like it.
The quiet one, with the Waterpocket Fold, historic orchards, and far fewer people.
Red walls rising two thousand feet on either side of you. The shuttle makes it easy, and the canyon does the rest.
Fly into Salt Lake City at your leisure and settle into the hotel. Tonight, a welcome dinner with the group, then out to Temple Square. Twenty twenty-seven is the year of the Salt Lake Temple Open House, the first time the public has been allowed inside since 1893, and it runs through the first of October. If you would rather rest after the flight, that is a perfectly good choice too.
An early start south into red rock country. Canyonlands and the Island in the Sky district, a mesa standing a thousand feet above everything around it. A walk out to Mesa Arch, then the overlooks at Grand View Point. We finish at Dead Horse Point, two thousand feet straight above a bend in the Colorado River, which is one of the most photographed views in the world for good reason.
Out early to beat the heat and the crowds, and straight to the trail for Delicate Arch. Fifty-two feet tall with the La Sal Mountains behind it. Then Landscape Arch, one of the longest stone spans anywhere, and the Windows Section with Double Arch. A boxed lunch in the park, a scenic drive along the Colorado River with ancient petroglyphs on the rock walls, free time in Moab, and a group dinner to finish.
Goblin Valley first, which is thousands of mushroom-shaped hoodoos and looks like nowhere else on earth. Then into Capitol Reef, built around the Waterpocket Fold, a hundred-mile wrinkle in the crust. Grand Wash, Hickman Bridge, or Capitol Gorge with its pioneer inscriptions carved into the stone, depending on what the group is up for.
Scenic Byway 12, which is one of the great drives in the country, across the canyons of Escalante. Into Bryce by way of Mossy Cave, a streamside trail to a grotto and a small desert waterfall. Then the rim of the main amphitheater, looking out over thousands of orange hoodoos. In the evening there is optional stargazing with telescopes, and Bryce has some of the darkest skies in America.
Up early for sunrise over the Bryce amphitheater, when the first light hits the tips of the hoodoos and the whole canyon goes gold. For anyone who wants it, a walk down below the rim among the spires. Then the drive to Zion by the Mount Carmel Highway, and the Canyon Overlook Trail, which looks straight down into a canyon two thousand feet deep.
Your morning in Zion, and you choose. The switchbacks up to Scout Lookout for the big view. The Emerald Pools loop past tiered pools and weeping rock. Or wade into the Narrows and walk up the riverbed with thousand-foot walls on either side. In the afternoon we start north with a stop at Kolob Canyons, the quieter end of Zion, and reach Salt Lake City in the early evening.
Breakfast, a slow morning, and transfer to the airport whenever your flight calls for it.
Order of days and choice of trails may shift with weather, road conditions, and what the group is up for. Full detailed itinerary available on request.
A fair amount, and this is the trip where I want you to read this bit properly. Plan on being comfortable walking one to three miles at a time over uneven ground. Elevation gain runs fifty to three hundred feet in most places, and the parks sit between six and eight thousand feet above sea level. Delicate Arch is three miles round trip on open slickrock with a steady climb.
Yes, and plenty of people do. Every day has viewpoints and shorter walks alongside the longer options, and the guide splits the group where it makes sense. You will not be left behind or made to feel awkward about it.
Small. No more than thirteen guests with a private guide, in a Sprinter van rather than a motorcoach. It is a different feel from our bigger trips, and on these roads it is the right way to do it.
No. You book your own flights into Salt Lake City, and airport transfers are on your own as well. Call me and I am glad to help you sort out flights.
By design. Day one and day eight are built to absorb travel, so a delayed flight does not cost you a national park. You arrive at your leisure and leave at your leisure.
A twenty twenty-seven event and the reason day one is worth arriving for. After a multi-year renovation, the public is being allowed inside for the first time since 1893. It runs from early April to the first of October, so our June departure falls inside it.
Yes. This one is just for the ladies.
No, but sharing brings the cost down a good deal on this trip. I am glad to match you with a roommate from the group.
Pricing per person, land only. Airfare and airport transfers not included.
Booking is handled securely through our Trips Unlimited reservation system. Prefer to talk it through first? Call me.
Button not opening your email? Write to frances@tripsunlimited.com or call 931-801-9900.
Maximum 13 guests · Travel insurance strongly recommended · Comfortable walking on uneven ground required.
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