National Park Digest: 10 Days in Utah

Issue 14: A Road Trip Through the American Southwest

Until I met my husband, I hated the outdoors. I never camped or hiked growing up, and nature was generally something to be viewed the inside of a car. My husband was the opposite: he was a scout growing up and spent hours with an elderly neighbor exploring the woods near his house. When we first started dating, my husband took me to Walden Pond because I loved reading and swimming. That trip to Walden Pond started a now twenty-year obsession with exploring the outdoors. In 2024, that obsession brought us to Utah, long on all our bucket lists, for an epic road trip to several of the most beautiful national parks in the United States.

Pit stop at Goblin Valley State Park

Getting There and Around

We flew into and out of Las Vegas in late August. Though we initially planned to visit all of Utah’s “Mighty 5” parks, we ended up doing justice to just three of them. Three felt like the right number to visit during our ten day trip, but visiting fewer would have been an excellent choice as well. There is no shortage of state parks and outdoor adventuring opportunities in the American southwest, and leaving time for those experiences is wise. We followed the route below.

Las Vegas

We had just one day in Vegas and made the most of it. After landing midday, we dropped off our bags and had a quick swim at the hotel pool before heading to the strip. There is perhaps nothing more Vegas than a Vegas buffet so that’s where we started our afternoon. Like most people, we have a friend who is a Vegas expert and he directed us to the Bacchanal at Caesar’s Palace. I left no crab leg behind.

We waddled out of the buffet a couple of hours later, and took in a Cirque Du Soleil show. The show was a quick hour and featured truly incredible acrobatics. We ended the day with a walk down the strip before heading back for night swimming at the hotel pool.

Zion & Springdale

After breakfast, we started our first major drive of the trip to Springdale, the most popular base for exploring Zion National Park. We took our time getting there, making a long stop to explore Nevada’s Valley of Fire State Park. The park had an otherworldly desert landscape with red Aztec sandstone created by shifting sand dunes 150 million years ago. We were parched minutes into a flat 1ish mile hike, and glad we had brought our water bottles on the short hike.

We drove into Springdale and after an early dinner at Oscar’s Café and a stop at Sol Foods Supermarket across the street for some provisions, we checked into our hotel. We stayed in a suite at Cable Mountain Lodge, adjacent to the south entrance of the park and would stay there again in a heartbeat. From March through late November, the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive, and the most popular trailheads in the park, can be accessed only by shuttle bus and lots inside the park are closed to cars. We could walk into the park from Cable Mountain Lodge every morning and jump onto the shuttle bus in less than 10 minutes. Staying elsewhere would have required taking the Springdale tram, a separate shuttle that brings you into the park where you have to switch to the park shuttle, or a long walk into Zion.

We devoted our time in Zion to tackling two iconic hikes, the Narrows and Angel’s Landing. After consulting a friend from Utah and researching the hikes, we decided to do both with private guides booked through Zion Adventures. We chose the company because they have some experiences designed for families with kids 12 and under. While we didn’t end up joining those particular experiences, we knew after a few conversations with them that they were well-equipped, in terms of personality and gear, to navigate the outdoors with children.

We spent our first day hiking the Narrows, deriving its namesake for being the narrowest section of Zion Canyon. This gorge is perhaps the most popular hike in Zion National Park, and can require wading up to your shoulders at points. Zion Adventures gave us everything we needed to handle the hike as comfortably as we could-hiking sticks drypants, dry packs, and waders for our shoes. Our guide was fantastic and told us about the history, geology, and flora and fauna as we waded through the Narrows. He knew the terrain so well that he was able to guide our steps past trickier areas and avoid large rocks and potholes we couldn’t see under the water.

Wet and Happy in the Narrows

We had initially booked a canyoneering trip with Zion Adventures for the next day. Somewhat impulsively though, I entered the day-before-lottery for permits to hike Angel’s Landing-and miraculously won four permits. Zion Adventures also offers guided tours to Angel’s Landing and since we had permits, offered us the chance to change our booking from our original canyoneering trip to an Angel’s Landing trip. After a secret family ballot, we took them up on their offer.

Hiking Angel’s Landing was one of the best experiences of my life. The hike is 5.4 miles out-and-back back with a final path to the summit up a steep, narrow ridge with chains to hold onto as you climb uneven steps. With our warm and relaxed guide’s help, we knew exactly the parts to hang on to the chains more tightly and when we could just take in the otherworldly views.

Navigating the chains to Angel’s Landing

Exploring the Narrows and Angel’s Landing with guides was expensive, but the peace of mind it gave me with respect to tackling these amazing but dangerous hikes was priceless. I couldn’t recommend Zion Adventures more for giving us everything we needed to tackle the hikes.

Bryce Canyon

We headed to Bryce Canyon National Park after an early dinner at the end of our second day in Zion. The pickings are a bit slim around Bryce, and multiple blogs told me that staying in the park was the way to go if lodging was available. We ended up taking that advice and while the rooms were simple, we were happy with the easy access to the park. Bryce is relatively compact for a national park, and the one full day and two nights we gave it felt like enough to do the park justice.

Bryce is known for its expansive collection of hoodoos, which are tall, thin rock spires that form from the bottom of an arid drainage basin. While hoodoos are found all over the world, nowhere in the world are they as abundant as in the northern section of Bryce Canyon National Park. The beauty of Bryce was seeing the light change over the hoodoos over the course of a day.

Taking in the Light at Bryce

We did a few hikes while visiting Bryce, including the popular Navajo Loop and Queens Garden. We also booked a guided trail ride into the Bryce Amphitheater through the park’s concessioner Canyon Trail Rides. Just seeing the sunrise and sunset at Bryce was also a terrific experience, and well worth trying to spend 24 hours in the park.

Arches & Moab

After our second night in Bryce, we took off early to head to Arches via Capitol Reef National Park. Like most first time visitors to Utah, we have Capitol Reef short shrift. We took a guided four wheel drive through the park, but a combination of poor weather and confinement to the vehicle left us without a strong sense of Capitol Reef. I’d like to return in the future to give the park the time and interaction it deserves.

After several hours in Capitol Reef and an early dinner at [fill in], we drove on to Moab, homebase for visitors to Arches and Canyonlands National Park. We stayed at the Hyatt Place Moab for three nights, and were upgraded to a two bedroom casita, with two queen beds, a king bed, and a large living room and kitchen. It was perfect for the four of us, and could have easily fit two grandparents as well. The hotel was also just an eight- minute drive to the entrance of Arches.

Arches is filled with relatively short and accessible hikes, and easy to navigate. During certain time of the year, visitors must have a timed entry ticket to enter the park between 7 am and 4pm. We had reserved tickets for both days we were in the area, picking an afternoon slot one day, and a morning slot the next. We spent our first day driving through much of the park and stopping for several short hikes before ending with the famous three-mile Delicate Arch trail. Since it does have a few strenuous spots and little shade, we were happy that we tackled Delicate Arch later in the day, after peak sun. The next day, my son and I returned during our morning entry slot and hiked to see a few more of the park’s astonishing arches.

We spent a fair amount of time lingering over meals in Moab and at the hotel pool, where my kids befriended a French family touring the U.S. I also squeezed in a massage. Moab was the perfect place to catch our breath.

Ulum Moab and Antelope Canyon Detour

We toyed with the idea of adding a night in a yurt or tent at an outdoor resort at the beginning stages of our trip, but wasn’t sure exactly where to fit it in. A couple of weeks before we left, I noticed that Ulum Moab had been added as a Hyatt partner and had availability during our time in the area. We decided to shift our plans to spend a night there near the end of our vacation.

We arrived mid-afternoon and jumped into the resort’s complimentary activities on-site. We took a mocktail class, made some clay sculptures, and mixed custom trail mix. We also jumped into the resort’s three plunge pools and enjoyed cocktails, dinner, and s’mores while sitting outside with a view of the desert and Looking Glass Arch. The resort can arrange expert-led tours to do everything from rock-climbing to white water rafting, but we chose to soak in some downtime, and one night at Ulum was the perfect way to do so.

Self-Guided Yoga at Ulum

From Ulum, we started our longest drive of the trip back to Las Vegas, where we would catch our flight back home the next morning. We added an hour detour to the seven-hour drive to squeeze in a visit to Antelope Canyon, two slot canyons with vibrant sandstone colors and curves. Entry to Antelope Canyon is by tour only, making it little tricky to ensure we met our reserved timed entry, but luckily traffic is not something to worry about in southwest Utah.

We ended our trip with In-N-Out and one more late-night swim at the hotel where we began our trip in Las Vegas.

Bookmarks

My top recommendations, all in one spot.

Stay: We stayed at the Hyatt Place at Silverton Village in Las Vegas, just off the strip and perfect for families with a large outdoor pool and hot tub and breakfast.

In Zion, we loved Cable Mountain Lodge, which has the easiest access to the park outside of staying in the park itself. We booked one of the Lodge’s Wallbed Suites, which has a master bedroom with a king bed as well as a queen murphy bed and convertible sofa in the living room. The lodge also had a pool and hot tub overlooking Zion’s beautiful mountain landscape.

In Moab, we spent several nights at the Hyatt Place Moab. As mentioned above, I highly recommend reserving on of the hotel’s eight standalone casitas if you are traveling with your family.

We ended the trip with one night at the luxury glamping resort Ulum Moab, which was a great way to cap off the vacation.

Eat: Food is not exactly the draw in southwestern Utah, so we were happy that we had many excellent dining experiences on our trip. Las Vegas, Springdale, and Moab all have terrific dining options that are well worth seeking out. In Las Vegas, the experiences we still talk about is the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar’s Palace. We loved the tex-mex and burgers at Oscar’s Café and the steak and live band at Bit & Spur. Breweries are popular, and Trailhead was a terrific one in Moab. We were also happy to take a break from mostly American food to eat excellent Thai food at Thai Bella Moab.

Play: We tried a few different outfitters during our trip, but nowhere made things as fun or as easy as Zion Adventures. I am a customer for life.