National Parks: The Utah Mighty Five + Great Basin!
Last summer's National Park expedition went so well, we decided to go for broke this year and do the Utah Mighty Five: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, and Arches.
We roughed out the itinerary last winter and I started my VRBO reservations. Then Karl discovered Great Basin National Park in the absolute middle of nowhere in eastern Nevada. It's 200 miles from Zion and that's the closest we would ever realistically get. So we tacked GBNP on to the front end of the itinerary and made it a Super Six!
We flew into Salt Lake City. The kids got to use the iPad minis and travel packs they each received last Christmas, and flying was downright easy. We waited one million years for our rental van, muttered the requisite number of expletives while installing our car seats, and set off. First stop: In-N-Out Burger. Second stop: Costco. We loaded up on a ton of dry goods that we could use as backpack meals since we didn't have the electric cooler like last summer. Travel tip: this worked super well. The kids loved eating meals made of snacks; and fruit, nuts, trail mix, and beef jerky was much healthier than fast food, which would have been our only option in many locations.
Great Basin
Visiting Great Basin NP requires driving three hours west and south of SLC. The big surprise on this leg of the journey was crossing the Bonneville Salt Flat. I honestly had no idea we would pass it (travel research fail). We kept seeing the bright white of salt in the desert landscape, then suddenly, you see hundreds of miles' worth of salt crust. It's otherworldly. We stopped at a pull-out to let the kids run around. It's incredibly vast, extremely salty, and blindingly bright.
Then back into the car and on to Ely, Nevada, the closest town to GBNP. We stayed at the high-class Prospector Hotel and Gaming Hall. It was full of kitch, slot machines, and beds to jump on. We had surprisingly delicious Chinese food in town and let the kids run around at the neighborhood park. Henry discovered what 6,400 feet of elevation will do to your endurance.
The next morning, we drove one hour to GBNP. The park was a pleasant surprise, featuring both a very cool cave and a mountain tall enough for alpine terrain. We did a quick hike on the Mountain View Nature Trail while we waited for our cave tour.
We had tickets for the Lodge Room tour in Lehman Caves (the only tour on which small children are permitted). Book tours MONTHS in advance -- they do sell out! Our ranger was fantastic, and we all loved the incredible formations in the cave: stalagmites and stalactites, columns, straws, shields, and bacon. Yes, bacon! It was satisfyingly different from Mammoth and Wind Caves, the two others we have visited. Henry was a total NPS tour gunner, and the three older kids all got to carry the ranger's flashlight. Then we drove up 9,800 feet of Wheeler Peak to hike part of the Alpine Lakes Loop. We jumped over rushing streams and climbed on tree stumps, but took a wrong turn and failed to see any lakes. Whoops.
There is more you could do in the park, but the cave and Wheeler Peak are the standouts. Having done those, and with five more parks ahead, we loaded back in the car so we could make Utah by dinnertime. The drive from GBNP to Zion is extraordinary. Cross a mountain ridge, drive 20-50 miles on a perfectly straight basin road, repeat five times. We often passed zero cars for many miles, and there was zero cell service. It's a good place to not have car trouble. Getting to and from the Park was part of the experience of the Great Basin and well worth the drive.
Bryce and Zion
For the Bryce and Zion corner of Utah, we stayed at the ranch house of a real working ranch! Every morning started with cows milling about on our driveway and horses grazing below the gate. The wonders of AirBNB.
It was in the town of Hatch, about 30 minutes from Bryce and an hour from Zion. On one hand, it was really nice to park ourselves for three nights and not pack up every morning. On the other hand, it was a long haul to Zion, which was really crowded and required an early start. Overall, the ranch worked out well, but if I had a do-over, I might stay two nights in Springdale and one at Bryce Canyon Lodge.
Bryce Canyon was phenomenal. I picked a couple hike options in advance, and everyone agreed they were up for a challenge, so we did the full Navajo + Queens Garden Loop. Folks, this is a hike that grown, fit people consider challenging. You start down several hundred feet of switchbacks, walk along the canyon floor for two miles, then hike back up to the rim via more switchbacks. We got some looks from other people, especially since Heidi wept loudly all the way down, but the kids just crushed it. The older three walked the whole way. Fritz did about half of it (the down half, of course). As we climbed back up, people heading down the other way passed our little crew and gave us the "way to go!" And then some of them saw the 40-lb toddler strapped to my back and gave me a "hell yeah, Mom!" It was right up there with the time I got props from some Marines for carrying both Heidi and Ingrid up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial while hugely pregnant.
It was a great first Utah hike because we got to do switchbacks, a slot canyon, the desert-like canyon floor, and see hoodoo rock formations. There were things to climb on, which is all Henry needs to be happy. Ingrid carried her water pack and did the whole thing without complaint, or really speaking at all, which is how I would like to hike. Heidi, when she was done weeping, dominated the rest of us on the uphill switchbacks.
We had lunch in the lodge with hard-earned root beers and IPAs. The kids sat through a ranger talk in order to get their Junior Ranger badges, but we had all had enough, so we headed home.
Our next day at Zion was rougher. We left the ranch early because TripAdvisor had warned me the parking lot would be full and the shuttle line would be long by 8:00. Indeed. We rolled in at 8:00 and got one of the last 5 spots in the park. We waited a full 45 minutes for a shuttle. Oh, and that was after Henry got carsick and had to barf on the side of the road.
I put the Narrows first on our itinerary because it was the #1 thing I wanted to see, and I was hoping that starting at the far back of the park would buy us some elbow room. No. It was packed. Single-file hiking all along the River Walk trail to get to the Narrows, then hordes -- HORDES -- of people all trying to navigate the same awkward river approaches. Really doing the Narrows will obviously have to be another trip with bigger children, but I was hoping we could make it a mile to where the canyon narrows and let the kids play in the water a bit. No. We spent 90 percent of the day trying to keep the children corralled on the right side of the trail. I briefly lost Fritz in a crowd of Eastern Europeans dressed like they were going to a nightclub. I have almost no pictures from this day because I couldn't stop and snap one without someone bumping me.
I left the park feeling a bit surly and with the firm conviction that the NPS should not allow tour buses. Groups of 60+ all moving together just change the experience too much. Zion may have the most spectacular scenery in all of Utah, but left us with zero connection to nature. It was Disneyworld with no bathrooms. We did finish with some delicious tacos in Springdale and some good laughs about national stereotypes -- those Germans really want to get to the end and back with minimal enjoyment of the process -- but if we go back to Zion, it will not be in peak season.
Capitol Reef
We spent a third night at the ranch and packed out the next morning for Capitol Reef NP. This park is in the middle of the state and it isn't quite as dramatic as the others, so it is far less crowded. I think there were fewer people in the entire park than there were on our shuttles in Zion. But it was totally under-sold! The entry drive is jaw-dropping because you're following a ridge that was forced up out of the earth, exposing dozens of layers of rock along a wall hundreds of miles long. The kids listened to a really good geology talk and then we headed for Hickman Bridge. This might have been the absolute perfect hike for our team. Lots of rocks to climb on, crevices to explore, space to run, a cool arch at the end, but not so dangerous that we had to keep everyone on a leash. Henry often invented his own trails where we could see him but not follow him, because he's a mountain goat.
The park also contains a pre-Civil War Mormon settlement where you can see the tiny schoolhouse and pick fruit in the orchards. We picked some apricots for our drive to Moab. Capitol Reef was a smaller park, but we enjoyed it very much. It was interesting and accessible in the best National Park way, much like the parks we visited last summer.
Arches and Canyonlands
The lodging options around Capitol Reef are either dumpy motels or super cool Utah-Tourism-Board glamping, but those were either too small for us or required a two-night stay. So we zipped straight to our condo in Moab. We opted to stay 10 minutes out of town in exchange for more space, our own hot tub, and a community pool. This place was perfect (there are tons available in this development in the hot season). Fritz is still asking to go "home," and when I tell him we are home, he says, "no, our HOT TUB home." There is delicious food in Moab. I highly recommend Miguel's Baja Grill, Jailhouse Cafe, and Wicked Brew.
We did Arches on our first day in Moab, and I'm so glad, because it gave us time to go back the second evening. We were up early and drove in to the most gorgeous morning light streaming over the desert. It's very flat and empty as you drive into the park, then -- bam! -- there are all these crazy rock formations sticking up in the middle of nothing. The amount of rock that has washed away over the millenia to leave only these fragments -- it's mind-boggling.
Again, we started at the far end of the park and worked our way back toward the entrance. We parked at Devil's Garden before the day got too hot and did the long walk back to Landscape Arch. By this point in the trip, Ingrid was almost as goat-like as Henry, and the two of them scrambled up every boulder they could find. The desert also provides a lot of sand to play with.
The arches are so impressive because you get to the first viewpoint and think, "Wow, that's really cool." And then you get closer, and closer, and closer, and as it unfolds, you realize you barely had a sense of it before. Landscape Arch is enormous and looks like Fritz could knock it down (which is not far from the truth; parts of it have broken away in our lifetimes).
By the time we came back from Landscape Arch, it was already obscenely hot. We dragged the children to Pine Tree and Tunnel Arches. There was much weeping and whining, but these were on the same freaking trail, so we had to see them even if no one liked it.
We drove back toward the front of the park and convinced the kids, over much whining, that we should do one more trail. I had read that Sand Dune Arch was shady and good for families. And I'm so glad we stopped! It was our best hike at Arches and one of the top three for the whole trip. Henry finally got to do a Ninja Warrior jumping spider, there were many boulders to climb, and sand to play in. And shade, sweet blessed shade.
This was one day we really paid for going to the desert in August. It was so hot, and there was no reprieve other than one shady part of Sand Dune Arch. If you dare to do this in the summer, there is no such thing as too much water. We went through six liters of water while hiking and stopped at the Visitor's Center to refill for the drive home. Everyone was so overheated and tired, we cut the day short and cancelled the horseback ride we had planned (the outfit owner screamed and berated me for canceling, I would not recommend it). Ingrid wailed and asked when we could take a normal vacation that's actually fun instead of flying somewhere to walk around and be hot all day.
After naps, gallons of water, soaking our feet in the hot tub, and watching some Netflix, Karl and Henry felt ready to go back out for the long hike to Delicate Arch. This is the iconic arch that appears on Utah's license plate. The hike has miles of bald-face rock, a narrow ledge, and a rock bowl that isn't hard to walk on, but if you tripped on your shoelace, you would tumble to the bottom and die. We decided this was too much for the younger kids, and Ingrid wasn't up for it, but Henry was game. So the boys packed an additional three liters of water and my camera and headed back into the park.
The next day was Canyonlands. We did the Island in the Sky District, which is the most accessible part of the park. It does feel like being up in the clouds with river valleys all around.
We started with Whale Rock, which the NPS website bills as moderately difficult and dangerous, but the Rangers advertised as perfect for families. And it was great fun! And we had it all to ourselves! We climbed the whole way up this giant rock and saw two other people (I'm looking at you, ZION). The trail was marked with cairns but Whale Rock is just a giant half-dome, so you can basically climb any which way, and Henry did.
Whale Rock took us most of the morning, and we were getting very hot, so we paused for picnic lunch at a shelter with a glorious view. Some of us took off our sweaty shirts to dry in the sun.
After lunch, we did Mesa Arch, which is a short but fun hike with a spectacular, arch-framed panoramic view at the end.
We drove by a few more viewpoints, but we were all pretty numbed to desert vistas by that point in the trip. We probably shortchanged Canyonlands a little bit, but it was park #6, and we have learned to stop before everyone hates everything. Plus, I wanted to have some gas in the tank for Delicate Arch! I decided I was too jealous of Karl and Henry's evening expedition and couldn't leave without seeing Delicate Arch. Henry graciously agreed to go back with me. So we sunscreened and watered up for another three miles.
The hike was so awesome. It's hard, especially because of the heat and altitude, but it was absolutely worth doing. It was also a treat to be out with only Henry. We chatted the whole way and he had two hours to tell me as much as he wanted about his favorite YouTubers. It's also good to know he has more sense than many adults in the world. Like when we would pass people starting off with no water, or heading up the hill as we headed down in near-darkness, and even Henry was like, "That guy is dumb."
People line up around the bowl for sunset, which was sort of funny because the sun does not set behind the Arch, but it does light everything up in golden colors. Henry and I headed down well before sunset because we did not want to be out there in pitch darkness (unlike some of the dolts who started up well after sunset with no flashlights). Henry scrambled and climbed all the things all the way down, we had a gorgeous view of balanced rock at sunset, and then we rewarded ourselves with McDonalds and ice cream back in Moab. Fourthmeal never tasted so good.
We roughed out the itinerary last winter and I started my VRBO reservations. Then Karl discovered Great Basin National Park in the absolute middle of nowhere in eastern Nevada. It's 200 miles from Zion and that's the closest we would ever realistically get. So we tacked GBNP on to the front end of the itinerary and made it a Super Six!
We flew into Salt Lake City. The kids got to use the iPad minis and travel packs they each received last Christmas, and flying was downright easy. We waited one million years for our rental van, muttered the requisite number of expletives while installing our car seats, and set off. First stop: In-N-Out Burger. Second stop: Costco. We loaded up on a ton of dry goods that we could use as backpack meals since we didn't have the electric cooler like last summer. Travel tip: this worked super well. The kids loved eating meals made of snacks; and fruit, nuts, trail mix, and beef jerky was much healthier than fast food, which would have been our only option in many locations.
Great Basin
Visiting Great Basin NP requires driving three hours west and south of SLC. The big surprise on this leg of the journey was crossing the Bonneville Salt Flat. I honestly had no idea we would pass it (travel research fail). We kept seeing the bright white of salt in the desert landscape, then suddenly, you see hundreds of miles' worth of salt crust. It's otherworldly. We stopped at a pull-out to let the kids run around. It's incredibly vast, extremely salty, and blindingly bright.
Then back into the car and on to Ely, Nevada, the closest town to GBNP. We stayed at the high-class Prospector Hotel and Gaming Hall. It was full of kitch, slot machines, and beds to jump on. We had surprisingly delicious Chinese food in town and let the kids run around at the neighborhood park. Henry discovered what 6,400 feet of elevation will do to your endurance.
The next morning, we drove one hour to GBNP. The park was a pleasant surprise, featuring both a very cool cave and a mountain tall enough for alpine terrain. We did a quick hike on the Mountain View Nature Trail while we waited for our cave tour.
We had tickets for the Lodge Room tour in Lehman Caves (the only tour on which small children are permitted). Book tours MONTHS in advance -- they do sell out! Our ranger was fantastic, and we all loved the incredible formations in the cave: stalagmites and stalactites, columns, straws, shields, and bacon. Yes, bacon! It was satisfyingly different from Mammoth and Wind Caves, the two others we have visited. Henry was a total NPS tour gunner, and the three older kids all got to carry the ranger's flashlight. Then we drove up 9,800 feet of Wheeler Peak to hike part of the Alpine Lakes Loop. We jumped over rushing streams and climbed on tree stumps, but took a wrong turn and failed to see any lakes. Whoops.
There is more you could do in the park, but the cave and Wheeler Peak are the standouts. Having done those, and with five more parks ahead, we loaded back in the car so we could make Utah by dinnertime. The drive from GBNP to Zion is extraordinary. Cross a mountain ridge, drive 20-50 miles on a perfectly straight basin road, repeat five times. We often passed zero cars for many miles, and there was zero cell service. It's a good place to not have car trouble. Getting to and from the Park was part of the experience of the Great Basin and well worth the drive.
Bryce and Zion
For the Bryce and Zion corner of Utah, we stayed at the ranch house of a real working ranch! Every morning started with cows milling about on our driveway and horses grazing below the gate. The wonders of AirBNB.
It was in the town of Hatch, about 30 minutes from Bryce and an hour from Zion. On one hand, it was really nice to park ourselves for three nights and not pack up every morning. On the other hand, it was a long haul to Zion, which was really crowded and required an early start. Overall, the ranch worked out well, but if I had a do-over, I might stay two nights in Springdale and one at Bryce Canyon Lodge.
Bryce Canyon was phenomenal. I picked a couple hike options in advance, and everyone agreed they were up for a challenge, so we did the full Navajo + Queens Garden Loop. Folks, this is a hike that grown, fit people consider challenging. You start down several hundred feet of switchbacks, walk along the canyon floor for two miles, then hike back up to the rim via more switchbacks. We got some looks from other people, especially since Heidi wept loudly all the way down, but the kids just crushed it. The older three walked the whole way. Fritz did about half of it (the down half, of course). As we climbed back up, people heading down the other way passed our little crew and gave us the "way to go!" And then some of them saw the 40-lb toddler strapped to my back and gave me a "hell yeah, Mom!" It was right up there with the time I got props from some Marines for carrying both Heidi and Ingrid up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial while hugely pregnant.
It was a great first Utah hike because we got to do switchbacks, a slot canyon, the desert-like canyon floor, and see hoodoo rock formations. There were things to climb on, which is all Henry needs to be happy. Ingrid carried her water pack and did the whole thing without complaint, or really speaking at all, which is how I would like to hike. Heidi, when she was done weeping, dominated the rest of us on the uphill switchbacks.
We had lunch in the lodge with hard-earned root beers and IPAs. The kids sat through a ranger talk in order to get their Junior Ranger badges, but we had all had enough, so we headed home.
Our next day at Zion was rougher. We left the ranch early because TripAdvisor had warned me the parking lot would be full and the shuttle line would be long by 8:00. Indeed. We rolled in at 8:00 and got one of the last 5 spots in the park. We waited a full 45 minutes for a shuttle. Oh, and that was after Henry got carsick and had to barf on the side of the road.
I put the Narrows first on our itinerary because it was the #1 thing I wanted to see, and I was hoping that starting at the far back of the park would buy us some elbow room. No. It was packed. Single-file hiking all along the River Walk trail to get to the Narrows, then hordes -- HORDES -- of people all trying to navigate the same awkward river approaches. Really doing the Narrows will obviously have to be another trip with bigger children, but I was hoping we could make it a mile to where the canyon narrows and let the kids play in the water a bit. No. We spent 90 percent of the day trying to keep the children corralled on the right side of the trail. I briefly lost Fritz in a crowd of Eastern Europeans dressed like they were going to a nightclub. I have almost no pictures from this day because I couldn't stop and snap one without someone bumping me.
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| Two seconds before puking again. |
Capitol Reef
We spent a third night at the ranch and packed out the next morning for Capitol Reef NP. This park is in the middle of the state and it isn't quite as dramatic as the others, so it is far less crowded. I think there were fewer people in the entire park than there were on our shuttles in Zion. But it was totally under-sold! The entry drive is jaw-dropping because you're following a ridge that was forced up out of the earth, exposing dozens of layers of rock along a wall hundreds of miles long. The kids listened to a really good geology talk and then we headed for Hickman Bridge. This might have been the absolute perfect hike for our team. Lots of rocks to climb on, crevices to explore, space to run, a cool arch at the end, but not so dangerous that we had to keep everyone on a leash. Henry often invented his own trails where we could see him but not follow him, because he's a mountain goat.
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| Mountain in the mountain! |
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| Where's Henry? |
The park also contains a pre-Civil War Mormon settlement where you can see the tiny schoolhouse and pick fruit in the orchards. We picked some apricots for our drive to Moab. Capitol Reef was a smaller park, but we enjoyed it very much. It was interesting and accessible in the best National Park way, much like the parks we visited last summer.
Arches and Canyonlands
The lodging options around Capitol Reef are either dumpy motels or super cool Utah-Tourism-Board glamping, but those were either too small for us or required a two-night stay. So we zipped straight to our condo in Moab. We opted to stay 10 minutes out of town in exchange for more space, our own hot tub, and a community pool. This place was perfect (there are tons available in this development in the hot season). Fritz is still asking to go "home," and when I tell him we are home, he says, "no, our HOT TUB home." There is delicious food in Moab. I highly recommend Miguel's Baja Grill, Jailhouse Cafe, and Wicked Brew.
We did Arches on our first day in Moab, and I'm so glad, because it gave us time to go back the second evening. We were up early and drove in to the most gorgeous morning light streaming over the desert. It's very flat and empty as you drive into the park, then -- bam! -- there are all these crazy rock formations sticking up in the middle of nothing. The amount of rock that has washed away over the millenia to leave only these fragments -- it's mind-boggling.
Again, we started at the far end of the park and worked our way back toward the entrance. We parked at Devil's Garden before the day got too hot and did the long walk back to Landscape Arch. By this point in the trip, Ingrid was almost as goat-like as Henry, and the two of them scrambled up every boulder they could find. The desert also provides a lot of sand to play with.
By the time we came back from Landscape Arch, it was already obscenely hot. We dragged the children to Pine Tree and Tunnel Arches. There was much weeping and whining, but these were on the same freaking trail, so we had to see them even if no one liked it.
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| Everyone hates everything. |
We drove back toward the front of the park and convinced the kids, over much whining, that we should do one more trail. I had read that Sand Dune Arch was shady and good for families. And I'm so glad we stopped! It was our best hike at Arches and one of the top three for the whole trip. Henry finally got to do a Ninja Warrior jumping spider, there were many boulders to climb, and sand to play in. And shade, sweet blessed shade.
This was one day we really paid for going to the desert in August. It was so hot, and there was no reprieve other than one shady part of Sand Dune Arch. If you dare to do this in the summer, there is no such thing as too much water. We went through six liters of water while hiking and stopped at the Visitor's Center to refill for the drive home. Everyone was so overheated and tired, we cut the day short and cancelled the horseback ride we had planned (the outfit owner screamed and berated me for canceling, I would not recommend it). Ingrid wailed and asked when we could take a normal vacation that's actually fun instead of flying somewhere to walk around and be hot all day.
After naps, gallons of water, soaking our feet in the hot tub, and watching some Netflix, Karl and Henry felt ready to go back out for the long hike to Delicate Arch. This is the iconic arch that appears on Utah's license plate. The hike has miles of bald-face rock, a narrow ledge, and a rock bowl that isn't hard to walk on, but if you tripped on your shoelace, you would tumble to the bottom and die. We decided this was too much for the younger kids, and Ingrid wasn't up for it, but Henry was game. So the boys packed an additional three liters of water and my camera and headed back into the park.
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| Again, where's Henry? |
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| Bonus Balanced Rock |
The next day was Canyonlands. We did the Island in the Sky District, which is the most accessible part of the park. It does feel like being up in the clouds with river valleys all around.
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| Where's Henry? |
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| Great spot for a snack. |
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| View from the top. |
After lunch, we did Mesa Arch, which is a short but fun hike with a spectacular, arch-framed panoramic view at the end.
We drove by a few more viewpoints, but we were all pretty numbed to desert vistas by that point in the trip. We probably shortchanged Canyonlands a little bit, but it was park #6, and we have learned to stop before everyone hates everything. Plus, I wanted to have some gas in the tank for Delicate Arch! I decided I was too jealous of Karl and Henry's evening expedition and couldn't leave without seeing Delicate Arch. Henry graciously agreed to go back with me. So we sunscreened and watered up for another three miles.
The hike was so awesome. It's hard, especially because of the heat and altitude, but it was absolutely worth doing. It was also a treat to be out with only Henry. We chatted the whole way and he had two hours to tell me as much as he wanted about his favorite YouTubers. It's also good to know he has more sense than many adults in the world. Like when we would pass people starting off with no water, or heading up the hill as we headed down in near-darkness, and even Henry was like, "That guy is dumb."
People line up around the bowl for sunset, which was sort of funny because the sun does not set behind the Arch, but it does light everything up in golden colors. Henry and I headed down well before sunset because we did not want to be out there in pitch darkness (unlike some of the dolts who started up well after sunset with no flashlights). Henry scrambled and climbed all the things all the way down, we had a gorgeous view of balanced rock at sunset, and then we rewarded ourselves with McDonalds and ice cream back in Moab. Fourthmeal never tasted so good.
A perfect end to our epic hiking trip! We drove to Salt Lake City the next day. Though I had planned to do some touristy things, everyone wanted lazy time, so we swam in the hotel pool, went to bed early, and played at a park the next day before flying home.
All in all, it was an exhausting but very cool trip. It was absolutely do-able with younger kids. Sure, we can't do everything in any park, but we managed at least one awesome hike at each place that was very representative of the park's unique features. We can handle about 3-4 miles a day, which is only a small fraction of the available trails, but it's a lot more than most visitors hike! The kids rose to the challenge, carrying their packs, trekking on, and encouraging each other. Now to plan next year's trip!
So glad you got to experience Utah! Zion's is amazing. And amazingly busy. Next, let's ask my dad when the best time to go is and they have a one room AirBnB about 30 min from the park.
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