A Road Trip You Need to Take: Utah's Mighty 5

Earlier this year Nate and I took a trip I'd been wanting to take for years. We road tripped through southern Utah and hit up the "Mighty 5" National Parks: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches, and Canyon Lands. This is a trip that I 100% think you should do. Yes you, person reading this. I usually try to avoid being preachy and giving unsolicited advice on  this blog but I am making an exception here and I will preach the shit out of this road trip and tell you over and over again about how you need to take it. It.Is.Awesome.

As I was researching and planning, I quickly realized there's many different itineraries for this trip - length of days, route, order in which you visit each park, that kind of stuff. All the information on the official tourist websites are helpful and all but what I found most helpful was casual forums, discussion pages, or other people's blog posts detailing what worked best for them and their family. So because I so strongly believe that you, person reading this, need to take this trip, I'm here to tell you how we did it and what worked best for us!

Utah's Mighty 5: Townsend Edition
Total Duration: 7 nights, 8 days

Day 1: Depart home to La Verkin, Utah
Travel: 6 1/2 hours
Tip: on the way, before you get to Utah you'll pass through Lee's Ferry, the Navajo Bridge, and the Vermillion Cliffs. The Cliffs are a National Monument, and all are part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area; make the stop and spend some time here! All are relatively close to each other and since your day is only a 6 1/2 hour drive, you aren't too pressed for time. The area is beautiful and worth your time!

Our first park in our Itinerary was Zion. When you research places to stay you'll notice Springdale is "the gateway to Zion." True - it is literally right outside of the park however, Springdale lodging is expensive. So, we stayed in La Verkin. I highly recommend this. La Verkin is about 30 minutes outside of Springdale and the drive to the park is short and sweet - a straight shot up the highway. We stayed at this La Quinta. We were super happy with the hotel and again, the drive to the park was easy.

Day 2: Zion National Park
Activity: hike The Narrows
Tip: Lots of them! Ok so, hiking the Narrows was probably the one activity I researched the most for this trip. I am here to tell you - you do not need to rent any of the equipment, including the waterproof shoes. Or the walking sticks. Or the wet suits. Seriously you don't need to rent any of it. Nate and I just wore regular 'ol clothes - if you can find moisture-wicking material that helps but even that is not required - and regular 'ol hiking boots. You will get wet so make sure anything you wear, you are ok with getting wet. I wore an old pair of Nike hiking boots and while they were completely submerged in water most of the time, they dried out just fine and are still wearable now. Make sure you have a waterproof pack or use dry bags for all your stuff inside a non-waterproof pack - it will get wet!

The walk to get to the mouth of the Narrows is a mile walk along a paved road (called "The River Walk") so, Nate and I packed an extra pair of shoes (I brought water shoes that could clip to the outside of my pack with some carabiner's) and socks so that the mile back to the shuttle after your hike is not made in sopping wet boots, socks, and feet. This makes a huge difference and we were so glad we had the change of footwear!

Lastly, the narrowest part of the canyon is called Wall Street. It is roughly three miles in from the mouth of the Narrows - go the three miles so you can walk through Wall Street - it is AWESOME.

 

Day 3: Zion National Park (day 2)
Activity: hike Angel's Landing
Tip: when the internet says this is rated as "strenuous" THEY ARE NOT LYING. Also, go as early as you can. Literally, at the crack of dawn. This hike gets SO crowded and most of the trail is only wide enough for one-way traffic. So, the more people there are, the more waiting you'll do on the side of a cliff face, gripping a chain for dear life as people pass by.

Travel: after hike in AM, depart Zion for Tropic; 2 hour drive

I chose to stay in the small town of Tropic for two reasons, 1.) again, it is cheaper that staying in Bryce Valley (i.e. right outside of Bryce Canyon NP) and, 2.) it was in between our next two destinations - Bryce Canyon NP and the Grand Staircase National Monument. We stayed here in Tropic and I loved it. Small quarters but easy to find, right off the highway and, a restaurant and convenient store are right across the road. Like, literally, look both ways, make sure no cars are coming and run across the road to the store and restaurant. It's also a short 20 minute drive to the park.

Day 4: Bryce Canyon National Park
Activity: hike Navajo/Queen Garden Loop
Tip: make sure and hike a "below the rim" trail - that is, a trail that takes you down into the canyon and amongst the hoodoos. All the lookout points are awesome, but being at the bottom of the canyon, looking up at all the hoodoos is incredible.

Day 5: depart Tropic for Escalante/Torrey
Travel: 2 hours total drive - 1 hour to Escalante, 1 hour from Escalante to Torrey
Tip: The Grand Staircase National Monument is not part of Utah's Might 5 however, it was recommended to me by my friend Charlene, and it was conveniently on our way to our next park. So, if you have the time, hike Lower Calf Creek Falls in Escalante. BEAUTIFUL see:

After our hike in Escalante, we continued on to Torrey. You'll drive along Scenic Byway 12 so enjoy the scenery as you cruise. We stayed here in Torrey - not the best not the worst hotel but, there's not a lot of options in the area. Ultimately, I had no qualms with the place.

Day 6: Capitol Reef National Park
Activity: general sight seeing within park
Tip: I don't have a whole lot for this park; Nate and I were so exhausted and sore at this point from all the hiking we'd done so far, we decided not to do any hiking this day and mostly auto-toured. The historic Fruita district was what I wanted to see most so we did - it was beautiful and serene.

Travel: after Capitol Reef, depart for Moab; 2 hours 15 min drive

We stayed here in Moab. I was a fan - it was a great location, nice, and super unique. The only downside was the AC unit was so loud. 

Day 7: Arches and Canyonlands NP's

Activity: hike Delicate Arch, Double Arch/general look-out points(Arches); hike Mesa Arch/general look-out points (Canyonlands)

Tip: we did Arches first this day, and Canyonlands second. Get to Arches EARLY. There is no shade. Like, anywhere. The Delicate Arch trail is super popular and so crowded but also so worth it, in my opinion. 

If you are doing this trip during the warmer months, I also recommend doing Canyonlands either super early, or perhaps at sunset. We went in the middle of the day and again, there is not much shade there either so it was pretty hot.

Day 8: depart Moab for home

Travel: 7 1/2 hours

Tip: Originally I wanted to stop at Monument Valley on the way home however, we were so tired and just ready to be home at this point so we skipped it. If you have the energy however, I would definitely suggest driving through Monument Valley since you'll be in the area on your way back to the Valley.

So, all in all we did:

2 nights in La Verkin for Zion

2 nights in Tropic for Bryce Canyon and Escalante

1 night in Torrey for Capitol Reef

2 nights in Moab for Arches and Canyonlands

If you wanted or needed to, you could probably condense this trip. For example, we got to Tropic from Zion early in the afternoon - we could've gotten an activity or sight in that day but we were so tired from Zion, that we took the afternoon to relax and take a nap. So, I think the duration worked out for Nate and I however, if you have extra energy, can't take a lot of time off of work, or don't mind a jam-packed itinerary, you could definitely cut out a night or two from this trip and still get all parks in.

I also wanted to note - we did this trip in mid/late May - coming home on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. The weather everywhere we went was warm. I would imagine any later - i.e. the summer months, would be straight up HOT. I also chose May because in researching the Narrows, it was the month with the least amount of likelihood that the Narrows would be closed. There is a science-y formula they have wherein if the waters of the Virgin River get too high and/or flow too fast, they will close the Narrows to hikers because it gets too dangerous. Early spring snow melt can increase depth and flow, and the summer months have a high likelihood of flash floods - both of which can close the Narrows so keep this in mind. 

Something fun that I have and took with me on this trip is this Passport to Your National Parks. It's a little booklet that has all National Parks, Monuments, Recreation Areas, etc. inside of it. The best part is most all parks have a Passport station with stamps and, as you visit each park you can stamp your booklet and collect stamps of all the places you've been. Is this a nerd thing to do? Am I revealing too much inner nerd-ness right now? Yolo it's fun and now I have a bunch of stamps from eight days in Utah so yay for me!

So, if you, person reading this post, decide to take this trip, I hope this post helps in your planning!

And last but not least - you know I'm not gonna go eight days in Utah amongst some of God's most stunning displays of artistry without GoPro-ing the crap out of it right?! So here's our vacation video that you may or may not want to watch because I am fully aware that watching other people's vacation videos can be boring and annoying but I thought I'd include it here anyway.

Happy road tripping!