BIG 5 NATIONAL PARK TOUR IN UTAH

 

We toured the Big 5 National Parks in Utah 6 to 17 April, 2021: Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Zion.

This post provides links to the blogs, which contain notes, photos, and videos to the Big 5 plus some side trips.

Day 1: We flew into Salt Lake City, discovered our save-our-budget Thrifty wildcard rental was an SUV, and used miles to stay the night at the Airport Sheraton.

Day 2: We headed south to Moab where we stayed at the Moab Valley Inn for 3 nights. It was nothing fancy but it was fine for us.

Along the way, we took a break to visit the Prehistoric Museum in Price Utah. It’s part of Utah State University Eastern.

Mammoth at Prehistoric Museum/ Geoff Sutton 2021

This is COVID-19 season so, breakfast was a fill-your-own-bag setup. No problem for us because we wanted an early start. In the evening we had a great Mexican meal at

Day 3 We were up at 6 to get to the Arches National Park. See the post for details.

Arches National Park/ Geoff Sutton 2021

Day 4 Another  early morning to visit Canyonlands National Park.

Canyonlands National Park / Geoff Sutton

In the afternoon, we stopped by the nearby Dead Horse State Park to see the Colorado River. In the evening we had BBQ at the next door. Service was very slow but the meal was fine.

Dead Horse State Park/ Geoff Sutton

Day 5 we drove to Torry, Utah. We stopped to see part of Capitol Reef National Park then headed to the Days Inn for two nights. Their breakfast was limited but overall, it was a good value. We had a good dinner at La Cueva Mexican Restaurant. 

Day 6 We spent the day at Capitol Reef National Park—see the blog.

Capitol Reef National Park / Geoff Sutton

Day 7 We headed south along scenic highway 12 through Escalante National Monument and arrived at Bryce Canyon National Park midday. We spent two nights at Ruby’s Best Western Inn. The included breakfast buffet was better than the previous hotels. And they had a bag-to-go-option.

Day 8 We hiked the trails at Bryce Canyon National Park and had a pizza at a restaurant on the hotel grounds.

Bryce Canyon National Park/ Geoff Sutton 2021

 Day 9 We drove a short 85 miles to Zion National Park, which was crowded. We spent the rest of the day there—see the website. In the evening, we enjoyed the best hotel of the trip at the Best Western Plus Zion Canyon Inn in Springdale, Utah. In the evening we got fish n chips at Blondies then an ice cream cone nearby.

Zion view from Spingdale hotel

Day 10 we were up early to see the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Park, which is up highway I 15 – the drive took nearly one hour. See the blog for details.

Zion National Park / Geoff Sutton 2021

Later in the day we drove to Las Vegas and spent two nights at the Courtyard Marriott using air miles. It was a fine room and facility but Las Vegas is not for us. The next day, we got brunch at Cracker Barrel south of the airport—the service and food quality was ok. The Thrifty rental car return went well as did the taxi into the city. The line for Uber and Lyft was ridiculously long and the set fee for the taxi cab service made it highly competitive.

Day 11 We flew home. the Uber to the airport was a fair price. The Uber from our local airport to our home was overpriced.

 

What would we do differently?

Fly round trip from home to Salt Lake City- skip Vegas and we would have saved money on the rental car fee charge for a different drop-off point.

Take hiking shoes--I bought a pair of Sketchers when we returned. We both slid on a couple of tails. And some were too steep without hiking shoes/boots or poles.

Take hiking poles—some trails were steep.

Spend an extra night at Springdale, Utah—the town near Zion National Park.

Our favorite?

Bryce Canyon National Park because it was so different from the others. The interesting structures within the canyon and the pine woods along the rim made it an overall favorite.

 Please check out my website   www.suttong.com

And Subscribe to my Travel Channel on YouTube

 

Also, see my books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Also, consider connecting with me on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton   

TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

 I did find the USA National Parks book interesting to read before I went.

We flew American Airlines because we had credit from 2020. We had a nice upgrade to business class from DFW to Salt Lake City!