A week exploring the big 5 National Parks in Utah

For Christmas this year we decided to do a road trip from California through the big 5 National Parks in Utah as well as some of the most amazing scenic drives we have ever experienced and have some fun in the snow in Colorado.

Part One: Monument Valley and Four Corners National Monument
After driving a long 7 hours from Los Angeles to Flagstaff in Arizona for our first overnight stop. We were ready on our first morning to drive up to Monument Valley to see some amazing scenery. Monument Valley is a 3 hour drive from Flagstaff, before entering the park I would recommend making sure you have a full tank of gas as once you are out there, their isn’t many gas stations around.

Monument Valley Tribal Park is apart of the Navajo Nation and they charge you an entrance fee of $20 per vehicle, this is not apart of the National Parks pass or state parks pass. They will give you a map of the Park and show you where the drive starts. The scenic loop drives takes approximately 2 hours on a gravel road which you can self drive. The loop lets you drive among huge sandstone mesas and buttes, the scenery will remind you of many old western movies which have been filmed here before.

After leaving the park if you head north you can visit the famous scenic spot from Forest Gump movie where he stops cross country running. Be careful though when pulling up this location as there were a lot of cars stopped on the side of the road and people in the middle of the road taking the famous photo, my tip though is to turn up at the right time of day around sunrise or sunset, as we turned up just after midday and the sun was not in the right spot to get the perfect photo unfortunately. Our final stop was to the Four Corners National Monument, which is where the corner of Colorado, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico all meet and the only place in the United States where you can actually stand in 4 states at the same time, there is a fee of $5 per person to enter which is a bit steep if you have a big group travelling.

Recommended hotels:
Flagstaff: Courtyard By Marriott
Bluff: Desert Rose Resort & Cabins

Part Two: Dead Horse State Park, Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park

For the next 3 nights we based ourselves in the town of Moab, Utah which is the main hub before you reach the two national parks. Our first afternoon we drove out to Dead Horse State Park, as this wasn’t included in our National Park pass, we just drove to the visitors center car park which has a fantastic viewing platform to lookout over the canyon where the park gets it name from. The park is named after this legend where the cowboys would muster there horses to find the ones they would want to sell and the others one left over would be left on the point to try and make there way back to safe ground.

Canyonlands National Park was our next stop and the first of the big 5 National Parks we were visiting on the road trip. Unfortunately due to the government shutdown we were unable to get the souvenir map, but were still able to enjoy the park which was fantastic. We made our way out to Grand View Point for sunset. Here you can enjoy an easy walk along the rim of the canyon, the views are incredible over the vast canyon, I cant recommend this enough for those who cant do hard hikes. We only spent the afternoon here as our main interest was Arches National Park but definitely would recommend to at least spend an afternoon here.

Arches National Park was our second of the big 5 National Parks and to me the most impressive one we visited. The first stop we always make is the visitors center to collect our souvenir map. From here we drove to the windows section for a nice easy warm up walk around the north and south windows, unfortunately everyone had the same idea so it was extremely busy so we didn’t get a lot of photos without people in them but were lucky enough to see a group of mule deer grazing in the grass on the walk back to the car park. After the windows trail we left the car parked and walked over to the double arch which wasn’t far and is the tallest arch in the park.  Our lunch stop for the day was at the panorama point which overlooks the backside of the windows section. Final stop for the day was the famous Delicate Arch, this was our first big hike for the day and I was a bit nervous due to the map saying it was a difficult trail with an elevation gain of 480 feet, but after seeing who else was attempting the hike I definitely thought I would be able to accomplish it. The hike there took us about an hour an bit due to mostly being on a incline the whole way and up a rock face and the last 200 meters of the path was covered in snow and slush, so it was bit slippery. Once you step around the corner of the narrow cliff path it is definitely worth it, the view of the arch is awesome. We stayed here for about an hour getting photos taken and just admiring the view. There were quite a few people around so we did need to line up to get our actual photo in the arch but if your creative enough there are areas you can stand to get photos without people in them. The hike back was a lot quicker and only took us half an hour, but was very happy of the accomplishment and the photos. On the second day of exploring the park we drove out to Devils Garden and did a short hike to pine tree and tunnel arches, we did attempt to walk to Landscape Arch but as the path was quite ice from the snow we turned back half way and it was pretty cold with the wind.  Even with the government shutdown we were still able to explore the park, with the facilities being open and the visitors center as well.

Recommended hotel:
Moab: Homewood Suites By Hilton

Part Three – Aspen and Breckenridge Colorado
After spending 3 days in the area of Moab and its National Parks, we headed north to have some fun in the snow. We based ourselves in the town of Glenwood Springs which is the town you hit before you drive out to Aspen or Breckenridge. We spent 1 day in Aspen walking around the town exploring. After finding some cheap street parking our first stop was to purchase the tourist ticket for the Silver Queen Gondola ride which was $36 each but included a $10 lunch coupon which you can spend at the Sundeck restaurant at the top of Aspen Mountain. This was a fun experience catching the gondola up to the top of the Mountain, we enjoyed lunch sitting outside overlooking the mountain even though it was extremely cold, while we were sitting there we fed some of these tiny little birds out of hands which was kinda cool. The next day we drove out to Breckenridge for lunch, the town was a more what I expected a ski town to be like with lots of small little shops and restaurants. We enjoyed a really nice meal at the Breckenridge Brewery, but make sure you aren’t in a rush, as it gets very busy.

Part Four – Capitol Reef National Park
After spending 3 nights in Colorado, we drove west to explore the next of the big 5 National Parks, Capitol Reef National Park. As the government shutdown was still on this park had closed all of its main facilities down except for few restrooms near the campgrounds which they advised you of on notices around the park. Capitol Reef National Park has huge sandstone domes which you drive past. There are quite a few petroglyphs you can stop to see, and we were lucky enough to see more mule deer grazing nearby.  We attempted to do the main loop drive but unfortunately due to the government shutdown they had closed the road down. Our last stop in the park was gooseneck overlook, which gives an amazing view of the canyons in the park

Recommended Hotel:
Torrey: Capitol Reef Resort

Part Five – Bryce Canyon National Park.
While staying in the town of Torrey we made a day drip down to Bryce Canyon National Park. The drive was about 2 hours south which was an easy scenic drive spotting a lot of wildlife along the way. On arrival in the park we stopped off at the visitors center for the souvenir map. Next we drove out to Sunrise Point to park the car and do the rim hike up to Sunset Point. Once we made it to Sunset Point we set out on the Navajo Loop Trail which was tiring as it was quite slippery with ice and snow and once we made it the bottom we found out half the loop trail was closed due to the snow so had to hike back up the way we came down, but the views are pretty cool throughout the hike. Unfortunately due to the snow and government shutdown we couldn’t do the full drive through the park but felt lucky we could do what we did. On our way back we drove through on of the most scenic byways in America Highway 12, which travels through the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument on the way to Capitol Reef National Park or Bryce Canyon depending on the direction you are driving.

Part Six – Zion National Park
The last of the big 5 National Parks we visited was Zion National Park, we only spent half a day here due to the long drive down from Capital Reef National Park. But even with only half a day we still managed to see a lot. Our first stop was the visitors center to see which trails were open and to get our souvenir map. Next we boarded the free shuttle bus to take the scenic loop drive out to the Temple of Sinawava trail, this was a short 1 mile hike but was nice walking along the river to where the Narrows Hike begins. Afterwards we board the shuttle back and got dropped off Canyon Junction stop so we can do a small flat hike back to the visitors center while the sun was setting, we got some pretty wonderful photos of the red cliff faces.

Recommended Hotel:
St George: Tru by Hilton Hotel St George