Visiting the five national parks in Utah was high on our ‘road trip must do’ list! After visiting Arches National Park, we drove south to visit the two largest national parks in the state – Canyonlands and Capitol Reef.

Canyonlands National Park

I didn’t know what to expect from Canyonlands, but the park exceeded every possible expectation! This has been one of my favorite parks to date (wait, do I say that about every park? Well, for Canyonlands, I absolutely mean it!).

Canyonlands National Park is comprised of three ‘districts’ – Islands in the Sky, the Needles and the Maze. The districts are segregated by the Colorado and the Green Rivers, they are not connected by roads and each district has a separate entrance. While Canyonlands is the largest of Utah’s ‘Mighty 5’, it is the least visited of their national parks.

We started our visit in the Islands in the Sky area because it is the closest district to Moab (it is also the most visited section in the park). The area is impressive and offers a dramatic overlook of this expansive canyon area. We hiked to Mesa Arch, which provided an awesome view of the snow covered La Sal Mountains. We stopped at several overlooks and spent a bit of time in the Upheaval Dome area. Upheaval Dome is a mile-wide depression and scientists debate if this is a collapsed salt dome or the site of a meteor impact! We spent about 6 hours in this area of the park and felt that we had covered the highlights!

(Double-click on any photo in the gallery to open the pictures and read the captions)

The next day, we drove two hours south to the Needles District and secured a campsite for two nights. We laced up our shoes and hiked 7.5 miles between the Squaw Canyon to Big Spring Canyon. The stunning trail covers two different valleys and climbs a sandstone ridge up through a pass. The valleys were filled with flowers, trees and cacti (some were still in bloom) while the rock walls towered around us. The trail was so quiet that we heard the cottonwood leaves blow in the wind. Mark’s hunger pangs kicked in when we were half way through the trail and he started to ‘see’ sandwiches in the rock formations. Hamburgers, Mr. Hero Romanburgers and BK Chicken Sandwiches were all spotted along the trail. Although we later learned that the park calls these rock formations ‘Mushrooms’, the term ‘Hamburger Canyon’ seemed to stick!

On our last day in the park, we completed a 16 mile loop from Big Springs Canyon to Chesler Park and returned through Elephant Canyon. Honestly, we set out to hike to Chesler Park and return on the same trail, but we made a ‘game day’ decision to keep hiking. In addition to the rockin’ scenery, we found ourselves in a couple of high-walled slot canyons! The trek took us all day to complete, in the end, it was one of our favorite hikes ever.

To our hiking friends: if you find yourself in this area, then make sure to include a trip to the Canyonlands’ Needles. The extensive trail network winds deeps into the canyons and most times it feels like you are alone in the wilderness. The park offers backcountry camp sites; however, there is no water on the trails. We spoke with a hiker who carried all of her water and we also saw water ‘stashed’ for future use. The majority of the trails start at the [flush-toilet] campground, which makes for a relatively easy trip to plan!

To our adventure friends: this park has numerous 4×4 trails perfect for off-roading and accessing backcountry campsites. In fact, the only way to visit the Maze district is via a high-wheeled clearance 4×4 vehicle. Both hikers and adventurers can enjoy the park in their own way and rarely cross paths on the same trail.

We had a wonderful visit to Canyonlands National Park and will be back again; next time with a Jeep in tow!

Capitol Reef National Park

From Canyonlands, we drove southwest to Capitol Reef National Park. To be totally nerdy for a minute (and show off what I learned from the NPS Volunteer), Capitol Reef is a National Park because it is the longest contiguous monocline in North America. Basically, you can see examples where the the horizontal rock layers were pushed up throughout the park. The park helped coined the term ‘waterpocket fold’ to describe the phenomenon that created this 100 mile long formation.

There are several things that surprised me about this park:

• Mormon settlers and their families lived in the Capitol Reef valley until 1969. They planted orchards that total 3,000 fruit trees! The trees remain in the park and visitors can pick in-season fruit (apple, apricot, pear and cherries) for a nominal fee.
• The Gifford House was the last residence in the valley. Now the Gifford House sells sauces, jams, salsa and homemade pie. 700 pies are baked daily and they often sell out before noon! We bought cherry, apple and pumpkin and they were all delicious!
• There is no fee to enter this park (which seemed crazy to me)! The park charges a small fee for the scenic drive.
• The park was BUSY (not ‘Arches’ busy but still a surprising number of people in the park)! Campers next to us revealed that they visit the park for two weeks each year!

We did several short hikes in Capitol Reef and they were all interesting. One of our favorite hikes was an 8-mile round trip through the Grand Wash to Cassidy Arch. The Grand Wash is a dry riverbed that runs through high sandstone walls. Butch Cassidy used the Grand Wash as an ‘escape route’ (at least, that is how the story goes) and the park named the arch after Butch! We also hiked to Hickman Bridge, Chimney Rock and spent time sightseeing along the scenic drive. There are several areas to explore in this park and a return trip would be worthwhile!

Canyonlands (particularly the Needles area) is a beautiful park with amazing hiking trails. The sandstone cliffs glow with the sunsets and the area is wilderness for as far as the eye can see. Capitol Reef was a great park with interesting geology as well as fresh baked pie! How can you go wrong with that?

Stay tuned as we explore Utah’s Escalante National Monument, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park! Thanks for reading and have a great week! 😘