Adventuring: Fabulous 5's

A WORD ABOUT THE MAPS AND ROUTES:

MAPS CAN BE CONFUSING SO WE'VE MADE OURS SIMPLER,

BUT ALSO HAVE OMITTED SOME MINOR STOPS.

HOWEVER, MOST STOPS ARE STILL LISTED IN THE DESCRIPTIONS BELOW.

AS WITH OUR TERRIFIC TENS, FEEL FREE TO CUSTOMIZE THESE!

PAY ATTENTION TO OUR OTHER STOPS LISTED AND SEEK OUT OTHERS NEARBY.

BESIDES OUR NATIONAL PARKS & MONUMENTS, DON'T FORGET TO CONSIDER

STATE PARKS, BOON-DOCKING IN NATIONAL FORESTS & BLM LANDS, FARMS, WINERIES & BREWERIES.

The Mighty 5

Sandstone Supreme

Five glorious National Parks in an already gorgeous state, the Mighty 5 astound with mesmerizing cliffs, quirky hoodoos, and slot canyons too numerous for most to visit. Plus all that colorful sandstone, with its soft and porous surfaces. This is not just a land of rock, but of water and erosion. The effects of occasional rainstorms continually changes everything.

An Explorer's Paradise

What Makes it Special

What can we say, these 5 classic National Parks are spectacular. Sandstone yes, but so much variety - each park is special in its own way.

Fun fact

80 percent of Americans live in areas where they cannot see the Milky Way due to light pollution in our cities. But Utah has the highest concentration of International Dark-Sky Association certified locations, including national parks, monuments and protected areas.

Best time to visit

Utah is one of the driest states in the country with one of the lowest relative humidity percentages. Besides nice weather, this also makes the skies a deep shade of blue!

But be advised that July and August are the warmest months of the year and the desert summers bring hot temperatures and big crowds. The most pleasant Utah weather usually occurs between late April to mid-June and late August to mid-October.

Time & Distance

Starting at Zion and driving northeast to Canyonlands, the minimum suggested trip time is two weeks, with so much to see and do along the way. Total distances one way is 619 miles.
If you'd rather continue clockwise around the whole loop, it's about 1,000 miles total. Other attractions on this 2nd part include Natural Bridges National Monument, Monument Valley, Antelope Slot Canyon, Lake Powell and the fascinating formations of Vermillion Cliffs National Monument.

Five Mighty 5 Descriptions

zion

national park

bryce canyon

national park

capitol reef

national park

arches

national park

Zion National Park is a place of breathtaking beauty, with pastel pinks, oranges, reds and sand-colored mountains, canyons, buttes, mesas, monoliths, rivers, slot canyons and natural arches.

A prominent feature of the 229-square-mile park is Zion Canyon, which is 15 miles long and up to 2,640 feet deep. The North Fork of the Virgin River eroded the canyon's Navajo sandstone to create it.

Each year, over 5 million visitors take advantage of the park's many trails, including the thrilling Angel's Landing Trail. A lottery permit is required.

On the way to

Bryce Canyon National Park

Canyon Overlook Trail

The Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway heads east on its way out of the park towards Bryce. Right after it emerges from the tunnel, look for parking along the road and enjoy this short out and back trail which leads to an overlook back towards Zion Valley.

Checkerboard Mesa

About another 5 miles further on the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway is this fascinating rock feature - towering 900 feet above the highway.

The descriptive name stems from the cliff's distinctive lines in cross-bedded white sandstone which give the impression of a checkerboard.

Bryce Canyon National Park is distinctive because of its many hoodoos, formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rock. The red, orange, and white colors of the rocks provide spectacular views.

This park is a hikers paradise, with many to choose from. Our advise it to not just look from the rim, rather walk some trails and get an up-close look at these marvelous bright orange stacks!

On the way to

Capitol Reef National Park

Highway 12

This highway is a visual delight, proceeding west to east for 123 miles of dramatic sandstone vistas.

It starts near Bryce Canyon National Park and continues through various parts of Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument and Capitol Reef National Park, ending in the small town of Torrey.

Kodachrome State Park

The geologic interests of the park are sandstone spires and columns called sand pipes, believed to be found nowhere else on earth.

Activities include photography, wildlife watching, camping, and hiking the park's several trails. Stargazing is popular as the park sees little light pollution.

Grosvenor Arch, an intricate double arch located ten miles south east of the park in the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument is a popular destination for many visitors.

Hole-in-the-Rock Road is a historic trail (now an out and back gravel road) running southeast from the town of Escalante.

The road accesses the Escalante River Canyon with many arches, plus Spooky and Peek-a-Boo slot canyons and Devils Garden.

The trail is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Capitol Reef National Park is a best-kept secret - not heavily visited but geologically dramatic. It's approximately 60 miles long and just 6 miles wide on average, and holds canyons, arches, domes and monoliths.

In its center is the historic former Mormon pioneer town of Fruita, now a park campground. Townsfolk planted rows and rows of fruit trees to help survive life in the desert. Park visitors can sample the fruit.

On the way to

Arches National Park

Temples of the Sun and Moon

These two amazing monolithic fins rise up abruptly from the desert in Cathedral Valley, an area in the Northern part of the park. Fantastic!

Factory Butte

This huge mesa towers over the San Rafael Desert and was named by early settlers who thought its outline resembled a huge factory building.

Parts of the surrounding land is a popular for off-road motor vehicles. It is also a place to view and photograph wildflowers blooming cactus.

Goblin Valley State Park features thousands of hoodoos, referred to locally as goblins, resembling mushroom-shaped rock pinnacles. The distinct shapes of these rocks result from an erosion-resistant layer of rock atop relatively softer sandstone.

The park has a nice campground and a few rentable yurts.

San Rafael Swell is a large geologic feature measuring approximately 75 by 40 miles, consists of a giant dome-shaped anticline of sandstone, shale, and limestone. Infrequent but powerful flash floods have eroded the sedimentary rocks into numerous valleys, canyons, gorges, mesas, buttes, and badlands.

The San Rafael Swell attracts hikers, backpackers, horseback riders, trail runners and all-terrain vehicle (ATV) enthusiasts. Many steep, narrow slot canyons popular with technical canyoneers are found in the Swell.

The Eastern side is a destination for rock climbers and is home to some of the longest and sandiest climbing routes in Southeastern Utah.

Arches National Park contains more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches and windows, including the well-known Delicate Arch.

The park has the highest density of natural arches in the world, and includes spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins, and eroded monoliths.

At the north end of the park, the Devils Garden trail leads to many arches for 7.2 miles. The most popular is Landscape Arch, which measures an impressive 290 feet long and 77 feet high.

Along the trail, spur trails lead to Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch, as well as Partition, Navajo, Double O, and Private Arch. And as an alternative route back, the fantastic Fin Canyon trail can be also taken back to the trailhead.

On the way to

Canyonlands National Park (Island in the Sky)

Dead Horse Point State Park sits on the edge of a dramatic 2,000 foot overlook of the Colorado River and Canyonlands National Park.

The park has several overlooks, a visitor center, campgrounds and picnic areas. Dead Horse Point State Park features an 8-mile hiking trail that includes loops and overlooks on the East Rim Trail and the West Rim Trail.

Angel's Landing from below

Endless sandstone patterns

A camouflaged desert friend

Towering cliffs of Zion

Bryce's fanciful hoodoos

canyonlands

national park

( 1-Island in the Sky)

CANYONLANDS

NATIONAL PARk

( 2-needles district)

more stops if continuing around

the loop

Monument Valley has been featured in many western movies since the 1930s, defining what decades of moviegoers think of when they imagine the American West.

Antelope Canyon is a collection of picturesque slot canyons in on Navajo land near Page, Arizona. Access is limited to Navajo guided, paid tours.

Cottonwood Canyon Road

is a scenic 46-mile dirt road that traverses Cottonwood Canyon along the fascinating Cockscomb rock formation. It takes roughly two hours to drive without stops.

Other scenic attractions include Grosvenor Arch, and Kodachrome Basin State Park. The road allows access to hiking trails, such as Cottonwood Wash Narrows, Yellow Rock, Hackberry Canyon, and Cottonwood Canyon Narrows.

House Rock Valley Road

This road descend south from Highway 89 on the edge of Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. Several interesting areas with fantastic rock formations abound, but with limited access. The Wave is fantastic but hard to get a permit. White Pocket is a gem as well but deep sand is a deterrent for most people. A wonderful guide service nearby is Paria Outfitters.

An easy and pleasant slot canyon hike is Wirepass Trail. It ends and intersects with the world's longest slot canyon - 21 mile Buckskin Gulch.

Kanab

Similar to Moab in southeast Utah, Kanab is located on the west side and a jumping-off place for many great sandstone adventures.

Canyonlands National Park is a popular recreational destination, and the geography of the park is well suited to a number of different recreational uses. Hikers, mountain bikers, backpackers, and four-wheelers all enjoy traveling the rugged, remote trails within the park.

The Island in the Sky district is a broad and level mesa in the northern section of the park, between the Colorado and Green rivers. The district has many viewpoints overlooking the White Rim, a sandstone bench 1,200 feet below the Island, and the rivers, which are another 1,000 feet below the White Rim.

On the way to

Canyonlands National Park (Needles District)

Moab is known for its dramatic scenery, attracts many tourists annually, mostly visitors to the nearby Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. The town is a popular base for mountain bikers who ride the extensive network of trails including the Slickrock Trail, and for off-roaders who come for the annual Moab Jeep Safari.

La Sal Mountain Loop Road

(Hwy 128)

This 50 mile driving loop offers a great variety of scenery as it winds through canyons and forests.

Be sure to stop at pullout points to get a view down into desert canyons below. You can access small lakes and rivers on hikes along the route.

The Needles district is located south of the Island in the Sky, on the east side of the Colorado River. The district is named for the red and white banded rock pinnacles which are a major feature of the area. Various other naturally sculpted rock formations are also within this district, including hoodoos, potholes, and arches.

Unlike Arches National Park, where many arches are accessible by short to moderate hikes, most of the arches in the Needles district lie in backcountry canyons, requiring long hikes or four-wheel drive trips to reach them.

Needles Hiking Trails

The Needles is a fantastic area to hike. There's never a dull view anywhere you look, with colorful hoodoos all around.

There are several great hikes but our favorites are Elephant Hill and Salt Creek trails.

On the way back around to

Zion National Park

Natural Bridges

National Monument

The main attractions are the 3 large natural bridges. There is also a campground, picnic areas and a visitor center in the park.

Natural Bridges is designated an International Dark-Sky Park, and has some of the darkest and clearest skies in the US.

Goosenecks State Park is a state park overlooking a deep meander of the San Juan River. The park is a short distance from Mexican Hat.

This is a largely undeveloped park. Primitive campsites with picnic tables are scattered back from the edge of the cliff, and vault toilets are available. Campers are advised to bring their own water, food, and other necessary gear.

Mexican Hat

The name comes from an interesting sombrero-shaped rock outcropping on the northeast edge of town, measuring 60-foot wide by 12-foot. Mexican Hat has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names.

Monument Valley is a large cluster of sandstone buttes, with the largest reaching 1,000 feet above the valley floor. It's considered sacred by the Navajo Nation, who live within the park.