There is no state in America quite like Utah. It is a place of such concentrated, overwhelming natural grandeur that even veteran travelers accustomed to the landscapes of the American West find themselves humbled and astonished by it. Five national parks, seven national monuments, two national recreation areas, and millions of acres of public land containing some of the most otherworldly geology on the planet make Utah an outdoor destination without parallel in the lower 48 states. Red rock canyons plunge thousands of feet into the earth. Natural sandstone arches span hundreds of feet in graceful curves. Ancient rivers have carved labyrinths of slot canyons so narrow that a person must turn sideways to pass through them. The Colorado Plateau, which covers the southern half of the state, is one of the great geological spectacles on Earth, a landscape of mesas, buttes, fins, spires, and hoodoos in every shade of red, orange, pink, white, and purple that light and time can conjure.
And yet Utah is more than its canyon country, extraordinary as that is. The northern half of the state offers an entirely different kind of magnificence: the Wasatch Range, rising abruptly above the Salt Lake Valley, provides some of the finest skiing in the world, receiving a snowpack so deep, dry, and light that the state has trademarked the phrase the Greatest Snow on Earth. Salt Lake City, the state capital and by far its largest urban center, is a city of genuine sophistication, with a thriving restaurant and arts scene, a world-class symphony, and a history as complex and fascinating as any in the American West. The Great Salt Lake, one of the largest lakes in the western hemisphere, shimmers on the valley floor like a mirage, its waters so salty that swimmers float effortlessly on the surface. The Bonneville Salt Flats, stretching west toward Nevada in a blinding white expanse, have been the site of land speed records for over a century.
Utah is also a state of deep spiritual significance. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are commonly known as Mormons, was founded in New York but found its permanent home in Utah after a westward exodus of extraordinary difficulty and determination. The church’s influence on Utah’s culture, architecture, urban planning, and daily life is profound and inescapable, and understanding something of that history enriches any visit to the state enormously.
This is a guide to all of it: the canyon country and the mountain towns, the cities and the wilderness, the geology and the human history that have made Utah one of the most compelling travel destinations in the world.
GETTING TO AND AROUND UTAH
Salt Lake City International Airport is Utah’s primary gateway, a recently rebuilt facility with a stunning new terminal that reflects the ambition of a city and state that have grown dramatically in recent years. The airport is served by virtually every major domestic carrier and by several international airlines, with direct flights from dozens of American cities and connections from Europe and beyond. The airport sits just west of downtown Salt Lake City and is remarkably convenient to reach.
St. George Regional Airport in the southwest corner of the state offers limited but growing service and is a practical alternative for travelers whose primary destination is Zion National Park or the surrounding canyon country. Moab has a small airport with seasonal service, primarily from Denver, which is convenient for visitors to Arches and Canyonlands national parks.
A car is not merely recommended in Utah; it is essential for visiting the national parks and exploring the state beyond Salt Lake City. The distances are significant — it is roughly five hours from Salt Lake City to Zion National Park by the most direct route — and public transit between destinations is minimal. Several outfitters and tour companies offer guided trips to the national parks for those who prefer not to drive, and these can be an excellent option for solo travelers or those without camping experience.
The major driving routes through Utah are spectacular in their own right. US-89, the Heritage Highway, runs through the heart of the canyon country from the Arizona border past Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, and on toward Salt Lake City, passing through scenery that rivals anything the national parks themselves offer. US-191 through Moab country is similarly dramatic. The drive on Route 12 between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef is regularly cited as one of the most beautiful highway drives in the country, passing through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument along a ridge so narrow that the pavement seems to float between the canyons falling away on either side.
SALT LAKE CITY
Salt Lake City arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake in 1847 as the fulfillment of a religious vision, and the city that grew from that beginning carries its origins in its bones. The streets are unusually wide, laid out in a grid of city blocks twice the size of a standard American city block, a design attributed to Brigham Young that was intended to allow oxen and wagons to turn around in a single motion. The Temple Square, at the center of downtown, remains the spiritual and physical heart of the city, dominating the skyline with the six spires of the Salt Lake Temple and drawing millions of visitors annually.
Temple Square itself, operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and free to enter, encompasses 35 acres in the center of the city and includes the Salt Lake Temple, the Tabernacle, the Conference Center, several visitor centers, and beautifully maintained gardens. The Salt Lake Temple, a massive granite structure that took 40 years to complete between 1853 and 1893, is not open to non-members of the church, but its exterior is one of the most striking pieces of religious architecture in North America. The Tabernacle, home to the renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir, is open for tours and for the choir’s weekly broadcasts. The dome of the Tabernacle is an engineering marvel, a self-supporting wooden structure built without nails that has extraordinary acoustic properties; a pin dropped at the pulpit can be heard clearly at the back of the hall 170 feet away.
The Utah State Capitol, sitting on a hill north of downtown with views across the valley to the Oquirrh Mountains, is an exceptionally fine Neoclassical building completed in 1916. Free tours are available, and the legislative chambers, rotunda murals, and rooftop views repay a visit. The Capitol Hill neighborhood around it has excellent examples of early 20th-century residential architecture.
The Natural History Museum of Utah, housed in a stunning copper-clad building at the University of Utah designed to echo the surrounding landscape, is among the finest natural history museums in the country. Utah’s position on the Colorado Plateau has made it one of the most productive dinosaur fossil sites in the world, and the museum’s paleontology collection and exhibits are extraordinary. The ancient seas, ancient worlds, and geological exhibits convey the immensity of Utah’s geological history in ways that are accessible and deeply engaging.
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts, also at the University of Utah, holds a broad collection of works ranging from Egyptian antiquities to contemporary American art. The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University in Logan is a smaller but excellent institution with particular strength in modern American ceramics and photography.
The Rio Tinto Kennecott Bingham Canyon Mine, visible as a massive geometric wound in the Oquirrh Mountains southwest of the city, is one of the largest open-pit copper mines in the world and one of the most visited industrial sites in the United States. The visitor center offers overlooks into the mine, which is nearly a mile deep and more than two and a half miles wide, and the scale of human excavation is genuinely staggering.
Downtown Salt Lake City has undergone significant transformation in recent years and is now a genuinely lively urban environment. The Gateway and City Creek Center shopping areas, the Eccles Theater hosting Broadway touring productions, the Utah Symphony performing in Abravanel Hall, and the Utah Jazz NBA franchise at the Delta Center all contribute to a downtown that has energy and substance. The 9th and 9th neighborhood and the Sugar House district are the city’s most walkable and independently minded commercial areas, full of independent restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores, and boutiques.
The food scene in Salt Lake City has evolved dramatically, shedding a long-standing reputation for culinary conservatism to develop into something genuinely interesting. The city now has excellent Thai, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Peruvian, and Mexican restaurants reflecting its increasingly diverse population, alongside ambitious farm-to-table establishments, excellent ramen and Japanese izakayas, and a growing craft brewery and cocktail bar scene. Red Iguana, a family-owned Mexican restaurant specializing in regional moles, is the city’s most beloved institution and maintains a line out the door at virtually every hour of operation.
The Great Salt Lake, visible from much of the city, is a remnant of the ancient Lake Bonneville that once covered much of the Great Basin. It is one of the largest lakes in the western hemisphere, though its size has diminished dramatically in recent decades due to water diversion. Its waters are between four and eight times saltier than the ocean in most areas, making it incapable of supporting fish but rich in brine shrimp and brine flies that in turn support enormous populations of migratory birds. Great Salt Lake State Park on the south shore and Antelope Island State Park, a large island in the lake accessible by a causeway, both offer access to the lake’s shores, and Antelope Island provides outstanding wildlife viewing, including free-roaming bison, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, and the spectacular spectacle of migratory shorebirds during peak migration seasons.
THE WASATCH FRONT AND SKI COUNTRY
The Wasatch Range rises so abruptly behind Salt Lake City that the transition from urban grid to alpine wilderness takes less than half an hour. Three canyons — Little Cottonwood, Big Cottonwood, and Millcreek — cut into the mountains east of the city and contain a concentration of ski resorts unmatched anywhere in North America.
Alta and Snowbird, at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon, are the most revered ski destinations in Utah. The canyon averages more than 500 inches of snowfall annually, and the quality of the snow — dry, cold, light powder that the local ski culture calls cold smoke — is legendary. Alta, which opened in 1939 and remains one of only a handful of ski-only resorts in the country, has a culture and community unlike any other mountain resort in America. Its terrain, particularly in the back bowls and through the trees of the Rustler and High Rustler runs, is as challenging and satisfying as any in the country. Snowbird, adjacent to Alta and connected by a lift in recent years, is more modern and family-friendly and offers some of the longest sustained vertical drop of any Utah resort. The two resorts together form one of the great ski complexes in the world.
Brighton and Solitude, in Big Cottonwood Canyon, are slightly less celebrated but offer outstanding skiing at slightly lower prices and considerably shorter lift lines. Brighton is particularly popular with families and has a long history as a community mountain. Solitude, as its name suggests, offers a quieter and more serene experience than the busier resorts to the south.
Park City, 45 minutes from Salt Lake City over the Wasatch divide on I-80, is Utah’s most famous ski resort town and one of the premier mountain resort destinations in the United States. It hosted several events during the 2002 Winter Olympics, and the Utah Olympic Park, where the bobsled and luge events were held, remains open for tours and public activities including summer ziplines and skeleton rides. Park City Mountain Resort, formed by the merger of Park City and Canyons resorts in 2015, is the largest ski resort in the country by acreage, with more than 7,300 acres of terrain across two interconnected mountains. Deer Valley Resort, adjacent to Park City and also ski-only, is consistently rated the finest luxury ski resort in North America, with impeccable grooming, excellent service, and terrain suited to intermediate and advanced skiers.
Park City itself is a lively and sophisticated small town, its historic Main Street lined with galleries, restaurants, and boutiques in Victorian-era commercial buildings. The town was a silver mining center in the late 19th century, and its history is well told at the Park City Museum on Main Street. The Sundance Film Festival, held in Park City each January, is one of the most important independent film festivals in the world, transforming the town for two weeks into a hub of cinematic culture and celebrity energy.
Robert Redford’s Sundance Mountain Resort, in Provo Canyon south of Salt Lake City, is a smaller and more intimate resort with a strong artistic identity, hosting performances and workshops alongside its skiing and outdoor recreation programs. Its restaurant, the Tree Room, is one of the finest dining experiences in the state.
Summer in the Wasatch brings its own rewards. The mountains are laced with hiking and mountain biking trails, wildflowers carpet the alpine meadows in July and August, and the resorts repurpose their lift infrastructure for scenic rides and gravity-assisted activities. The Millcreek Canyon road, open to hikers and cyclists, is one of the most accessible and beautiful summer destinations near Salt Lake City.
ARCHES NATIONAL PARK
Arches National Park near Moab contains the highest density of natural stone arches on Earth, with more than 2,000 catalogued arches in an area of just under 77,000 acres. The park sits in southeastern Utah on a sandstone plateau above the Colorado River, and its landscape is so otherworldly — red rock formations in every improbable configuration, arches spanning the sky, balanced rocks balanced on impossibly narrow pedestals — that it has served as the backdrop for science fiction films depicting alien worlds.
Landscape Arch, in the Devils Garden area at the north end of the park, is one of the longest natural arches in the world, spanning 306 feet in a thin ribbon of sandstone so delicate that geologists believe it may collapse within our lifetimes; portions of the arch have already fallen. Delicate Arch, the symbol of the park and one of the most recognized natural formations in the world, stands 65 feet tall on the rim of a slickrock bowl above the Colorado River gorge, and the hike to reach it, three miles round trip over exposed sandstone, is one of the great short hikes in American national park history. The view of the arch framing the La Sal Mountains behind it at sunset, when the stone glows deep orange and crimson, is among the transcendent experiences available in the American wilderness.
The Windows Section, accessible by a short drive from the main road, contains several large arches including the North Window and South Window, which frame views of the La Sal Mountains, and Turret Arch, which visitors can stand beneath. The Fiery Furnace, a labyrinthine section of narrow fins and passageways in the southern part of the park, is accessible only by ranger-guided tours or by permit, and navigating its maze-like interior is one of the more unusual hiking experiences in the park system.
Sunrise and sunset bring magical light to the park, and the formations change color dramatically through the day. Night sky photography in Arches, which is certified as an International Dark Sky Park, is exceptional, and the park offers ranger-led night sky programs in season.
The park’s main road is paved and accessible, though parking at popular trailheads like Delicate Arch and the Windows fills early on summer mornings. A timed entry reservation system is in operation during peak season, and planning ahead is essential.
CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK
Canyonlands is Utah’s largest national park and its most remote, covering 527 square miles of canyon country carved by the Colorado and Green rivers as they converge and cut their way toward the Grand Canyon. Where Arches is accessible and intimate, Canyonlands is vast and demanding, a wilderness of mesas, canyons, rivers, and sky that rewards those willing to put in the time and effort to experience it properly.
The park is divided into four distinct districts by the rivers and terrain. The Island in the Sky district, a wide mesa rising 2,000 feet above the surrounding canyon country and accessible from Moab in about 40 minutes, is the most visited and offers the most dramatic and accessible overlooks. Mesa Arch, a small arch at the edge of the mesa framing a view of the canyons and mountains below, is one of the most photographed sunrise locations in the Southwest. The Grand View Point overlook at the southern tip of the mesa presents a panorama of perhaps 100 miles of canyon country that is simply beyond adequate description.
The Needles district, in the southeastern part of the park, is named for the colorful spires of Cedar Mesa sandstone that rise from the canyon floor in their hundreds. The hiking here is among the finest in the park system, with trails winding through canyons, past ruins of ancient Ancestral Puebloan dwellings, and through terrain that constantly surprises. Elephant Hill is the starting point for some of the most challenging four-wheel-drive routes in the country.
The Maze district, in the western part of the park, is among the most remote and inaccessible areas in the lower 48 states. Reaching it requires a high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicle, significant navigational skill, and a willingness to be genuinely far from help if something goes wrong. The reward is a solitude and wildness that is nearly impossible to find elsewhere. Gary Farlow’s “The Maze” and the Maze Overlook are among the most otherworldly landscapes in the park.
The Colorado and Green rivers flowing through the park offer exceptional rafting and kayaking, ranging from the gentle flatwater of Stillwater Canyon to the ferocious whitewater of Cataract Canyon below the confluence of the two rivers. Cataract Canyon contains some of the most powerful whitewater in North America during spring runoff, and commercial raft trips are available through licensed outfitters in Moab.
ZION NATIONAL PARK
Zion is Utah’s most visited national park and one of the most visited in the entire national park system, drawing upward of five million visitors annually in recent years. The reason is simple: it is breathtakingly, almost unbearably beautiful. The Virgin River has carved a canyon through the Navajo sandstone of the Colorado Plateau, and the walls of that canyon rise up to 3,000 feet on either side of the river in shades of white, pink, red, and orange that shift through the day as the light moves across their surfaces.
The park is centered on Zion Canyon, a seven-mile corridor accessible by shuttle bus during the busy season. The shuttle system, introduced in 2000 to address the traffic and parking problems that had been overwhelming the canyon, is a model for national park transportation management, allowing visitors to experience the canyon without the intrusion of a constant stream of automobiles. Stops along the shuttle route provide access to the park’s major trailheads and viewpoints.
Angels Landing is one of the most famous and most exhilarating hikes in the national park system. The trail climbs 1,488 feet in five miles round trip, following a series of steep switchbacks called Walter’s Wiggles before emerging onto a narrow ridge with sheer drop-offs on both sides, where chains bolted into the rock provide the only handholds for the final half-mile scramble to the summit. The view from the top of Angels Landing, looking down into Zion Canyon and out across the surrounding plateau, is extraordinary, and the experience of standing on that knife-edge ridge with the canyon falling away in every direction is genuinely thrilling. The National Park Service now requires a permit, obtained by lottery, for the final section of the trail, implementing this system to manage the crowds and improve safety.
The Narrows is the other iconic Zion experience, and it is entirely different in character. The Narrows is the upper section of Zion Canyon, where the Virgin River runs through a slot canyon so narrow that in places the walls are only 20 to 30 feet apart while rising 2,000 feet overhead. The hike through the Narrows involves walking in the river itself, sometimes knee-deep, sometimes chest-deep, through a corridor of dripping canyon walls draped in ferns and hanging gardens. The play of light in the canyon, filtered through the narrow slot far above, creates an atmosphere unlike anything else in the park system. Waterproof boots and hiking poles are highly recommended, and flash flood risk requires checking weather forecasts before entering.
The Emerald Pools trails offer a more accessible canyon experience, climbing through desert landscape to a series of pools fed by waterfalls dripping from the canyon walls above. The Riverside Walk, accessible at the last shuttle stop in the canyon, is paved and flat, following the Virgin River to the beginning of the Narrows and accessible to visitors of all mobility levels.
Zion’s east side, accessed via the long tunnel on Zion-Mount Carmel Highway, is a completely different landscape: a plateau of white slickrock, ponderosa pine, and fantastically eroded sandstone formations. The Canyon Overlook Trail, beginning just east of the tunnel, is a short but rewarding hike offering views into the canyon and across the surrounding terrain.
The town of Springdale at the park’s south entrance is small, pleasant, and thoroughly oriented around tourism, with a good selection of restaurants, galleries, and outfitters. Zion Adventure Company and other outfitters in Springdale rent canyoneering gear and offer guided trips into the park’s more technical terrain, including some of the finest slot canyon canyoneering in the world.
BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK
Bryce Canyon is not a canyon at all in the traditional sense but rather the eroded edge of a series of plateaus, a rim from which thousands of hoodoos — tall, thin spires of rock carved by frost and rain — descend into the amphitheaters below in a landscape so fantastical it seems to belong in a fairy tale. The hoodoos glow in shades of orange, red, and white, and the combination of their irregular forms with the patterns of light and shadow at sunrise and sunset creates displays of color and form that photographers travel from around the world to capture.
Sunrise Point, Sunset Point, Inspiration Point, and Bryce Point are the major overlooks along the rim, each offering a different perspective on the amphitheaters below. The view from Inspiration Point, where the Silent City amphitheater spreads out in a seemingly limitless maze of hoodoos, is among the most astonishing in the park system. The view from Bryce Point at dawn, when the rising sun ignites the hoodoos in deep orange and the shadows are still long in the amphitheater below, is one of the great sunrise experiences in America.
The hiking in Bryce Canyon is as good as the views from the rim. The Navajo Loop and Queen’s Garden trails, often combined into a two- to three-hour circuit, descend from the rim into the hoodoo landscape itself, allowing visitors to walk among the formations and experience their scale and texture at close range. Wall Street, a narrow slot canyon section of the Navajo Loop, passes between hoodoo walls so close together that a hiker can touch both sides simultaneously.
The Fairyland Loop, in the northern part of the park, is a longer and more demanding hike that sees far fewer visitors than the shorter trails near Sunset Point and rewards those who undertake it with sustained wilderness solitude within a few miles of the crowded rim. The Bristlecone Loop trail at the south end of the park leads through a forest of ancient bristlecone pines, some more than 1,600 years old, that cling to the rocky rim in gnarled, wind-sculpted forms.
Bryce Canyon’s elevation, at nearly 9,000 feet, means it receives significant snowfall and is open and beautiful in winter, when a dusting of white on the orange hoodoos creates a landscape of extraordinary contrast. Snowshoe tours are offered by the park in winter months. The elevation also means cooler temperatures than the lower canyon country parks in summer, making it a more comfortable destination during July and August.
The night sky at Bryce Canyon is among the darkest in the continental United States, and the park hosts an annual Astronomy Festival that draws professional and amateur astronomers from across the country. On a moonless night, the Milky Way arches over the hoodoo landscape in a display that is profoundly moving.
CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK
Capitol Reef is the least visited of Utah’s five national parks and arguably the most rewarding for those who seek solitude without sacrificing grandeur. The park is centered on the Waterpocket Fold, a 100-mile long buckle in the Earth’s crust where rock layers have been pushed up and eroded into a dramatic ridge of domes, canyons, and cliffs. The park’s name refers to the white Navajo sandstone domes that reminded early settlers of the Capitol building in Washington, and to the “reef,” the old prospector’s term for a rock barrier that impeded travel.
The park’s most distinctive feature, beyond the Waterpocket Fold itself, is the historic Fruita district, a small Mormon settlement in the Fremont River canyon that was farmed from the 1880s until it became part of the national monument in 1937. The orchards planted by those settlers still exist and are maintained by the Park Service. Visitors are invited to pick fruit directly from the trees during harvest season, which runs from June through October depending on the variety, paying a nominal fee by the honor system. Eating a fresh peach or apple picked from a tree in the shadow of a 1,000-foot red cliff is one of the more unexpectedly delightful experiences available in any national park.
The Scenic Drive, a paved road extending 10 miles south from the visitor center, passes through the heart of the park’s canyon country, and the dirt roads beyond its end, requiring high-clearance vehicles, lead into terrain of exceptional beauty and near-total solitude. The Grand Wash and Capitol Gorge trails, following dry stream beds between towering canyon walls, offer some of the finest canyon walking in the park system without requiring technical skill or special equipment.
The Cassidy Arch trail, named for the outlaw Butch Cassidy who used the canyon country as a hideout, climbs to a large natural arch with views over the Grand Wash below. Hickman Bridge, a natural bridge spanning 133 feet across a side canyon near the visitor center, is accessible by a pleasant two-mile round-trip hike.
GRAND STAIRCASE-ESCALANTE NATIONAL MONUMENT
Grand Staircase-Escalante, established by President Clinton in 1996 and one of the largest national monuments in the contiguous United States, covers nearly two million acres of canyon country between Bryce Canyon and Glen Canyon, encompassing three distinct geographic areas: the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau, and the Canyons of the Escalante.
This is serious wilderness, and most of its wonders require effort and preparation to reach. There are no paved roads through the monument’s interior, and the dirt roads that do exist become impassable when wet. Water sources are scarce and must be treated before drinking. But for those willing to prepare properly, Grand Staircase-Escalante offers solitude and beauty on a scale that is increasingly rare in the American West.
The Canyons of the Escalante, in the eastern part of the monument, contain a network of slot canyons, natural arches, and Ancestral Puebloan ruins accessible by multi-day backpacking trips or by day hikes from trailheads near the town of Escalante. Coyote Gulch, a popular multi-day route, passes beneath natural arches, beside flowing springs, and through canyon scenery of extraordinary quality. Zebra Slot Canyon and Peekaboo Slot Canyon near Escalante offer shorter but intense slot canyon experiences accessible as day hikes.
The town of Escalante is the monument’s primary gateway and has a small but growing collection of outfitters, restaurants, and lodgings catering to visitors. Boulder, further north on Route 12, is an even smaller community with the outstanding Anasazi State Park Museum, which preserves the ruins and artifacts of a large Ancestral Puebloan village, and the highly regarded Hell’s Backbone Grill, one of the finest restaurants in rural Utah.
MONUMENT VALLEY
Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park straddles the Utah-Arizona border and is perhaps the most cinematically recognizable landscape in the world. The three Mittens and Merrick Butte, rising 1,000 feet from the valley floor in isolation and extraordinary symmetry, have appeared in hundreds of films and photographs and have come to symbolize the American West in the global imagination. John Ford filmed seven Westerns here, establishing a visual vocabulary for the frontier that shaped how the world imagines that era.
Monument Valley is Navajo Nation land, and visitors must pay a Navajo Nation entrance fee. The 17-mile Valley Drive, a rough dirt road, circles the main formations and is accessible to most vehicles in dry weather. Guided jeep tours, led by Navajo guides who share knowledge of the valley’s history, geology, and cultural significance, are available and highly recommended for the context they provide. Horseback tours are another option and allow access to areas of the valley closed to vehicles.
The View Hotel, operated by the Navajo Nation, sits on the rim above the valley floor and offers what is probably the most dramatically situated hotel in the United States, with the Mittens visible directly from many of its rooms. Sunrise and sunset from the hotel’s terrace are among the most photographed moments in southwestern tourism.
NATURAL BRIDGES AND HOVENWEEP
Natural Bridges National Monument, in the remote southeastern corner of Utah, preserves three of the largest natural bridges in the world, carved by streams cutting through the canyon country. Unlike arches, which are formed by erosion from the side, natural bridges are formed by streams cutting through rock fins, and the three bridges at Natural Bridges — Sipapu, Kachina, and Owachomo — represent different stages of that erosive process. The monument was the first area in the world designated as an International Dark Sky Park, and its night skies are extraordinarily dark and clear.
Hovenweep National Monument, straddling the Utah-Colorado border, preserves a series of remarkable towers, pueblos, and cliff dwellings built by the Ancestral Puebloan people between roughly 1200 and 1300 CE. The towers, whose function remains debated by archaeologists, are among the most striking examples of prehistoric architecture in North America, and the remote setting adds to the power of the experience.
MOAB AND SURROUNDING RECREATION
Moab is the adventure capital of the Colorado Plateau, a small city of about 5,000 permanent residents that supports an enormous recreation economy built on mountain biking, off-road vehicle riding, rock climbing, river rafting, and access to Arches and Canyonlands national parks. It sits in a canyon carved by the Colorado River, surrounded by red rock walls, and its energy is that of a place that has fully embraced its identity as an outdoor recreation hub.
Mountain biking in Moab is world-famous, centered on the Slickrock Bike Trail, a 9.6-mile loop across ancient petrified sand dunes that challenges riders with steep climbs and descents on friction-dependent rock that allows traction impossible on any other surface. The trail is demanding and should not be underestimated, but the views and the unique experience of riding on slickrock are unlike anything available elsewhere. The Whole Enchilada, a 26-mile descent from the La Sal Mountains above Moab to the valley floor, is considered one of the great mountain bike experiences in the world. The trail system around Moab is extensive and well-maintained, with routes for every skill level.
The Colorado River through Moab offers a full range of rafting experiences. Calm flatwater stretches are suitable for families and beginners, while the powerful rapids of Cataract Canyon downstream provide serious challenge. Dead Horse Point State Park, on a mesa above the Colorado River canyon southwest of Moab, offers one of the most dramatic overlooks in the state, looking down nearly 2,000 feet to a horseshoe bend in the river far below.
Rock climbing in the Moab area focuses on the sandstone towers and walls of the canyon country, with particular concentration around Wall Street along the river corridor and in Indian Creek, a world-class crack climbing destination in the Needles district area. Climbers travel from around the world to test themselves on Indian Creek’s long, parallel-sided cracks.
The town of Moab itself is built almost entirely around the outdoor recreation economy, with a concentration of outfitters, gear shops, restaurants, breweries, and accommodations along its main street. Moab Brewery is a reliable stop for craft beer after a day in the canyons. The food scene is modest for a town of its visitor traffic but improving. Accommodations range from basic motels to luxury glamping operations and full-service resorts.
DINOSAUR NATIONAL MONUMENT
Dinosaur National Monument straddles the Utah-Colorado border in the northeastern corner of the state, and its name barely hints at its contents. The monument encompasses the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers, 200,000 acres of canyon country and mountain terrain, and one of the most significant dinosaur fossil sites in the world. The Quarry Exhibit Hall, built around an exposed rock face containing more than 1,500 fossil bones still in the positions where they were deposited 149 million years ago, is one of the great paleontological sites open to public viewing anywhere. Visitors can see and in some cases touch actual fossils in the rock, an experience that creates an immediacy of connection to deep time that no museum display can fully replicate.
The river corridors through the monument, particularly the Yampa River, offer superb multi-day whitewater rafting through canyon scenery of great beauty and considerable historical interest, including petroglyphs, pictographs, and the remains of the outlaw Butch Cassidy’s hideout at Outlaw Cave.
PRACTICAL TRAVEL INFORMATION
The best time to visit Utah’s canyon country — the southern national parks and monument valley — is spring (March through May) and fall (September through November). Summer brings intense heat to the lower elevations, with temperatures frequently exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the canyon bottoms, though the higher elevations of Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef remain comfortable. Crowds at Zion and Arches are at their peak in summer, and the timed entry reservation systems at those parks are in full operation during that period. Winter visits to the canyon parks can be magical, with snow on the red rock and far fewer crowds, but some roads and facilities may be closed, and weather conditions require preparation.
The ski resorts of the Wasatch Front are best visited from December through March, with January and February typically offering the deepest and most consistent snowpack. April skiing at Alta and Snowbird can be exceptional in good snow years, with spring conditions and long days.
Water is the most critical consideration for outdoor activities in Utah. The desert environment is genuinely dehydrating, and heat exhaustion and heat stroke are real risks in summer. Carrying more water than you think you need, starting hikes early in the morning to avoid the hottest part of the day, and recognizing the symptoms of heat illness are essential knowledge for any summer visitor. Flash floods are another significant hazard, particularly in slot canyons. Always check weather forecasts and flash flood advisories before entering any canyon, and exit immediately if thunder is heard.
Utah operates under the jurisdiction of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in ways that affect some practical aspects of visiting. The state has historically had some of the most restrictive alcohol laws in the country, though these have been significantly liberalized in recent years. Beer, wine, and spirits are now available at restaurants, bars, and state-operated liquor stores, though state liquor stores are not open on Sundays and their hours are more limited than in most states. The Sunday closing of liquor stores is worth knowing in advance if you are planning ahead.
National Park fees and passes are an important consideration. Individual park entrance fees are charged at all five Utah national parks, but the America the Beautiful annual pass, available for $80 at any national park entrance, provides unlimited access to all national parks and federal recreation areas for a year and pays for itself quickly for anyone visiting more than two or three sites. Campground reservations, particularly at Zion, Arches, and Bryce Canyon, should be made months in advance for summer visits; these campgrounds fill their online reservation slots within minutes of becoming available.
Cell service is limited or absent in most of Utah’s canyon country and remote areas. Downloading offline maps and informing someone of your plans before heading into remote terrain are sensible precautions. Many experienced Utah visitors carry a satellite communicator device for emergencies in areas beyond cell coverage.
SUGGESTED ITINERARIES
Three Days: Fly into Salt Lake City, spend one day exploring the city including Temple Square, the Natural History Museum of Utah, and a meal at Red Iguana. On day two, drive south to Moab, stopping at the overlooks along US-191 as the canyon country opens up. Spend the afternoon at Arches National Park, hiking to Delicate Arch for sunset. On day three, explore the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands in the morning before returning to Salt Lake City.
Five Days: Follow the three-day itinerary above, then continue south from Moab to add a day at Capitol Reef National Park with fruit picking in the Fruita orchards and a hike through Grand Wash. On the fifth day, drive the stunning Route 12 to Bryce Canyon and spend the afternoon hiking the Navajo Loop and Queen’s Garden trails through the hoodoos.
One Week: Add Monument Valley for a guided jeep tour on day six and Zion National Park on day seven, hiking the Narrows or obtaining an Angels Landing permit for the summit. The full drive from Zion to Salt Lake City passes through spectacular scenery along I-15 and makes for a fitting conclusion to a week in Utah.
Ten Days to Two Weeks: Incorporate the Litchfield Hills-equivalent of Utah’s experience by spending time in Park City, skiing or hiking depending on season, and exploring Grand Staircase-Escalante with an overnight at Hell’s Backbone Grill in Boulder. Add Dinosaur National Monument for the quarry and river canyons. Consider a multi-day rafting trip on the Colorado or Green rivers through a licensed outfitter.
CONCLUSION
Utah is the kind of place that changes people. Travelers arrive expecting impressive scenery and leave having had an experience that goes beyond the visual: the silence of a slot canyon, the vertigo of a high desert overlook, the particular quality of light on sandstone at the end of a long day, the sense of geological time pressing down from the canyon walls — these are not merely things to be seen but things to be felt. The state’s landscapes are among the most powerful on the planet, and they have a way of providing perspective on human concerns that is both humbling and clarifying.
But Utah is more than its canyon country. Its mountains are world-class, its cities are growing in sophistication and cultural depth, its human history is layered and complex, and its people are, in the overwhelming experience of visitors, warm, hospitable, and proud of what their state has to offer. Whatever brings you here — the parks, the skiing, the food, the history, the sheer desire to stand in one of the most beautiful places on Earth — Utah will reward you more than you expect. Come prepared, come with time, and come ready to be astonished.
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