Utah
Utah is one of the most visually stunning places I have ever been. As Andy likes to say, “they’ve got a great piece of real estate!” The National Parks are breathtaking, but there are also a host of other areas to explore and so much wonderful camping in campgrounds and boondocking (dispersed camping). We skied in Utah as well, but for this post, I’ll focus on the rest of the time we spent there and leave the skiing to the ski section.
Zion National Park
Zion felt like a slice of heaven for the eyes. Giant walls of beautifully hued rock, dramatic canyons, wonderfully challenging hiking, and a shuttle that allows you to see more when you just can’t walk another step.
Bryce Canyon National Park
Bryce Canyon is expansive and hiking there involves a lot of up-and-down action, switchbacks galore. The spectacular rock formations and scenery are totally worth the effort and put huge smiles on our faces. The sky looks impossibly blue behind the red rock formations.
Arches National Park
In early November when we visited, the campground at Arches was first come first served, so we made sure to get there early. It paid off, and we scored an absolutely gorgeous campsite (see the video) and got our first snow of the trip while we were there. It was one of the places I was most excited about seeing and it did not disappoint.
View from our campsite
Capitol Reef National Park
Capitol Reef was beautiful. The campground was right near a little store in the park where they sold freshly baked mini pies and cinnamon rolls that were quite beautiful to eat.
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Driving scenic byway 12 in Utah is an absolute treat. The first time we drove it through the Grand Staircase-Escalante region our jaws dropped and we vowed to come back with more time to explore. On the last leg or our trip, we made it back and were rewarded with some amazing hiking and an absolutely gorgeous campsite.
Etc.
We saw so much more in Utah and we could return again and again and have a different area to explore each time. Two of our all-time favorite places to camp were boondocking near Goblin Valley State Park and Kodachrome State Park — home of the most incredible state park showers we saw.
