It may seem impossible to enjoy all of the “Mighty 5” Utah National parks in only 5 days, but I’ll share with you exactly how I did it!

Starting February 9th, I traveled with a group of fellow travelers from Salt Lake City down to all 5 national parks in Utah. Not only that, but we stopped at 2 state parks and 1 national monument while we were at it. I’ll explain to you exactly what order we visited the parks in and give you all the tips and tricks that made it possible for us to do it as fast as we did. I’ll also share with you whether or not I think visiting them all in one go is a good idea.

So let’s start with our first stop:

Canyonlands National Park

Day one: we left Salt Lake City early (you’ll notice this is a common theme) at about 7 am and headed towards Canyonlands National Park. We stopped in a town called Green River for lunch at Tamerisk, which was delicious and a perfect spot to eat, use the restroom, and admire the green river through the large glass windows of the restaurant before continuing on.

We arrived at Canyonlands National Park in the afternoon and started exploring.

Our group did only one hike while we were there, that being the Mesa Arch trail. It was beautiful and fun to see, but I would have loved to do more hiking and get to know the park a little better. We did, however, look at two different viewpoints, one called the grand view point and the other called Shaffer trail overlook.

We actually ended up visiting Dead Horse Point State Park this first day as well, which you could forgo and spend extra time hiking in the national park if you prefer. The view there is spectacular though, if you end up going! This was our last activity of the day, and headed into Moab for dinner and getting to bed.

Arches National Park

I have a fondness for Arches National Park. Before this trip, this was the only national park I’d ever been to before this week (at least I think so… I may have gone to the Grand Canyon when I was young but I can’t quite remember that.) I went with my husband and the first time I did the delicate arch trail I was absolutely blown away. I got to experience even more this time than the first time I visited, though!

We rose early in the morning on day 2 to get out into the park and start hiking. Because it’s the off season, we didn’t have to wait in line to get into the park (something that is almost impossible to do in the busy season.)

We hiked the most trails this day out of any of the days, and it was fantastic (for someone who likes hiking as much as I do.) We hiked the Delicate Arch trail first, which has to be the most iconic hike in the park, seeing that the arch is one of two of Utah’s main “logos.” It’s on the license plate, for heaven’s sake.

We then did the Devil’s Garden Trail to see Landscape Arch at the end. This trail was amazing because the views were constantly stunning throughout the hike. The landscape arch is super fascinating as well, with it being (arguably) the longest arch in the world.

After that we were hungry, so we left the park for about an hour to eat lunch at Sweet Cravings. They had yummy sandwiches and even yummier desserts. Then we headed back to our exploring.

Before we entered the park again, we took a right to get onto highway 297 and drove alongside the Colorado river until we reached some roadside rock art. There were so many petroglyphs and a few pictographs, and it was so cool to search behind bushes and trees to find even more petroglyphs that you couldn’t see initially.

Back into the park we went, where we did the Window Arches Trail which was incredibly short and incredibly rewarding. There’s so many arches all in this one area, and the double arch is almost as iconic as the delicate arch. I can’t actually decide if I like it better or not.

Finally, we’d spent the day and the sun started to go down. We went back into town and ate dinner before going to bed (though I actually had some homework to do, because I’m a student right now.)

Capitol Reef National Park

Maybe this should be too embarrassing to admit, but I didn’t even know Capitol Reef National Park existed let alone was in Utah until I was researching for this trip. Boy was I wrong, and my life is all the better for it. This park was stunning… and possibly the most colorful out of the Utah parks. Plus, it’s covered in lava rock which I think adds an extra layer of “coolness” to the park.

When we left Moab, we didn’t actually go straight to Capitol Reef. We instead stopped at Goblin Valley State Park. This is one that I don’t think you should skip out on, because it’s so much fun. I’ll be writing an article with more details about it, but basically it’s this park with tons of Hoodoos (that’s the name of these types of rock formations) and you can climb around on them and explore wherever you want to, as long as you don’t knock them over. It was a great stop!

When we did end up heading to Capitol Reef, however, we stopped in Hanksville, UT to get some lunch. There weren’t many food options there, to be honest, but we made it work.

We got to the park at around noon, and started with the Grand Wash Hike. We hiked through part of the Grand Wash, and then broke off of that trail onto another trail called Cassidy Arch. That was a great trail, and it’s fun because you can get a picture of you standing on the arch (It’s a lot wider than it looks.)

After that, we stopped at panorama point, and by that point we were losing daylight, so we headed to the town of Torrey to eat and check into our hotels.

Capitol Reef… again?

Okay, now is probably the time that I should clarify something. This trip actually took me more like 5¾ days. If you cut out the state parks and do one or two less hikes, you can cut that ¾ day out entirely if you need to. My reccomendation, though? It’s so worth it to add the bit of extra time so you can make all the extra stops.

I mention this because in the morning, we didn’t head out for our next park immediately. We actually headed back into the park to do some more exploring. It was a good thing too, because if we hadn’t I would have missed out on my favorite hike I did in the park- which was also the first hike we did that day.

The Capitol Gorge Trail breaks off into multiple trails along the way, so we went on the Tanks trail. On the way, you see petroglyphs on the walls of rock surrounding you, as well as a small section covered in the names of some of the first white settlers there. Then you break off onto the Tanks section of the hike and when you get to the top, you see a ton of really cool pockets of water. It was cold enough when we went that they were frozen, and it made for some really cool pictures.

That was sadly our last hike we did in Capitol Reef, and I didn’t want to leave. It was time to go, though, so I’ll definitely be going back to spend more time there some other time.

Bryce Canyon National Park

Oh yeah. You heard that right. I had no idea what to expect from Bryce Canyon National Park (I know, I know. That’s probably a crazy thing to say. Roll with me here, though.)

Of course, that meant I was STUNNED when I saw it! But before we get to that… Bryce Canyon wasn’t actually our first stop.

After leaving Captiol Reef, we drove the scenic route 12 through the Grand Staircase Escalante national monument. We took a small detour to see the Singing Canyon, which is a crack in the side of the canyon that basically acts like a mini slot canyon, which was really fun. Then we made our way to Bryce, stopping for lunch on the way.

Ok, back to me being stunned at the hoodoos and colorful sandstone of Bryce Canyon. After this trip, I might have to say that Bryce Canyon is my favorite National Park. It had snowed the night before we got there, so it snow capped every hoodoo and crevice of rock. It looked absolutely magical!

We started our journey in the park by hiking the Mossy Cave trail. At the end, there was a mossy cave (who could have guessed?) All jokes aside, it was actually really cool looking, especially because there were icicles hanging among the moss. Plus, there were snow-covered hoodoos surrounding us and pretty bridges we crossed, so it was all around a great hike.

We then looked at Bryce Canyon from many angles from many of the lookout points that are right off the highway.

After all of that, the sun started to go down, and we headed into Bryce Canyon City to eat dinner at Ruby’s, a delicious steakhouse, and call it a night.

We started the next morning off with one more hike at Bryce Canyon, doing the Queen’s Garden trail. Boy was this a WORKOUT. The beginning went well but then we got to the switchbacks at the end- and with the elevation those switchbacks were no joke. It was SO worth it though, because it was my favorite hike I’ve been on in all of Utah. Hiking that trail felt like you were in a castle made of bright orange rock, and the snow was the icing on top. 😉

Zion National Park

Before I went to Zion I could have sworn it was called “Zion’s” with an s. I don’t know where I got that from, haha.

After we did the Queen’s Garden Trail at Bryce, we got in the car and made our way to Zion national park. The first thing we did when we got there was hike the canyon overlook trail, which isincredibly difficult to find parking for in the busy season, but we were lucky enough to be there during the off-season. The view from the top of this trail was my favorite view in all the park. I didn’t have a permit (or enough guts) to do the angel’s landing trail to the top, though, so maybe that is actually the best view in the park. I’ll never know (cause I’m too scared to ever do Angel’s Landing.)

We took it easy for the rest of the day, visiting the Lodge which had a great gift shop. In the winter you can drive straight to the lodge, but when it’s not the off-season you have to take a shuttle bus to get there.

The next morning, we stopped at menu falls which is a cute waterfall right off the highway, but is actually only really accessible in the off-season or by bike, because the shuttles don’t stop there. It’s a cool little gem that not many people know about.

Then, we did the angel’s landing trail up until the point where you need a permit. The viewpoint is called Scout’s Lookout, and there was a LOT of switchbacks to get there. It didn’t do as much of a number on my lungs as Queen’s Garden had the day before, but my legs were burning, and it was crazy to look over every few minutes and see how much of a mountain you had just scaled. My fear of heights kicked in during this hike, though, so if you’ve got a slight fear of heights, maybe sit out on this one.

We did one more hike before heading back to Salt Lake City, which was the Riverside Walk that takes you to the iconic Narrows. We went just far enough to see the mouth of the narrows but not actually to go inside. It was a great finale for our exploration of the parks!

The Utah Mighty 5 National Parks

My experience visiting all 5 national parks in Utah in under a week was amazing, tiring, exhilerating, exciting, and so many other things all at once. We switched hotels every night except one, and hiked over 12 miles some days.

All in all, it was a fantastic experience and I would be happy to do it all again!

Tips to make visiting all Utah National Parks in one trip easier

1. Go in the off-season

Going in the off-season means less light and shorter days, but also means no crowds and shorter/no lines to get in or out of the park. This makes it easier to hit all 5 in 5 or 6 days.

2. Plan, plan, plan

Make sure you know a range of hikes you want to do, the places you’re thinking about eating, and when you need to leave one place to get to the next. Of course this will change and shift throughout the trip, but cutting out too much decision making time will help you do more with the time you have.

3. Pack lunches

This isn’t something I did, but if you wanted more time in the parks, you could pack lunches to eat while in the car between parks or inbetween hikes. Then you wouldn’t spend too much time at restaurants.

4. Rise Early

We were almost always out the door of the hotels right before the sun was coming up. This helped us beat crowds, and get the most out of everyday.

Should I Visit all 5 Utah National Parks in One Trip?

The answer to this really depends on the type of traveler you are. If you aren’t gonna visit Utah again anytime soon, I think it’s very worth it to visit all 5. If you like to take things slow, though, this type of trip would not be for you. Trying to do all mighty 5 might be overwhelming and make the trip less enjoyable.

I really enjoyed hitting all 5 parks in one go, but of course it would vary person to person.

5-day Simple Utah Mighty 5 National Parks Itinerary

Day one- Canyonlands

Drive from Salt Lake City to Canyonlands national park. Explore the park, making sure to check out the Mesa Arch and the overlook points. Stay in Moab for the night.

Day two- Arches

Wake up early and head straight to Arches National Park. Make sure to do the delicate arch trail and the double arch trail during your time there, and visit some other places around the park.

Day three- Capitol Reef

Head towards Capitol Reef National Park first thing in the morning, and do one hike in the park before stopping for lunch in Torrey (right next to the park.) If you’re there March-October, check out the Gifford Homestead and buy some of their pie on your way back into the park.

Then do the capitol gorge trail, and take it up to the tanks. Next, do the grand wash trail, and if you think you have about 2 hours to spare do the cassidy arch trail. Find various other hikes you think sound fun and fill your freetime with those, before eating dinner and calling it a night in Torrey.

Day four- Bryce Canyon

Leave early in the morning and head for Bryce Canyon. Take the Scenic highway 12 to look down over the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument as you drive, and stop to take pictures at some of the pull off areas. If you need to use the restroom during this long drive, stop at the Grand Staircase Escalante visitor’s center. Then as you’re heading into Bryce, stop at the Mossy Cave Trail and hike that first. Then head farther into the park and choose from many amazing hikes. I highly reccomend doing the queen’s garden trail during your time there.

Here’s where you need to decide if you’re staying in Bryce Canyon city for the night or if you want to drive to Springdale and explore Zion first thing in the morning. Let’s assume you drive to Springdale and so you can head back to Salt Lake.

Day five- Zion National Park

Wake up early and get everything in your car ready to head back to Salt Lake City. Start exploring and hiking Zion National Park.

Your experience in this park will differ in the off-season and the busy season. March-October you’ll have to park at the shuttle parking and take the shuttle to all the hikes you want to do, but during the off-season you can drive up Zion Canyon yourself and park there yourself. Plan accordingly.

If you want to do the Narrows, plan on that being your only hike for the day. Same goes for Angel’s Landing. Make sure you have the right gear and you’re fully prepared for those trails.

If not, do the riverside walk trail and the Canyon overlook trail. Stop by Springdale again for lunch, and then start your journey back to Salt Lake City.

The Mighty Five National Parks

Utah is amazing. I feel so blessed to have been able to do this tour! Thanks for reading this all the way to the end, I’m so happy to have you here! Check out my other posts and follow my Instagram for more content like this!