Southern Utah Fall Vacation

We recently returned home from a wonderful week-long trip through Southern Utah. Our proximity to the beautiful National Parks has been one of the best parts about living in California and Arizona. After realizing that we only having a few weeks/months left in Arizona, we figured now was the best time to visit Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks.

We set out on a Sunday, dropped off our dog with some friends (dogs are a big hassle to have in the Parks), and drove north. Our first stop was a campground thirty miles outside of Zion. We had not intended on driving that far on our first day, but the road leading to the campground where we had planned on staying had recently been washed out and was accessible only with four-wheel drive. The benefit of driving further that first day was that we were able to make it to Zion National Park early on Monday and spend the whole day there.


Zion is a beautiful place. Like Yosemite, it's main attraction is a valley surrounded by intimidating canyon walls. Unlike Yosemite, whose landscape is dominated by granite, Zion is made up of sandstone. One of the consequences of this geological makeup is that most of the trails are very sandy. Let's just say that a sandy floor does not make hiking very easy (especially while carrying a child on your back)! Nevertheless, we conquered several beautiful trails and were rewarded with breathtaking views of the landscape.


We stayed at Zion for two nights before heading out on the two-hour drive northeast to Bryce Canyon. The drive between the parks was absolutely gorgeous, as we were driving through the peak Fall colors in the area. Throughout the drive we were surrounded by mountains, red and gold leaves, and green pastures.

Bryce Canyon National Park bears little resemblance to Zion. In fact, nothing in the world looks like Bryce Canyon. Bryce is known for its hoodoos, which are pillars which the elements have eroded, leaving spiky towers of rock. The most popular way to explore Bryce is to drive along the top of the canyon, stopping at the dozen vista points which overlook the valley of hoodoos. We drove along the park to take in the sights, but we quickly realized that the best way to see the park would be to hike down into the canyon.


The next morning we hiked down into the canyon and felt as though we had landed on a different planet. The rock towers were much more impressive close-up, where we could admire the unique formations. It was easily the most rewarding hike we attempted all week.

At the conclusion of this five-mile hike we left the park and drove further northwest through what is known as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to the small towns of Escalante and Boulder. This drive is regarded by many as the most scenic drive in the USA. It certainly was amazing to behold. Even though the drive took us several miles out of our way, we would recommend it to everyone.

Even though we had just hiked a five-mile trail at Bryce earlier in the day, we decided to explore another trail down in the Lower Calf Creek Canyon near Escalante. This hike was a spur-of-the-moment addition to our itinerary and we got a pretty late start. We eventually made it to the waterfall at the end of the trail, but dusk was already upon us. We "power hiked" the two miles back to the trailhead, hoping to make it back before darkness settled in. As if that wasn't stressful enough, Nolan decided he was hungry/tired/sick of being in the backpack and cried the whole way back. We ended up making it back to the car and actually had enough sunlight remaining to enjoy the rest of the drive to our final destination - Boulder, UT.

Boulder is a town with a population of roughly 200 people - the last place you would expect to find an amazing restaurant and lodge; but that is exactly what we found. We stayed at Boulder Mountain Lodge and ate at the superb Hell's Backbone Grill. It was a wonderful way to end an exhilarating and exhausting day.


We would have loved to stay at the lodge for a couple more nights, but we had to start making our way back home. As we drove back we continued to admire all the Fall colors and unique landscapes. Our final stop was at a campground on Lake Powell in Arizona. We didn't have time to explore the area very much, except that we did a quick hike to an overlook of the Colorado River called Horseshoe Bend, which is a fairly famous landmark in Arizona. It was a nice way to finish our trip.


We had a wonderful time and would recommend that everyone visit beautiful Southern Utah, especially in the Fall. You can see more of our pictures by clicking here.