djp98374

There is too much driving to do Bryce and Moab in a weekend.

I would keep things open and look at the weather.

Moab will likely be warmer than Bryce.

Either way you will have a mountain pass to go through. That is the bigger issue.

From SLC it takes about 4.5 hrs to drive to Moab. About 3.5 to drive to Bryce (depending on the way).


With either park dont count on seeing large widelife (other than deer in bryce).

With Bryce this is off season so there is limited park stuff. The elevation at Bryce is 8500-9500 feet which means it can get colder and you get snow. Also at this time you can drive into Zion with your own car. In the summer you cant unless you were stayin at the parks hotel.

Here are options/suggestions

If you arrive in the AM on the 3rd....(remember this weekend clocks turn back on Saturday)

you drive to Moab getting there mid/late afternoon. drive into Arches and do Windows section with the later day sunlight or hike.

On Saturday spend the day in Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point state park. Food is unavalable so bring your lunch with you unless you want to drive out and back. For sunrise do Mesa Arch. Do the western facing pullouts. Then in the afternoon do the eastern facing pullouts and dead horse state park.

On Sunday do Arches. go in the early AM to see balances rock and windows and then in the afternoon do Delicate arch hike (takes 1-2 hrs to get there depending on your condition...its all uphil hike...then half the time back down hill). Then you hike back at dusk so bring a flashlight. This time will be around 6pm the hike back so you could go back into town and eat dinner before driving back to Provo....you could stop over and stay in green river or in Price.

If you go to Bryce.....

if you are leaving the aiport at 11am....this is what I suggest to maximize the daylight driving.

Drive to Torrey, UT then drive down UT 12 to Bryce. Depending on your schedule you could stay in Escalante or Boulder....or drive to Bryce.

Saturday...all day at Bryce through sunset. drive and stay in Kanab or Springdale.

Sunday...all day in Zion. in the evening drive and stay in ceder city or beaver for the night.

Alternate option....

Friday...drive to Bryce...stay there through sunset....drive and spend night in Kanab and use this as your base.

Saturday.....drive to Page, AZ and see Powel dam and Antelope Canyon. ( Alternate option...North Rim of gran Canyon is usually closed by early November....but it could still be open depending on weather).

Sunday...Zion then drive and stay in Cedar City or Beaver.

If you didnt want to do Page....Saturday would be Zion and then Sunday would be Bryce...then drive up to Beaver, Richland, or Torrey.

Bryce is cool to take pictures off if you can get fresh snowfall.

djp98374

In terms of the cities.....

Moab you have sivilization where the city has a supermarket and there are restaurants.

Kanab has supermarkets and restaurants. Springvale has some restaurants (just not sure of the seasonality with them).

In Bryce the Rubys Inn (Best Western) has a restaurant you can eat at. Along UT 12 some of the towns places may be closed for the season.

Cedar City and Price are larger cities with a walmart and supermarkets that do not shut down (pop in these cities are 60,000+ while many of the other towns are smaller)

amanuensis

Here is something aviation-related to see and do this Saturday, if you happen to be in Provo, Utah.

DenverBrian

[Removed off-topic material]

I think I'll stick with Bryce Canyon. Or Zion. Or Dinosaur. Or Great Sand Dunes. Or Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Or Rocky Mountain. Or...

abcx

We're going to be spending 10 full days in CO at the end of summer over the Labor Day weekend. Flying into and out of DEN, though we could land in COS instead if we wanted.

The primary destination for the trip is Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) but we're wondering what else we could do as 10 days is a bit much for RMNP. We've found hikes to fill up 5 days in RMNP and could maybe fill another day or two in the park, but that still leaves us with 3-4 days.

We were thinking of staying in central CO instead of going down south to Great Sand Dunes or Black Canyon. Aspen came up as a possibility but it seems the core Maroon Bells area only offers one day of hiking unless you are climbers, which we are not. Driving between Aspen and Estes Park (RMNP) could probably fill up a day as well if we take the scenic route via Leadville and Central City it seems.

Any suggestions? We're more interested in natural scenery - hiking or driving - rather than cute or historic towns. We've already been to Crested Butte. Have also been to Garden of the Gods in COS, but haven't been to Pike's Peak so could consider going to COS again for a day. But not sure if that is worth it considering we are already going to RMNP which is probably better in most respects. So something that is RMNP level of awesome would be the ideal.

(Have also spent a lot of time in UT recently, so that is not under consideration for this trip.)

Thanks

amanuensis

I went to the airport open house and I was notified a couple of weeks ago that I was the winner of a door prize worth a couple of hundred dollars. (Some gift cards from local Provo businesses in a nice box with chocolate truffles.)

DenverBrian

Mount Evans/Echo Lake trails? That's outside RMNP, and summiting Mt. Evans is easy (you can actually drive to the top), but there are many various-difficulty hiking trails up the mountain and around the lakes.

Leadville is also interesting - one of the highest altitude towns in the US. Mine tour, perhaps. I'm certain there's some hiking in the area.

azepine00

Hanging lake trail reopened last month - unfortunately i found out too late and permits for our dates were gone...
We had a few extra days in CO on the tail end of RV trip and ended up spending them in Vail area - ymmv but i regret not going back to Ouray/Telluride for a couple days of Jeeping and hot pools instead...
If i had 10 days in CO i'd do a large loop via RMNP (staying a couple nights on both Estes park and Grand Lake sides) Leadville/Independence pass/Aspen, Ouray/Telluride, Durango/Pagosa Springs, Great Sand Dunes and back to DEN.. Do check on passes to RMNP especially Bear lake area as early as possible (entering before 9 am without time entry works for RNMP but not for Bear lake)

kochleffel

I'm thinking about visiting Arches and Canyonlands in the spring. The window in which I can travel is small so it would probably be at the end of April and beginning of May. I wouldn't try to include other national parks such as Zion or Bryce Canyon in the same trip.

On another travel site, several people advised me to go earlier, "while you can still drive into the park and don't have to ride the bus." I see no mention of anything like that on the NPS web sites for Arches and Canyonlands. Do these well-meaning people know what they're talking about, or are they thinking of other parks such as Zion? The NPS does mention that at peak times entrance to Arches NP may be closed and that if a parking lot inside the park is full, it's prohibited to wait or park along the road, saying that one must go somewhere else and try again later.

LoganFlyer

Neither Arches nor Canyonlands has a shuttle; those sites you visited must have been thinking of Zion & Bryce. For Arches, you'll want to check if you need a reservation to get in. This past year, they required them from April to early October:

https://www.nps.gov/arch/planyourvis...eservation.htm

I haven't heard yet if they'll be reinstating that system for 2023, but I suspect they will.

djp98374

Bryce has bus service for its view points thst folks are forced to use if lots in main amphitheater are full.


in Zion thr main canyon of the Virgin river requires you use the bus for most of the year unless you have lodge reservations or disabled ( license plate marked)

late April/ early May is a big period for those parks. There are many weekend festivals and the weather is nice but not summer 95+ hot so it’s good season for hiking. Arches will likely require timed admission tickets again next year.
they did it this past year from I believe April- October that you had to pre- reserve online a few months before.

zion had a shuttle reserve for the shuttle bus they did in 2021. They stoppedthis in 2022.

as for the park visits…..

arches can be done in a day. Delicate arch hike is a difficult hike. It’s about 2 miles one way all up hill with no shade. This is popular for s7n rise and sunset times. Much of the trail is on flat rock with the trail markers as stacked stones. In devils garden therr is a flat 2 mile one way trail that is very “sand”y hike. There is another trail thst is only ranger led and requires reserved tickets called finery furnace

canyonlands has 3 districts. Island in the sky is the easiest and most accessible. It’s drive to parking lots then walk to virpew points. Next to it is a state park thsts also worth visiting. This can be done in a day. Mesa arch is in the center of this plateau. It has the park view you want to do in early am or late pm around sunset for best pictures.

needles district is limited to on 4 wheel driving. On the way is news paper rock. Moab companies have off road tours to areas in needles and for a dirt road in iskand that takes you down to the river.

i usually suggest something like

day 1 am island, pm arches, lunch moab.
day 2 am arches, pm island, lunch moab
day 3 tour of some sort and do arches in the other part.

needles is an all day one. Many are half day. Thry are float trips along the river along arches boundary. Thry have outside thr park atl driving. Anyone who says it’s inside the park is lying.
the Third area of canyonlands is called maxs. It requires high clearance and a back country permit to enter.


Capitol reef in Torrey is about a 3 hr drive from Moab. This park has limited driveable road access. There are trails along 24 you can do. There are off road tours for cathedral valley that take all day

between Moab and Torrey is goblin valley stste park and lityke wild horse canyon.

bryce…this only requires some time for sunset and early am. Getting here on UT 12 could take a full day on its own. You run by escalante nm and calf creek falls area and a few state parks.

bryce is a small park. It’s primarily an amphitheater of hoodoos crested by water erosion. There are many trails you can take into the canyon and come out. There is a park shuttle bus that goes from Ruby’s inn BW just outside the park to the amphitheater view points. This can be used for one way hikes taking you from one point to another and take it back to your car.

zion is about 2 hrs from Bryce.there are generally 3 parts of the park. UT 9 you can drive along and spur roads you can access, kolob canyon along I-15, and the Zion canyon portion where bus is required during your visit. Stay in Springdale if you can’t get a lodge stay. There is a free town bus that takes you to the park visitor center where you enter park on foot and then take shuttle bus.. you can also walk if you stay close to the visitor center.

in generall for such a trip you are looking at

day 1 to moab
day 2-4 moab
day 5 to torrey
day 6 Capitol reef
day 7 UT 12 to Bryce, sunset bryce
day 8 sunrise Bryce, lunch to Zion, pm zion
day 9 zion
day 10 am Zion, pm head out.

there are other ways of doing this. Like Moab-to monument valley to Grand Canyon to page to Zion to Bryce to Torrey as the looop

kochleffel

Thanks for the replies. My travel window isn't long enough to include parks that are farther away from Moab, and I may not feel like long days, so it will probably be only Arches and Canyonlands, maybe plus state parks and other sites that are close enough. I don't plan to rent a high-clearance vehicle.

My current plan is to fly to Salt Lake City, because it will work best to begin the trip on Delta; with the current schedule I'll have an overnight near SLC on the outbound, but not on the return flight. If possible I'll rent a cabin in Moab through VRBO.

Markus 9643

Been last year (october)to Bryce canyon ,zion n.p,page,monument valley,Kanab,Cortez.
This year I will go to Denver in October and pick up a rental for 12 days (Oct.09 to Oct.21).

Is it better to head south or gamble on the weather and head to Teton n.p and Yellowstone?

LoganFlyer

I'd probably go south that time of year, as much of Yellowstone closes on October 1 to get ready for the winter:
https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/hours.htm

djp98374

yellowstone and Teton can still be visited thrn but you run a very real risk of snow and cold. Columbus Day weekend is roughly when anything evrn open , closes for the year.

Central Colorado has real risk of snow. Denver and front range….one of the snowiest times of year is the late sept to mid nov time ( the other is March- mid April) because this time you can get warmer air obpver riding cold mountain air thrn getting up sloped dumps thr moisture as snow.

Albuquerque balloon fiesta is the first two weekends of October and the week in between.

moab is a good time visit st this time with better temps where you can hike snd not deal with 85+ temps.

north rim of Grand Canyon closes around Columbus Day for winter.