Five national parks within a day’s drive, which sounds like a gift and is actually the trap. Which parks reward walking, which reward looking, and when to go.
Utah has five national parks within a day's drive of each other, which sounds like a gift and is actually the trap. People try to do all five in four days, spend most of it in the car, and walk about six miles total. The parks are close on a map and far apart in what they ask of you.
The five, honestly ranked for hikers
- Zion. The best hiking of the five and the most crowded. Angels Landing, the Narrows, Observation Point. Shuttle-only in season.
- Canyonlands. The best backcountry, the fewest people, the least infrastructure. The Needles district is where hikers should go; Island in the Sky is where everyone else does.
- Capitol Reef. The most underrated. Slot canyons and orchards with a fraction of the traffic.
- Arches. Extraordinary rock, short trails. A half-day park for walking, a full-day park for photographs.
- Bryce. The most visually distinct and the easiest to hike. Everything is a descent then a climb back out at 8,000 feet.
Zion
Angels Landing
A 5.4-mile round trip with a half-mile of chain-assisted scrambling along an exposed ridge. Since 2022 the chain section requires a permit won by lottery. The approach to Scout Lookout does not, and Scout Lookout is a genuine destination in its own right, so a failed permit does not waste the day. Full detail in our Angels Landing guide.
The Narrows
Walking up the Virgin River between thousand-foot walls. Bottom-up from the Temple of Sinawava needs no permit and you can turn round whenever you like. The full top-down through-hike does need one. Water levels close it without warning in spring melt and during monsoon season, so check the flow rate the morning you go.
Observation Point
Higher than Angels Landing, looks down on it, and needs no permit. Via East Mesa it is a comparatively gentle 6.5 miles. This is the single best swap in Utah if the lottery does not go your way.
Our 3-day Zion itinerary sequences these around the shuttle, and the Las Vegas to Zion route is built to flex depending on whether the Angels Landing permit comes through.
Bryce Canyon
The Navajo Loop and Queens Garden combined make the best short hike in Utah: about three miles down through the hoodoos and back up, with more scenery per mile than anything else in the state. Fairyland Loop is the longer, quieter version at eight miles.
Remember the rim sits at 8,000 to 9,000 feet. Every hike starts downhill and finishes with a climb, at altitude, which catches out people who read the elevation profile backwards. See the 2-day Bryce itinerary.
Canyonlands, the Needles
If you want to walk in Utah rather than look at it from a viewpoint, this is where to go. Chesler Park and the Joint Trail are the classic day, and the district supports genuine multi-day backpacking with almost nobody around. Water is the constraint: there is effectively none, so you carry it or you cache it.
See 3 days in the Needles. Backcountry permits are required and are far easier to get than anything in Zion.
Capitol Reef
The one people skip, which is why you should not. Cassidy Arch, the Hickman Bridge, and Cohab Canyon are all excellent and rarely busy, and Capitol Gorge gives you a slot canyon you can walk into from the road. In autumn you can pick fruit in the historic Fruita orchards. Our 2-day Capitol Reef plan covers it.
Arches
Delicate Arch is a three-mile round trip up open slickrock with no shade, and it is worth doing at sunrise or an hour before sunset rather than in the middle of the day. Devils Garden is the longer walk at about eight miles for the full primitive loop, and it holds the longest natural arch in North America.
Timed-entry reservations apply in peak season. Entering before 7am avoids the requirement, which happens to be when you should be walking anyway.
Doing more than one
Two parks in four days beats five parks in five. If you want the full circuit, our Mighty Five road trip is the six-day version that actually leaves time to hike, and the family version trades a couple of the harder days for shorter walks.
When to go
- April to May and September to October. The answer for all five parks.
- Summer. 100°F+ in Zion, Arches and Canyonlands. Start at dawn or do not go. Bryce is the exception at altitude.
- Winter. Bryce in snow is spectacular and nearly empty. Zion is quiet and walkable. The desert parks are cold but clear.
- Monsoon, July to September. Flash flooding closes slot canyons with no warning. Never enter the Narrows or a slot with storms forecast anywhere upstream.
The permits worth watching
Angels Landing runs a seasonal lottery and a day-before lottery. The Subway and the Narrows through-hike each run their own. Every one opens on a fixed annual date and closes fast. We email you the morning each window opens, free, and you pick only the trails you care about.
