NATIONAL PARK BLITZ

For years I've heard about the beauty of the national parks out west, but I only had a vague sense of what was unique about each of the desert parks or where they were located in relation to one another. As we started to plan our route south, we realized we could visit all of Utah's "Mighty 5" parks and the Grand Canyon. Eric took the week off and we had to relocate campsites every couple of days to stay within a reasonable driving distance, but we were able to complete a whirlwind tour of six parks in six days!

Canyonlands

We started with Canyonlands National Park just outside of Moab. As the name implies, this park is all about canyons.

Some of the scenery felt reminiscent of the Grand Canyon, but without the haziness of such distance and depth. These canyons, while not as deep, had clear, expansive views and felt more accessible to explore. 

We hiked to Mesa Arch, a popular spot that was crawling with young people all trying to get that perfect selfie or staged "candid" photo.

Off-roading in jeeps and ATVs is popular here; we probably would have rented one if we had more time to spend in the park.

The boys added another Junior Ranger badge to their collection.

Arches

The next day we visited Arches National Park, also in Moab. You can see the park as you drive into town, so our expectations were already high before we entered. It did not disappoint! John declared this his favorite national park. 

The enormous red rock walls are impressive enough, but the individual rock formations really get your attention.

It's hard to convey the size and scale of these arches, because photos have to be taken from such a distance to fit it all in the frame. To put things in perspective, you can just barely see John standing inside one of the Windows arches in the photo below.

The park's iconic arches (Delicate and Landscape) cannot be seen from the road - you have to hike to them. Because our time was limited, we opted for the shorter hike to view Delicate Arch from a mile away.

We did another hike to Skyline Arch, which is not as well known but still impressive.

A visit to a national park would not be complete without a Junior Ranger badge! Reed got a vest from the gift shop so he can showcase all of the badges they have accumulated on this trip.

Capitol Reef

We left Moab and relocated to an RV park in the small town of Torrey, which is about 15 minutes from Capitol Reef National Park. To be honest, I did not have high expectations for this one, because I knew very little about it other than a YouTube RV channel which claimed it was their favorite of the Mighty 5 parks. Although the park encompasses a lot of land, it doesn't feel as big as the other parks. The visitor's center is small, there aren't many hikes (unless you're a hard-core desert hiker), and the scenic drive is not long unless you count the highway that runs through the park on the way to the entrance. But wow! This park turned out to be so unique and memorable. 

For starters, the park was once home to a Mormon settlement established in the late 1800s. Clearly, these were hardy folks to choose such a remote home in high desert country. Near the river where the land was more fertile, they planted almost 2,000 fruit trees. When the park service took over this land, they maintained the original orchards and visitors are free to pick whatever is in season. We picked apples and got a homemade peach pie and ice cream from the farmhouse store. It was all so quaint and charming, with deer grazing and munching on apples just a few feet away.

After driving the scenic road for a few miles, we were surprised when it turned into a dirt road that meandered into a canyon. Almost immediately, we were surrounded by rock walls that stretched hundreds of feet high above us. This was a totally different perspective compared to the top-down views we had in Canyonlands a few days before.

In case you were wondering how this park got its name, it comes from the white domed rock formation that is vaguely reminiscent of the Capitol rotunda in Washington, D.C. The "reef" part of the name is a nod to the 87-mile ridge that is difficult to traverse, much like a barrier reef in the ocean. 

After we exited the canyon, we came across some volunteers who had set up a solar telescope to educate visitors about the eclipse that was just a few days away. This was perfect because the boys needed to attend a ranger presentation for their Junior Ranger badge. After the boys got to see sunspots and solar flares through the telescope, the volunteers did their swearing-in for their badges.

The day's adventures didn't end there, though. Because our campsite was so close to the park, we went back to get warm clothes, hot chocolate, and our telescope, then returned to the park after dark for some stargazing. This is something I've been wanting to do for the whole trip, and it was as incredible as I had hoped it would be. We found a spot to pull off the road and set up chairs, and were soon joined by a college student who taught us how to take photos of the stars with our phones (something that has always eluded me). I'm so glad we were able to capture some photos to remember that night.

Bryce Canyon

Although we were tired from staying out late, we got up early the next morning and drove down to Bryce Canyon National Park. I was a bit more familiar with this park, but it still exceeded my expectations. I envisioned lots of red rock and hoodoos, but I was not expecting to see so much mountain forest and expansive vistas.

The contrast of colors - red rock, blue sky, green trees - was just beautiful. A bit of fall leaves showed up in the yellow aspens along the road to expand the color palette.

There were a lot of overlooks along the road, but most of our stops were quick because it was so windy and cold! The wind really kicks up on top of these canyons. But, we still managed to get a decent family photo before heading back down. Isn't Reed just the cutest little Junior Ranger??

Zion

I feel like this one needs a drumroll because so many people say Zion is their favorite of the Mighty 5 national parks in Utah. I'm inclined to agree.

Like the other parks, the rock walls are colorful and the canyon is massive, but it also has lush vegetation and a river flowing at the bottom of the canyon. 

Shortly after you enter the park, the road passes through a mile-long tunnel. There are several arched windows cut into the rock wall which offer stunning views, albeit hard to capture on camera from a moving vehicle. You can see one of the windows in the photo below. It looks tiny, but it's probably 30 feet wide.

The major attraction in this park is The Narrows. It starts out as a paved trail for the first two miles, then merges into the river where adventurous folks can continue hiking in the water for another 16 miles or so. Not being THAT adventurous, and with the water quite cold, we stuck with the paved trail. The scenery was so pretty and peaceful - I wish we could have stayed there longer. 

Grand Canyon

Our final national park was the Grand Canyon. Eric and I had taken a trip to the south rim about five years ago, so we decided to visit the north rim this time. (This was also a bit of a strategic decision, since it was only about a 1.5 hour drive to the north rim from our campsite, compared to about 3.5 hours to the south rim.)

Although the north rim lacks some of the grandeur of the south rim, the views were still awesome.

I liked that the north rim is the "quiet" side, without all of the crowds and chaos of the south rim. We never had to struggle to find parking or ride a shuttle bus - we were able to explore at our own comfortable pace.

We did two hikes that day. The first trail was very steep but had a great payoff at the end.

The second was a short, easy walk on a paved trail that led to an arch that you could walk out on. I'm not usually super-squeamish about heights, but looking straight down from that was a bit much! Still, it made for a cool photo op, even if it's hard to see us from so far away.

(looking down while standing on the arch - yikes!)

Of course, the boys got their Junior Ranger badges here too.

Covering six national parks in six days was exhausting, but so worth it. I'm still trying to decide which of these was my favorite - they were all incredible. So many memories were made this week!