Back in late January I asked my friend from college, Alicia, if she wanted to go on a road trip around Utah with me. This was completely on a whim, impulsive, and random (my honest to goodness favorite way to plan trips... so Sagittarius of me haha!). She said yes! And just a few short months later, we were on the road to Utah's Mighty Five, with a couple of other bonus sites thrown in to make sure we got the most bang for our buck out of our short 8 day trip!
Alicia and I are both committed to ballin' on a budget, so this trip was remarkably wallet friendly. If a nanny and a school counselor can afford it, you can too!
Alicia is one of the best planners I know - she's planning on going back to school for Hospitality Management to become an event planner! So I'll admit, much of this itinerary was made by her amazing Virgo-ian attention to detail. We worked on this about two months before our trip, and even though it was cutting it close with booking a lot of campsites, we were to able to fit it all in and find some really awesome places to stay!
Flight from Boston to Salt Lake City
About two months before our trip, I found super reasonable round-trip flights from Boston to Salt Lake City, UT for about $240 total! One of my specialties is scouring the internet for cheap flights. I want to make a longer post about this, but my top tips are using Skyscanner and Google Flights. I also have no problem sleeping in an airport during a crazy layover to save a ton of $$$ (I've slept in 4 airports lol). We arrived in Salt Lake City around 11pm, picked up our rental car from the airport (which was super easy to navigate, thanks Utah!), and drove to our Airbnb, Kyle's Bungalow.
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| Hiking Emerald Pools Trail in Zion National Park |
Drive time: 4.5 hours
We stopped at a Wal-Mart in SLC to pick up food and supplies and ended up spending about $60 total on food since we split the total cost, and this fed us for the majority of the trip! I want to write a separate post on what we stocked up on to save money while roadtripping and camping, but it was a lot of pasta sides, cans of soup, and granola bars! The drive to Zion was jaw-dropping, especially since neither of us had been to the Southwest before, so since everything was brand new & beautiful, the drive went by very fast!
You can only book South Campground starting exactly 2 weeks in advance, so we set an alarm SUPER early that day before our trip to make sure we got it booked. We set up our tent in the early afternoon and took a short, easy hike to Emerald Pools, which was a great way to get ourselves acclimated to the park and the ridiculously easy shuttle system that takes you directly to the start of most trailheads.
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| View from Angel's Landing in Zion National Park |
Drive time: about 2 hours
I recommend waking up super early on your second day to fit in two epic, must do, bucket list hikes in Zion - Angel's Landing & The Narrows. Both are extremely popular, but Angel's Landing almost killed me (aka was the most strenuous/terrifying/rewarding hike I've ever done and probably will ever do), so I recommend tackling this challenge head-on bright & early in the morning! We woke up around 6:30am and planned to hit the trail around 7/7:30. There were plenty of people who had beat us to the first shuttle (I think we caught the second one), so Angel's Landing was already pretty busy. However, it got MUCH more crowded on our way back, so I'm so glad we did this first. This hike, as I'm sure you know, is NOT for the faint of heart. Many people stopped at a certain point, right before the section that involves a lot of chains and terrifying drop-offs. Despite my very real, very intense fear of heights I made it to the summit! The views are spectacular and if even a small part of you thinks that you can handle your fear, I recommend pressing on.
We stopped at a picnic area for lunch after our much easier descent from Angel's Landing, and then took the shuttle down to The Narrows. I am a water lover, so I adored this hike that goes straight through two cliffs and is a straight up trek through water. We didn't rent the proper waterproof gear so couldn't go too far into the hike, so that's the only regret I have here. Then we were off to Bryce Canyon, where we enjoyed a stay in an honest to goodness teepee at Ruby's Inn Teepee. Staying in a teepee was cool but I won't lie, I almost froze to death this night because Bryce Canyon is notoriously the coldest park in Utah!
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| Bryce Canyon National Park |
Drive time: 1 hour
Wake up early from your teepee slumber and take a HOT shower to unfreeze your bones. Then head out to the Bryce Canyon Visitor's Center to plan out what hikes you want to do. We decided to combine the Queen's Garden & Navajo Loop Trails, after taking a shuttle from the Visitor's Center to Sunset Point which came out to a 3 mile hike featuring switchbacks and hoodoos galore!
We decided to drive some of the scenic route of the park, and stopped at Inspiration Point for another stunning view. We were also lucky enough to see some mule deer and pronghorn antelope on the sides of the road! This afternoon we drove over to Escalante, UT for our adventures at Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. We stayed in a log cabin through Escalante Outfitters for only $64 and it was worth every penny! Even though we'd only camped two nights, the freezing cold night in Bryce made me appreciate a bed in a heated cabin 100% more. They had a cute gift shop and little cafe where we got DELICIOUS pizza & ciders, and we hit the hay early because we had some epic hikes planned the next day.
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| Hiking to Zebra Slot Canyon in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument |
Drive time: 1 hour & 20 minutes
This was a wild day. Mostly because this national monument is nowhere near as commercialized and tourist friendly as many of the national parks! We had to ask the locals at Escalante Outfitters for recommendations and directions (which I highly recommend because they were so nice and helpful) and ended up deciding on two major hikes, Zebra Slot Canyon & Lower Calf Creek Falls. Finding Zebra Slot Canyon is extremely tricky and I recommend this blog post for detailed directions. Once you get there, I also recommend using the map of Utah that you hopefully downloaded to your phone on Google Maps to point you in the right direction of the actual slot canyon because the GPS service somehow works with no data. If you don't want to wander through the desert for an extra hour like we did, this is a good idea!
Once you actually get to the slot canyon it's very short but beautiful! It looks just like Antelope Canyon in Arizona. This hike was rough since we added so much extra time trying to find the entrance to the slot, but we rallied and headed to Lower Calf Creek Falls. This hike was more heavily trafficked than the slot, and we were so tired from the first hike, but we made it and the gorgeous waterfall at the end of the trail was so worth it! I highly recommend stopping in Escalante, a place I feel most people may look over, as a part of your Utah road trip.
After hiking to the falls, I somehow found the strength to drive to our campsite at Fruita Campground in Capitol Reef National Park.
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| Cohab Canyon in Capitol Reef National Park |
Drive time: 2.5-3 hours
We woke up early in Capital Reef and hiked Cohab Canyon, which was a fun short hike for the morning. We even ended up finding a small slot canyon on the trail! This was kind of a wonky day because we had so much to do and see along our driving. We stopped at the very popular Gifford House, which is at the campground, on our way out for their famous cinnamon buns & souvenirs.
We decided to drive through Canyonlands, rather than stop and stay there in order to fit all of the national parks into our itinerary. We stopped at the visitor's center and they recommended Mesa Arch (ridiculously popular & touristy) and Upheaval Dome (a giant crater). Both were relatively short and easy hikes.
We stopped at Dead Horse Point State Park before heading to Moab because I'd read that it was a really beautiful viewpoint but what I did not read was that it costs $10 and we literally only wanted to see the view for like 5 minutes. So it wasn't entirely worth it for us because we weren't stopping there to hike at all. We headed into Moab from there and stayed at the Lazy Lizard Hostel for the night, but not before stopping at a Mexican restaurant on the main strip for some quesadillas and margaritas as big as our heads!
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| Devil's Garden Loop |
Drive time: None
Moab was our home base for the day! We had made some friends at the hostel (I highly recommend this hostel, and honestly most hostels because they are CHEAP and fun) and decided to set out early in the morning with one of our new friends to hike Delicate Arch (3 miles) and the Devil's Garden Loop (7~ miles). Our new friend was a geology major so she was able to tell us a lot about the formation of the arches and fins, which was so convenient!
We stayed at the Lazy Lizard another night since we didn't have to drive anywhere until morning, so we got some beers at the local liquor store and spent the night shooting the shit with the wanderers and gypsies of the hostel. The Southwest is a much different world than New England.
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| Hike to Fifth Water Hot Spring |
Drive time: 3 hours
We stopped on the way out of Moab at this funky cafe that offered vegan options! I got a delicious tofu scramble and a smoothie. Then we spent some time (but I could have spent hours) at this Rock Shop on the main strip. In case you don't know what a rock shop is, it offers thousands of varieties of crystals & minerals, usually dinosaur bones & fossils, and so much more. I love crystals, so I was in heaven. I probably got 6 or 7 but could have gotten hundreds!
The drive to Fifth Water Hot Spring was interesting because we saw the shift in landscape from the orange hues of the desert to scrubby forest, to towering pine trees. We figured a hot spring would be a perfect way to soak our muscles and close out our trip. The hike to the hot spring was actually pretty challenging because we had been used to flat desert and this hike had some elevation gain! But the reward was great - the hot spring wasn't that crowded, the water was VERY hot, and there was even a small waterfall with pools of cooler spring water to soak in between the hot sulfuric pools. We were originally going to camp near the hot spring, but decided we could spring for an Airbnb a little closer to the airport, in Provo. After having our fill of soaking, this is where we drove and stayed the night!
Day 8: Explore Salt Lake City
Drive time: 45 mins
We drove from Provo to Salt Lake City to explore before our flight (which wasn't until 11pm)! Take pictures of all the LDS buildings and the many tulips in Temple Square. We got avocado toast at this super hipster coffee shop in a warehouse, then went shopping at Forever21 (lol, a far cry from our adventures in the desert). There's a really nice outdoor shopping mall in SLC and we just had to explore! We got moscow mules at The Green Pig, a rooftop bar, then decided to get tattoos at Anchor Ink to commemorate our incredible experience. By day 8 we were exhausted and ready to head home after a week truly jam-packed with adventures.
Major Pro Tips:
- Download an entire map of Utah to your phone on Google Maps. This saved us while hiking in Escalante!
- Pack hiking boots and hiking sandals. The less strenuous hikes were way more comfortable in my hiking sandals.
- Book your campgrounds as far in advance as your able to!
- Buy the $80 National Park pass, you save so much money on entrance fees.
- Unless you are a seasoned camper, sprinkle some days of sleeping in an actual bed in between your days of camping.
- Do not stay in a teepee near Bryce Canyon unless you have a very heavy duty sleeping bag!
I hope this extremely long guide helps anyone, or inspires anyone, who might want to take this epic trip. I honestly can't recommend it anymore highly and I'm just as shocked as you probably are how much we were able to fit into just 8 days.
The greatest risk is not taking the risk. Happy adventuring!
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