Utah Grand Circle

Since the Zion Park thread is starting to wander to new locations, I thought I'd start a new thread to make things easier to find.

While Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks get lots of press, the southeastern side of the state also has treasures. While Arches National Park is well known, some other sites are not as well known and therefore less crowded.

There was a nice list of places between Moab and Mexican Hat in today's newspaper, if you have the opportunity to drive this route along the Colorado border.

I've often suggested what is called the "Grand Circle Tour" for friends who want to see the red rock country of Utah. Start with Zion NP, go out the east entrance to Bryce Canyon, then stay on Utah 12 through Escalante & Boulder to Torrey. This drive is worth the visit just by itself. East on 24 a few miles to Capitol Reef NP, then 24 to Green River and over to Moab for Arches, Canyonlands NPs and Dead Horse Point. That's where the above mentioned article picks up. Take U.S. 191 south through all the places it mentions then swing back west to Page for Antelope Canyons and back to St. George via Pipe Springs National Monument and Hildale/Colorado City, home to the polygamist groups. Good pies at the Many Wives cafe.

You could do this in 10 days or a month. Take your pick.

Keith (A California transplant who loves living in Utah)

Thanks that was a very cool tour thru Utah, being from Fla and only two weeks a year vacation make this a bucket list item for me so all the pictures and stories are greatly welcome.

Bob

[scrubjaysnest]

We may have to try this leaving out Zion NP

[wbmiller3]

We enjoyed Canyonlands very much. It seemed to be little visited. There were the best preserved Indian pictographs I have ever seen. We stayed in a tiny RV park at the northern city limit of Monticello, Utah which had good facilities including wifi (it has been a few years though).

The Grand Circle is amazing. We enjoyed it more than Zion, in part because of the lack of crowds.

Canyonlands and Capitol Reef are definitely worth a visit. But do it in the Spring when it's not too hot. IIRC there's no shade over most of the campgrounds and no electricity.

There are some stunning hikes from the Canyonlands campground that take you up and over the dry desert and rock formations and drop you into a hidden, green, lush canyons (in Spring anyway).

Might I make one more suggestion when visiting the parks of Southern Utah? Get a copy of this book, "Geology Unfolded, an Illustrated Guide to the Geology of Utah's National Parks." by Thomas Morris, Scott Ritter, and Dallin Laycock.

The authors are two BYU geology professors and a grad student. It's one thing to stand in awe at the beautiful rock structures of this area. It is quite another to have a basic understanding of how they came to be. The book is written for tourists, not geologists and best of all is only 10 bucks.

It is very hard to find since you can only get it from the publisher. You can look through the book on the link above. The phone number for ordering is on the "Price List" link at the top of the page.

No, I have no financial interest in the book. Just found it valuable when we went through the various parks.

Keith