By Alyssa and Brittany
We’ve narrowed it down for you so you know where to go and what to see in Utah.  These are three parks we went to and highly recommend you don’t miss.  Utah is full of beauty and each of these parks offers their own unique scenery.  Use our guide to make the most of your time in Utah!

CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK

Green River snaking thru the canyon

I have to admit, even though I seem like Miss Outdoorsy Adventure girl, Canyonlands was my first real camping/hiking/national park experience—and other than a night in Joshua Tree, I had never really camped before. As you drive into Moab, UT you feel like you’re driving into a painting with deep reds, rusty oranges, and the crystal blue sky framing it all.  Canyonlands is about 45 minutes off the main road, but the scenery makes you forget you’ve been driving so long.  The majority of people hang out in Canyonlands for the day, then stay the night in Moab.  But you should stay in the park like we did because it is absolutely beautiful. The campsites at Island in the Sky in Canyonlands are first come first serve (we stayed at the Willow Flat campground), so you’ll want to get there mid-morning. Canyonlands is situated above the canyons, so there are many great look out points for photo opps. There are also a lot of great trails to pick from. The Neck Spring Trail is just under 6 miles round trip, but in the midday heat it felt longer. We had to climb up a canyon wall to the rim and I thought I was going to die. It was like those scenes from a movie where you’re trudging through sand and you’re the only people in the middle of no where. Even though we were there during a busy time of the year, there wasn’t a soul on the trail. Thank goodness for all the cairns, because we would have been wandering around in the hot desert without them! 

Alyssa with our helpful cairns

All in all I definitely recommend this hike if you get started early in the day. If you’re not into hot hikes in midday, 100 degree June weather like we are, there are plenty of look-outs you can pull your car up to.  That being said, it really gives you a totally different feel when you are actually walking through the park vs driving through it. The sunset is stunning, and the whole canyon lights up pink. We drove to the different lookouts during sunset because each one had a unique view that displayed all of the beautiful colors.  We went back to our campsite and I was horrified to find that someone “stole” all of my powerbars and snacks.  I found a carrot cake Clif bar wrapper in the trashbin and was convinced that we had a sketchy camp neighbor.  After I found crow beak punctures in my fruit roll up wrapper in a bush, I realized I was really dumb to leave my food out because the birds had a heyday with all of my snacks. Moral of the story: beware of your food and make sure it’s stored properly.  

A black raven: A bad omen

You’ll be treated to another treasure once the sun goes down...the stars! In my half awake sleep state, I was convinced someone was trying to unzip our tent. We couldn’t sleep so we headed to our car for the rest of the night. The second I stepped out of the tent I felt like I was on the moon. The scape was so open and dark, and above there were millions of dazzling stars with the Milky Way swirling through. I couldn’t sleep after that—it was so breathtaking! I would highly recommend staying the night in Canyonlands and taking advantage of the amazing hikes and views it has to offer.  If you’re not the camping type, Moab is right outside of the park and offers hotels and hostels. Even though Canyonlands wasn’t the BEST park I had been to, I really appreciated that there wasn’t an overabundance of tourists.

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

HOTTTTT. Hotter than Canyonlands. And CROWDED. Yet I think I had a better time at Arches. You need to go to Arches, it's only a hop, skip and a jump from Canyonlands. Just do it, you will thank me! Some campers in Canyonlands told us to go as far back in the park as you possibly can and we are telling you the same. Apparently the farther back in the park you go the less people there are. We headed straight back to the Devil’s Garden and decided to hike to all of the arches (back to the Double O’s). As we drove through the park we saw plenty of mini vans with camera toting families take pictures from the look outs so we figured we’d have all the “cool outdoorsy” people in the back of the park where we were going. Well not the day we went! Boy, were we wrong.  The place was a zoo! We had to circle around several times before we found a parking spot. The first part of Devil’s Garden is literally just a walking trail where you can see all the different arches that have formed but the further back you get, the better it gets! Most of the people there looked unhealthy and were wearing improper clothing for hiking in the heat. But you’ll find that these people generally make it to the arches that are ½ a mile in and then turn around. If you continue to hike farther back toward the Double O’s, there will be less of a crowd.

We decided to take the primitive trail to the Double O arches and there are a total of eight different arches on that loop. There’s also light boulder scrambling involved, which I love! It’s about 5 miles roundtrip, and besides the scrambling, a fairly easy hike for a beginner.  Make sure you get started early because the heat picks up quickly....especially when you’re on red rocks and tromping on sand/dirt. If you don’t want to hike, it’s a great park to drive through with several stop off points. You can definitely do the park in one day.

ZION NATIONAL PARK
My new favorite National Park that I can’t wait to go back to! I just loved my entire experience at Zion, and I wish I could have spent more than a day there. The second you drive in the colors and scenery take your breath away.  It kind of reminded me of Thunder Mountain at Disneyland, I swear they got their inspiration somehow in Zion! We (stupidly!) didn’t have any campsite or hotel reservations so we had to drive out to St. George for lodging. We had to drive almost an hour outside of the park to stay in a dirty Motel 6 because we didn’t plan ahead.  Zion has an excellent (and free!) shuttle service that takes you to all of the different trailheads. We wanted to be on the first shuttle at 6AM to start our hike up Angel’s Landing so we had to get up at 4 o’clock to make it to the park on time. A pre-recorded tour is played as you drive through the park which explains its history and points out several of the landmarks. There aren’t too many people out that early, and the sun coming out and hitting the tops of the mountains was majestic. We highly recommend you get on that 6 o’clock shuttle for a couple of reasons: 1. It gets too hot once the sun is fully up and 2. The later you go, the less athletic the hikers are and with a hike like Angel’s Landing, you don’t want someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing walking behind or in front of you.

The "easy" section of Angel's Landing

Now, let me take a moment to tell you about Angel’s. Whenever people found out we were going to Zion, we always heard that we absolutely had to do it unless we were afraid of heights or got vertigo. Well, I am very afraid of heights, but after hearing so many good things about it, I had to try it. The night before I did some research and read up on the most recent death that occurred on Angel’s. Bad idea. Why were we so hesitant to do Angel’s Landing, you ask? Is it the fact that 6 people have died hiking it the last several years? Or maybe that one part of the trail is only 2 and ½ feet wide, with sheer drops over 1,000 feet on each side (Leap of Faith). 

Leap of Faith

Did I mention there are no chains on a lot of the hike? I was mad at myself all night for being afraid of heights. It’s a fairly short hike to Scout Overlook, and then the REAL hiking starts. You may think you’ve reached the top, but then you’ll look out and realize you have much farther to go on a much more narrow section. I was shaking the whole way up, and going down was just as difficult. If you’re serious about doing this but are afraid of heights, my biggest piece of advice is to just put one foot in front of the other and don’t pay attention to your surroundings. Do not rush the chains section. You’ll be able to find wider areas to move aside in case someone needs to pass you. There were people that looked like billy goats, casually skipping their way up, not seeming to realize that death was lingering a foot on either side of them.  We also got encouragement from other hikers which really helped too. I did obsessively grasp the chains, and when they disappeared I crawled until the next set. Sure, it took us 3x of turning around and giving eachother pep talks before we made it to the top, but we did it! You’ll be proud of yourself afterwards. The views at the top are so worth it! It truly is the best view in the park, a complete 360 degree view of all Zion has to offer. 

Yay we made it! The top of Angel's Landing!

As soon as we started making the trek back down (around 10AM) more people starting climbing up. I wouldn’t do it again, but I agree with everyone else, it’s something you HAVE to do if you’re in Zion. There are so many hikes to do in Zion and you could easily spend two or three days there. But for only having a day at Zion, we think Angel’s is the best hike to do.

A2B POINTERS
-Before you go to Canyonlands make sure you’re gassed up (there’s a gas station that’s right across from the entrance road to the park) and have plenty of water before entering the park. Willow Flat Campground is primitive, so besides a pit toilet, you’re on your own for water.
-Start hiking early early early! We cannot stress this enough, we’re talking 6-7AM depending on how long your planned hike is. It gets so hot and your hiking will not be enjoyable if you start getting heat exhaustion.
-Consider investing in an Annual National Park Pass if you’re going to be visiting a lot of the parks. It’s only $80 and two people can sign onto the card. If you have receipts from parks you’ve visited the last couple of weeks the ranger will apply that balance to your pass.  It will definitely save you money in the long run, especially if you’re visiting parks like Zion that cost $25 to get in!!