Lost Utah Thread

[koolnole]

There was a great thread here regarding the Bryce, Arches area of southern Utah, unfortunately, I have no idea how to find the thread. I plan to travel to that area in mid Septmber and would love to hear about the best moderate hikes and eating places in that area. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Spenser1]

There was a great thread here regarding the Bryce, Arches area of southern Utah, unfortunately, I have no idea how to find the thread. I plan to travel to that area in mid Septmber and would love to hear about the best moderate hikes and eating places in that area. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Bryce has some moderate hikes down into the bottom of the canyons that are amazing, just make sure to bring water and good hiking shoes (and a hiking stick (or two) helps). They're easy to find off the main parking lots.

Arches has lots of great hikes - basically you have to hike in to see some of the best arches, but it's not far and mostly level. Once again, water, good shoes, and a stick are very useful. Moab has a number of decent restaurants, went to a good Italian one but can't remember the name.

One of the most amazing views I've ever seen is from Island in the Sky in Canyonlands, well worth the drive as it's truly stunning.

Also hightly recommend the Grand Wash hike in Capitol Reef.

Have fun!!

 

[FSUTribe76]

I went out there a couple of months ago. Hands down the best restaurant in Utah and well worth taking some time out for is Cafe Diablo in Torrey. They have free range rattlesnake cakes and a great lineup of foodie cuisine using local ingredients and top flight cocktails. We stopped in between the Capitol Reef (it's close enough to do anytime while there) and driving the Grand Staircase on the way to Bryce.

Btw, do not miss the long scene road from Capitol Reef to Bryce as it goes through the Grand Staircase. The Grand Staircase is better than most of the Big Five its just not a "national park" because there's no amenities in it. But that road is simultaneously the scariest drive I've been on (at points they literally took the top of the mountain chain off and you drive a relatively narrow two lane road along the top of the mountain chain with no barriers) and the most amazing views. The only place with better views are the Grand View in Canyonlands, the Sunset and Subrise points in Bryce and the South and River View portions of the Grand Canyon.

Another stop that should not be missed is Goblin Valley. It's a short freestyle hike (you just go wherever you want), but it's VERY unique and I got some absolutely amazing pics from there.

In Canyonlands, the best views are from the Island in the Sky Portion. Best sunrise is at the Grand View and best sunset is at the Orange Cliffs, get to both well beforehand as parking can be scarce. Don't skip the state park Dead Horse Point on the way to the Island in the Sky portion of Canyonlands.

While in Moab, don't miss the Moab brewery for decent pub food and great beer and ice cream AND make sure you stop at Lin Ottinger's Moab Rock Shop, it's basically a fossil hunters dream. I bought a ton of fossils there, it's possibly the best shop for it in the country.

I'll post more later.

 

[ReliableOstrich]

How many days would you all recommend for a quick trip to this area?
Like can 2 full days of hiking do it partial / good enough justice?

 

[FSUTribe76]

Before I go, a lot of people talked up Zion before I went, but truthfully I found it very underwhelming compared to some of our other stops. If you're there during normal tourist season you can't even drive your car through it, they force you to park and take a bus which is SLOW and irritating. I did the supposed second best hike the Zion Narrows as I didn't have time for Angels Landing. Maybe it's because I've done other much better slot canyons on that same trip including a really great one in New Mexico I've momentarily forgotten the name of, but I found it very boring and uninspiring. If I were to rank the parks I did on that two week trip I would do it as:
1) Grand Canyon South Rim and River View 10/10,
2A) Island in the Sky portion of Canyonlands 9.5/10,
2B) Bryce Canyon 9.5/10,
4) Arches 9/10,
5A) Valley of Fire in Nevada 9/10,
5B) Goblin Valley 9/10,
5C) Grand Staircase on scenic road between Capitol Reef and Bryce not the main highway,
8A) White Sands New Mexico 8.5/10,
8B) Grand Canyon West Rim 8.5/10,
10A) Dead Horse Point 8/10,
10B) Glen Canyon 8/10,
10C) Monument Valley 8/10,
12) Capitol Reef 7.5/10,
13) Valley of Fires (plural) in New Mexico not the singular in Nevada 7/10,
14) Tent Rocks in New Mexico 6.5/10,
15) Coral Pink Sands State Park 6/10,
16) Zion (5.5/10).

I think Zion gets severely overrated because it's so close to Vegas that a lot of people do that one and none of the FAR more impressive spots further east. Kind of like how everyone won't shut up about Red Rocks even though Valley of Fire is only an extra 45 mins away and blows it out of the water.

 

[FSUTribe76]

How many days would you all recommend for a quick trip to this area?
Like can 2 full days of hiking do it partial / good enough justice?

2 days? No way. Bare minimum would be 2 days to do Canyonlands in Islands of the Sky, Dead Horse Point and Arches and 2 more days to do Goblin Valley, Capitol Reef, Grand Staircase, Bryce and Zion and 1 day to do the South Rim and River View of the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. So 5 days bare minimum and that's without taking long hikes just the drive up viewpoints and a couple of short hour or so hikes at each park. If you want to do a couple of half day hikes you will need to add another day or two.

 

[koolnole]

Thanks for all of the post. We have eight days in southern Utah. After that we will go check Mesa Verde before heading down to Albuequerque, then home. Should be a fun trip.

 

[FSUTribe76]

Thanks for all of the post. We have eight days in southern Utah. After that we will go check Mesa Verde before heading down to Albuequerque, then home. Should be a fun trip.

You'd better double check on Mesa Verde before going. When I was there a couple of months ago it was technically open but you could NOT do tours of the main cliff dwellings. I didn't find out about it until I'd already booked hotels and was stuck in Durango for no reason really. You'd be wise to make sure they've finished the renovations they were doing and everything is back open.

 

[FSUTribe76]

You might be in luck. I quickly checked the Mesa Verde webpage and I don't see any notice of the closure like when I went. But I'd still double check by calling them tomorrow during business hours and make sure everything is back up and running.

 

[BelemNole]

Ignore tribe's rants on Zion - it's always rated as a must see for a reason.

 

[HulaNole]

 

[FSUTribe76]

Ignore tribe's rants on Zion - it's always rated as a must see for a reason.

It's fine by itself in isolation just like Red Rocks and probably 90% of the tourists only see it and turn back to Vegas and of the other 10% that visit probably at least half that's their first desert/mountain stop on their itenary. Seeing it first you would probably be impressed. But just like when I accidentally (due to striking trainworkers delaying our trip in London) saw the British Museum AFTER seeing the Louvre, Orangerie and Orsay and just before seeing the Met again and although the Brit is probably absolutely 100% amazing...it was a boring and uninteresting waste of time immediately after those great Paris museums. So to me that's the same way with Zion. I saw it last because I was coming over from the east and as a result I'd already had my mind blown by the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Island in the Sky, Grand Staircase, White Sands NM, etc... So as a result, I viewed Zion the same way as others view Capitol Reef...meh. It's impressive in in its own right, but it's like seeing a 22 story Tally capitol immediately after seeing the Empire State Building....meh.

 

[BelemNole]

You hiked one trail in a vast national park, you know next to nothing about it. It traditionally ranks on every top 10 list of parks to visit, but you know more from your walk part way down a single trail. Well done.

 

[FSUTribe76]

You hiked one trail in a vast national park, you know next to nothing about it. It traditionally ranks on every top 10 list of parks to visit, but you know more from your walk part way down a single trail. Well done.

Well the Narrows was the next most famous trail after Angels Landing which I didn't have time for and we did several of the other short hikes, basically all of the pull up (before the main Zion) or get out of the annoying forced bus trip and hike around for a half hour to an hour. We spent all of the daylight there and I thought it was a day better spent elsewhere after the fact. I got a couple of decent shots but the main sites are flooded with what seems like ten times the tourons as any of the other Big Five so it's NOT relaxing or energizing with nature and the forced bus aspect totally blows. If I have time next week I'll upload some shots for the OP of the best from each park of the Big Five plus the better state parks in the area. You'll see some mindblowing shots of Bryce, Island in the Sky, Arches, Grand Staircase, Goblin Valley, and Dead Horse Point plus some very meh shots of Capitol Reef and Zion. Everyone kind of warns people away from CR, but I prefered it to Zion. Similar level of rock formations and much greener along with Zion than the other parks in the area as it's got Fruita nearby and the old Mormon plum and peach orchards outside of it. Plus the Scenic Drive where you can pull over whenever you want blows away the Zion sweaty bus route. So I'd even have CR well above Zion. But the other Big Three plus Grand Staircase blows both of those away.

 

[BelemNole]

"which I didn't have time for"

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

Tribe visiting a National Park:

 

[FSUTribe76]

"which I didn't have time for"

We already did some relatively steep climbs at Sandia and Tent Rocks and that was our last day before Vegas. Plus, everywhere I read said that it's basically an antline of hikers going up single file (with some deaths when impatient jack holes try to cut slower hikers) which isn't exactly all that appealing after doing Sandia completely by ourselves in the morning for sunrise and only a few people in the distance at Tent Rocks. If the insinuation was it was too tough then no, it really wasn't it just sounded unappealing and potentially dangerous. Plus it's a six hour hike (versus about 4 for the Narrows), not exactly short. We had literally twice the elevation change (about 3000ft versus 1500ft) on the Sandia hike, it was just much safer (and with that said, some 17 yo girl plummeted to her death at Sandia literally a week or so before we went).

Angel's Landing is considered the best hike in Zion so I was just being honest when I said my appraisal is missing allegedly the best view. I will say I read enough negative things on various hiking and photo blogs that I'm not sure I would have done it even with plenty of time. I'm NOT a huge fan of hiking in giant any lines which is one reason I didn't care for the Narrows. There were so many people I couldn't keep them out of the photos.

 

[FSUTribe76]

Tribe visiting a National Park:

I have a little bit of that in me, although the truth is "worse". I make my poor wife get out of bed hours before sunrise and drive and/or hike to the best spots and then I don't let her go to sleep until 10 or so as I also want sunrise pics and usually need to drive a bit afterwards. There's no rest on my vacations, we can rest back in Tally (as there's nothing much to do and we have easy, unstressful jobs.