Our Utah Road Trip Itinerary
2020 definitely wasn’t the year for traveling (for obvious reasons), but recently for the holidays the military gave us our one opportunity to travel this year. Since Dusten and I recently got married in December, it was perfect timing to use the leave on a honeymoon. While we originally envisioned a tropical getaway, we felt like a fun road trip around Utah would be the perfect mix of adventure while still staying pretty secluded during a pandemic, and it turned out to be the best trip. Below is the itinerary of our trip, we’ve done this road trip twice now and it’s the perfect route. I would definitely recommend having at least 5 days worth of travel, if not more (our first trip we crammed into 2-3 days and it felt very rushed). I plan on writing a more specific guide for each day/town with things to see, however I wanted to provide a post that also has the full route consolidated.
Day 1
We started our road trip just north of Salt Lake City and headed South towards Goblin Valley State Park. We grabbed coffee and breakfast in SLC before heading South and packed some snacks and water as we knew there wouldn’t be too much in the areas we were going.
Stop 1 -Goblin Valley State Park. Goblin Valley is honestly one of the coolest places that’s well worth the stop. Compared to the nearby National Parks, it’s much smaller as the entire area with the hoodoos is about a 3-mile radius. We were able to park in the main parking lot and walk along one of the trails into the hoodoo areas to explore.
Stop 2- Long Dong Silver. Yes. that’s actually the name according to Google maps lol We explored for a bit and grabbed some pictures and took off before it got dark. If we redid this trip I think I would actually swap these two locations time wise, as I think Goblin Valley would have looked nicer at sunset, and LDS actually got more harsh at sunset due to it setting directly behind the spike.
We left right before sunset and drove about 2 hours to Moab to stay the night. If you take this trip in a camper, it would be a cool option to camp out near Goblin Valley. However, there aren’t too many hotel options nearby.
We spent our first night at the Hoodoo Moab Hilton (linked here) and it was honestly such a nice way to kick off our honeymoon. The hotel was beautiful with a huge king size bed and a luxurious bathroom. We ordered some boujee room service for dinner to celebrate and hungout in our room for the night.
Day 2
We spent our first half of day 2 in Moab, where they conveniently have Canyonlands National Park & Arches National Park, and a pretty built up town with plenty of restaurants and hotels. We grabbed coffee and breakfast sandwiches at a local coffee shop and headed to Canyonlands.
Stop 1- Canyonlands National Park. Definitely one of my favorite Parks, the views are stunning and remind me of the awe I had while viewing Waimea Canyon in Hawaii. We checked out 2-3 of the view points and headed out to Arches.
Stop 2- Arches National Park. Arches is probably the most famous Park in Moab and it definitely does not disappoint. If you only have time for one hike, try to make it to the Delicate Arch (3 mile hike) or the Double Arches (easy 1 mile hike).
We grabbed some amazing Thai food to go at Thai Bella and headed South towards Page, Arizona. Our first time doing this trip we made it into Monument Valley pretty close to sunset and got to take some cute photos together. We unfortunately ran out of daylight on this trip so we took the quicker route. But if you have the time I think it’s definitely worth the longer drive!
*If you have a longer trip, I’d suggest extending in Moab and devoting a full day to each park so you can fully explore.
Day 3
We woke up in Page and grabbed some breakfast before we explored. The town of Page isn’t as built up as Moab and is a bit limited; there’s a Walmart, a few hotels, a few fast food restaurants, and a few local spots. However, there is a ton of cool stuff to see! Most of the stuff to see requires a full day, or a guide due to the difficulty (or it being on Native American land). So for our day there we opted for Stud Horse Mesa and Horseshoe Bend so we could squeeze in both. Antelope Canyon was closed due to covid, however you could easily fit that into the same day if it were open. If we had more time, I would have extended a day or two in Page to see White Pocket and more of Lake Powell.
Stop 1- Stud Horse Mesa. You can easily hire a guide to take you here, but we opted to try to find it ourselves and were able to make it most of the way in the car we were in. You won’t be able to drive the full route without a jeep or truck though. I think this might have been my favorite part of our trip because it was such a beautiful spot and we ended up having it completely to ourselves the entire time which was incredibly peaceful and cool to experience.
Stop 2- Horseshoe Bend. Horseshoe Bend is right off of the highway but is really incredible to see. My first time there was probably 3-4 years ago and it was a dirt parking lot and a free attraction; they’ve since added a paved, gated parking lot and charge admission to enter, but it’s definitely worth it..and it’s probably necessary with the amount of tourists there now. It definitely gets packed, so it’s not quite as peaceful, but the area is large enough that you can typically find a spot to grab a picture without other people in it.
We were exhausted at this point so we ordered pizza and relaxed in our hotel for the night before our drive to Zion the next day.
Day 4
Without a ton of choices, we grabbed some fast food breakfast sandwiches and drove to Glen Canyon to have a picnic by Lake Powell. We then headed out to Zion National Park (my fave).
Stop 1- Zion National Park. We drove to the East Park Entrance and went straight to the Canyon Overlook Trail (which I believe is the main hike you’re able to do without a shuttle pass). Due to covid, there are limited shuttle passes, and they have to be purchased in advance online the morning prior. They sell out quick though so you’ll need to set an alarm and grab them as soon as they’re posted. Without shuttle passes, there is a limited (but still scenic) drive you can make through the park from the East to South entrance. It ended up being packed the day we went, so we had to drive back and forth through the park 3 times before we could find parking but it was so worth it for the view (the parking is along the road in certain areas and is very limited).
After our hike we left through the South Park Entrance, grabbed some amazing tacos for dinner at Whiptail Grill and drove to our glamping resort (linked here) to hangout for the night.
Day 5
Our final day of the trip! We grabbed some coffee and vegan breakfast burritos at Feel Love Coffee and cut through Zion back to the East Park Entrance to get to Bryce.
Stop 1- Bryce Canyon. Bryce was so insanely beautiful to see during winter. The initial area by the park entrance was filled with pine trees and thick snow which made it look like a winter wonderland. We only had time for one hike, so we checked out Sunset Point on a whim which turned out to be a perfect spot for a quick hike with an amazing view. If we had a longer trip, this is another spot I would have extended so we could spend more time at Bryce.
Stop 2- Meadow Hot Springs. Stopped on our way home at this cool natural hot spring. Unfortunately, it was 15 degrees outside and was wayyy too cold for us to want to get undressed to jump in. The hottest spring was packed, so we walked out to an empty spring but it wasn’t quite hot enough. In better conditions we definitely would have tried it out. Our first time doing the trip we stopped at Mystic Hot Springs and soaked in a super hot bathtub in the snow. Definitely a fun experience when the water is hot enough.
That’s it for our trip! I’ll be adding a guide for each location that includes more places to stay, places to eat, things to do, etc. If you have any questions feels free to leave a comment!
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