Road Trip Itinerary: Best of Utah and Colorado National Parks
With this itinerary, you’ll get to experience two of Utah’s best parks. There’s Arches, famous for its spectacular colors and unique landforms—natural stone arches, soaring pinnacles, plus giant fins and balanced rocks—and Canyonlands, with a wilderness of canyons and buttes carved by the Colorado River and its tributaries. A few hours away, Colorado’s Mesa Verde offers a peek into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people, who made it their home from AD 600 to 1300.
Day 1: Welcome to Utah
The closest airport to your first two destinations is Canyonlands Field, also known as Moab Airport, where you can get flights to and from Denver. After you land and get your rental car, head into Moab, where you’ll find plenty of options for food and lodging. Book yourself a room for the next three nights.
Days 2 and 3: Arches National Park
Your trip begins at Arches National Park, which holds the world's largest concentration of natural rock windows or "arches." Start with a guided hike in the Fiery Furnace, a maze of sandstone canyons and fins that is considered one of the most spectacular hikes in the park. On your second day, explore the Devil's Garden and Windows sections of the park. Head back to Moab for the night.
Days 4 and 5: Canyonlands
From Moab, head to Canyonlands National Park. Start at the park’s Island in the Sky District, at the northern end of the park (about 30 miles from Moab). Explore the area from the road, which has many overlooks, or hike the first section of the Upheaval Dome Trail, an 8.3-mile loop that starts at Whale Rock, about 11 miles from the visitor center and spotlights an enormous syncline, or downward fold in the Earth’s crust (there are overlooks ½ mile and 1 mile from the trailhead). At the end of the day, on your way back to Moab, take a detour into Dead Horse Point State Park, about 11 miles from the Canyonlands entrance, and head up to the top of the mesa for magnificent views of the Colorado River as it goosenecks through the canyons below.
On Day 5, head to the Needles District, at the southwest corner of the park, and hike the Slickrock Trail (2.4 miles round-trip), keeping an eye out for bighorn sheep. At the end of the day, drive to Cortez, Colorado where you can find a hotel for the night.
Day 6: Mesa Verde National Park
From Cortez, drive to Mesa Verde National Park, with 5,000 archaeological sites (including 600 cliff dwellings) left behind by the Ancestral Pueblo people, who lived here more than 1,000 years ago. Begin your visit at the visitor center, just before the entrance station, to get the latest park information and purchase tour tickets for some of the more popular tours (to get the most out of your visit, plan to take at least one ranger-led tour). Inside the park, stop at the Chapin Mesa Museum.
After exploring Mesa Verde, you can spend the night at the Far View Lodge inside the park or head back to Cortez. Or, if you’ve got an early flight in the morning, you can drive back to Moab.
