Oct. in Utah
 

Have a time share week in Park City Oct. 1st, leave there on the 8th.( 1st trip to the area) I am a serious amateur photographer & need advice where to shoot till we come home on the 13th. Any advice on weather for this Florida senior?

Your weather will be a little brisk, with especially chilly mornings. There could be a freak snow or two, but usually the snow is more late Oct/ early Nov.

ttt

Hi Big Jerry,

You are IN LUCK! The first week of Oct is normally the peak of the fall colors! Glowing golden aspens everywhere. If you are even more lucky, you might hit the first dusting of snow. Get the picture? Golden trees, green pines, blue sky, white snow.

Almost anywhere you go at high altitude will present awesome photo ops. One of the most popular "fall" drives is the Alpine Loop. You can start from either Sundance or American Fork Canyon and go either direction up over the back side of Mt. Timpanogas. Just know that it's a very windy and narrow road with tons of traffic during the fall weekends.

You can also get fabulous pictures in Mill Creek Canyon, Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, and in the High Uintas (east of Park City, national forest and wilderness).

Great time of year to visit.

Thanks for the info. (Dig out the long johns)I hope to do some day trips out while I'm in Park City, Train ride etc.& I understand there is a Ski jump competition the 1st & 2nd. will tickets be available at the gate? After the 8th I hope to go down to the Moab, Arches area for more photo work. We are seniorswith 3 new knees between us so hiking is not on our list of desirables. Should I try to hook up with a guide service or can we wing it?Fodorites have helped us on trips to Alaska, Turkey & greece in the last 3 years & We help out as we can to Florida visitors as well as feed back on our trips. This is a great Forum!

Hi again Big Jerry,

I would imagine tickets for the jumping event would be available at the door, but you could call ahead to Utah Olympic Park.

You won't really need a guide for the Moab area unless you really want to go far off-road. The nice thing about Arches is you can get to lots of the arches (and wonderful photo ops) without strenuous hiking. Canyonlands offers many great photo ops too without too much hiking.

You'll have a great time. Oct is perfect for Moab! It should still be in the high 80's during the day.

I agree with Dayle on the part about not needing a guide for Arches. It's such a beautiful park and you can see sooooo much just from the scenic drive into the park.

Is there a chance you can spend the night in Moab? If not, do you realize that it's almost a 5 hour drive ONE WAY from Park City to Moab? Considering that at this time of the year you only have about 12 hours of daylight, you aren't going to have much time in Arches!

If you spent the night (or two) you could also go to Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse State Park.

Utahtea

Hi Utahtea,

I didn't gather, from Jerry's post, that he was planning to do Moab as a day trip....??

Hi Dayle,

Ooops, I miss read BigJerry's post. I thought he was only going to be in the area while at the Park City timeshare.

In that case, I'd spend 3 nights in Moab and 2 nights in Torrey, Utah.

After BigJerry leaves Park City he can drive down to Moab area. There's so much to do that doesn't require hiking. If you don't have a 4 wheel drive vehicle, then rent one for the day in Moab and take the Potash Road and Shafer Trail up into Canyonlands National Park. Make stops at the Green River Overlook and drive out to Grand View Point. Upheavel Dome requires hiking. Stop at Dead Horse State Park and look for the little dirt road that you just came in on. Then take Long Canyon 4 x 4 trail back down to Moab.

Even if you don't do the 4 x 4 trail, drive the paved part of the Potash Road Hwy 279 to see the petroglyphs along the Colorado River canyon. On the opposite side of the River is Kane Creek Road which is also very good for seeing petroglphs. Make sure you take the scenic drive out Hwy 128 to Fisher Towers.

When you leave Moab, Utah for Torrey drive north on Hwy 191 to I-70 Take a little detour and drive about 6 miles east to Thompson Jct. Exit and drive north for about 3 miles to Sego Canyon Petroglyphs. Some of these are so spooky and neat!

Then drive west on I-70 thru Green River and exit on Hwy 24. You might be interested in making a short detour to Goblin State Park before continuing on to Capitol Reef National Park which is just 11 miles east of Torrey. Capitol Reef is a very beautiful park that can be seen from the parks scenic drive.

http://www.so-utah.com/archcany/homepage.html

Utahtea

Big Jerry,

We will be staying at a timeshare in Park City in the middle of September.
Let me know WHICH timeshare you have, and if by chance it is the same one, I will email you when I return about what to expect about the timeshare, etc.

ROCO

We will be at the Park Plaza on Sidewinder Dr. I had points in the bank that I had to use or lose. This was the only one available at the time I could go and I am educating myself on the web about this area & Moab. Plan to be in that area the 8th-11 probably at Red Cliff Lodge. Thanks for any input

BigJerry

I just got back yesterday from my 2nd trip to Arches this summer. If you want to take good/great pictures at Arches (or Canyonlands), you pretty much have to go early or stay late.

Sunrise/sunset are the best times for photos because of the lighting. Mid-day photos will appear washed out and will not have the same color or dramatic lighting that you find in professional photos. The rocks are much more colorful and glowing at sunrise/sunset.

While you can see a fair number of arches/rock formations in Arches from the road, or close to it, the 2 most popular are Delicate Arch and Landscape Arch. Delicate Arch is a 1.5 mile hike one-way (mostly uphill), and Landscape Arch is a 1 mile hike one-way. DA is best at sunset, LA best at sunrise. The Fiery Furnace would be great, but it's a 2-3hour ranger-led hike. Dead Horse Point is cool, but again, I think you'd have to be there at sunrise or sunset to get the full effect.

I second Utahtea's advice about driving Hwy. 128. I'd suggest taking it south from I-70 to get to Moab/Arches. Much more scenic than taking 191. I'd also recommend Sego Canyon for the rock art and ghost town. The rock art/petroglyphs are pretty cool - but the real stuff is on the west side of the road. There are a couple panels on the east side that must be fake. The ghost town is about a mile past the rock art/petroglyphs (although I must say Thompson Springs looks like a ghost town too).

Perhaps you could configure your schedule to allow you to be at the best photographic locations at sunrise/sunset, and do the other stuff during the middle part of the day. I have the National Park Service guide for Arches at home, and it lists various formations/arches that are best photographed at either sunrise or sunset (a good number of them do not require much hiking). Send me an e-mail if you're interested in the full list ([email protected]).