RaleighGirl

My husband has a meeting in Salt Lake City in early November. He loves national/state parks, beautiful scenery, hiking, photo ops, etc. He will have a two full days to travel from Salt Lake City. He would love some suggestions on what to see and do. (He doesn't mind driving 3-4 hours to get to a desirable sight).

dwooddon

The Wasatch mountain range, Park City, Alta, Snowbird, and Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons are all just a short drive from downtown SLC. Slightly further south, you have Provo Canyon. North about an hour is Logan, home to Utah State Univ and the best ice cream store I've been to (on the campus), and Logan Canyon. All are seriously scenic.

The southern Utah parks (Bryce, Zion, Capitol Reef, etc) are all 6-7 hour drives so they may be a bit far for just an overnighter but the mountain areas around SLC are great.

highflyer

It's actually less than 4 hours from Capitol Reef National Park to Salt Lake City. It's much quieter than than Bryce and Zion, too.

We did the Hickman Bridge hike in June and really enjoyed the lack of crowds, lots of stunning photo ops and the park in general.

amwosu

I'm in the same boat. DH has a meeting in SLC so we are starting with two days in Park City which is under an hour from the SLC airport.

Bird

I'll second Canyonlands. Also Arches, and Dead Horse Point State Park are nearby. You could base your travels in Moab, which is less than 4 hours away.

dwooddon

I guess some folks must drive faster than I do. From SLC, Capitol Reef is about 260 miles. With any traffic at all in SLC/Orem/Provo, that's going equate to about 5.5 hours which is almost exactly what it took me the last time I drove it.

RaleighGirl

Thanks, that's some great advice. I think I'll make hotel reservations for Moab and my husband can see the sights close to that location. He's been anxious to see the Arches, so this will cross one more park off of his list. He's been to Zion, and Bryce a couple of times from Las Vegas and thought that they were spectacular.

FlyFish

Antelope Island, connected to SLC via a long causeway across the Great Salt Lake is nearby and well worth a visit for the types of things he's interested in - especially toward evening for photo ops.

TheWeasel

RaleighGirl-If he wants to go to Arches, check into a flight to Moab from SLC. I remember driving past a sign that said it was only a 45 minute flight. I have no idea what the price would be. There aren't any major cities/airports close to Arches, and SLC is probably about as close as Las Vegas or Denver, so he might as well go while he's got the chance. I second (or third) the idea of visiting Dead Horse Point SP while he's in the Moab area. From what I've heard, it's as good or better than the Islands in the Sky district of Canyonlands.

www.climb-utah.com has some decent suggestions for hikes and other things to do.

amwosu

We did a mapquest search- Salt Lake City to Moab and it said 234 miles and 4 hrs 7 min. Mapquest isn't always entirely right but that is alot of traveling when you only have two days.

We chose Park City for our two days of travel as it is about 40 minutes from the airport in Salt Lake City.