gatormills

Family is travelling to Zion and Capitol Reef for eight days beginning the Friday before Memorial Day. My wife and I will be travelling with our 16 and 15 year-old sons, and my sister-in-law and her husband. Here is our tentative schedule. We want to avoid Zion Valley crowds on the holiday weekend. I know the hikes we want to do, but need guidance on lodging and dining. Please let me know if this seems like a good plan.

Friday night: fly in to Vegas from Atlanta. Spend night in Vegas.
Saturday morning: drive to Kolob Canyon section on Zion for day of hiking and sightseeing, then spend night in Cedar City. I need lodging recommendations.
Sunday morning: dirve to Capitol Reef N.P. Spend the day hiking and stay in Torrey. Lodging recommendations would be appreciated.
Monday hiking in Capitol Reef, then hit the road and spend night at Boulder Mountain Lodge.
Tuesday: drive Hwy 12 to Springdale, stopping to hike Lower Calf Creek Falls.
Wednesday-Saturday in Springdale at Cliffrose Lodge.
Saturday evening drive back to Vegas for early Sunday morning flight.

Thanks

Myer

Personally, Capitol Reef isn't one of my favorite Utah parks. I would much prefer stopping in Bryce canton than Capitol Reef.

At Bryce I would see a spectacular sunrise at Bryce Point, hike either Navajo Loop - Queens Garden or if you're up to more (elevation is 8,000 ft) squeeze Peek-a-Boo trail in between. A half hour east of Bryce you can go to Grosevnor Arch and/or Wllis Creek (a very easy real slot canyon).

However, leaving your itinerary as you have it, I would add Devil's Garden Escalante to the itinerary. I west of Lower Calf Creek Falls and about 10 miles down the Hole-in-the-Rock Road.

Instead of spending the night in Cedar city I would stay at Bryce Canyon.

For Torrey we stayed at the BW that wasx fine and had an outdoor pool. It's the closest motel to Capitol Reef.

Dayle

gatormills,

I think your plan is basically good. Have you visited Bryce before so you plan to skip it this time? If not, I would include Bryce for sure.

I wouldn't recommend Cedar City as a great place to stay. Nothing special about it, just a place to sleep when necessary.

If you keep to your plan - do you have res already? It may be hard to get into Boulder Mtn Lodge. Very popular place.

Torrey - The Rim Rock motel has received good reviews here. I haven't stayed there myself, but have eaten there. Awesome views and a good restaurant. Slacker's Burgers are fantastic, Cafe Diablo is excellent! Also, for a basic motel, with a pool, little grocery store and laundry, plus super nice owners - Austin's Chuckwagon Motel is very good.

Plan to be at Calf Creek Falls by 9am or you won't be able to get a parking spot.

I live in Utah and have visited Capitol Reef many times. My favorite hikes: Cohab Canyon, Golden Thone, Hickman Bridge, and the walk along the Fremont River to see the pictographs.

spirobulldog

Don't miss Angels Landing and The Narrows in Zion. Consider staying at Zion Lodge instead of Springdale.

Austins Chuckwagon for lodging in Torrey. We are staying there ourselves that weekend. I stayed there with my next door neighboor a year ago. Might see you somewhere along the way. I have a 16 year old daughter. I agree with Myer, Cap Reef is nice, but is my least favorite. Don't miss the Orchard and don't miss getting a homemade pie at The Gifford House. Get your pie, walk a few feet and eat it in the picnic area of the orchard. You are almost guaranteed to be dining with deer. They run out of pie usually by noon. Consider having pie for breakfast @ 8:00am when they arrive.

We plan on hiking Calf Creek Falls on that Saturday. Haven't done that one before.

Goblin Valley is about an hour north of Torrey. It is one of my favorite spots in Utah. just a couple of miles away is Little Wildhorse Canyon- really good slot canyon.

This will be my second trip to this area in Utah and my wife and daughters first. My daughter and I visited Arches 4 years ago. We all visited Zion a couple years back. Probably my favorite thing in Utah was canyoneering in Moab, but it is also offered in Zion. With boys at that age, You should look into that. really awesome!!

Zion Adventure Company does canyoneering. You will want to rent shoes and socks there for the narrows and possibly a wetsuit pants. Don't hike The Narrows if it has rained or it is threatening rain. Check with visitor center first.

Myer

spiro,
I've been to Lower Calf Creek falls twice. Once in mid-May with a friend and once this past mid-September with my daughter.

Both times it was sunny and HOT!!!! The trail is pretty flat and about a half hour too long for the middle of the day. Not a lot of shade until you get to the falls.

I like the angle of the sun on the falls in spring rather than autumn.

If you plan on being there on a weekend I'd follow Dayle's advice and get there early. There's a fair amount of parking but it could easily fill up.

I have to be the only person who'se been to Willis Creek. I've been twice. I went with my daughter late in the afternoon and although she was tired by then was very happy we went. It was something very different than anything she's ever seen. We passed a group of three people when we were there. That's it.

If you do go make sure you go thru at least 4 or 5 slots. The first one or two aren't very tall but then they start to go way up. As I've written in the past, the walk thru the slots is basically a level walk where you keep jumping over this little stream in the canyon. The adventure is the hilly dirt road below Cannonville to get there. There is now a sign at the parking lot.

I'd really like to get other opinions.

spirobulldog

Myer, not sure I can do Willis on this trip. I really liked Little Wildhorse, and if you look at toddshikingguide.com it is one of the few hikes that he rates high. I will have seen it, but everyone else with me will be new to it, and it is an easy to get to canyon and only a couple of miles from GV. However, not sure I will have time for it either. Decisions, Decisions. We were planning on being at Calf Creek about 9:30ish. My parents just sold there house and are building a new one, so they aren't sure if they are even going to be able to go with us. We are only going for 4 days, but they were going to be gone for 3 weeks and just meet us there. They just don't want to be gone that long while in the middle of building. So, now i'm in a mess for car rental. Have flight to fly

spirobulldog

Myer, not sure I can do Willis on this trip. I really liked Little Wildhorse, and if you look at toddshikingguide.com it is one of the few hikes that he rates high. I will have seen it, but everyone else with me will be new to it, and it is an easy to get to canyon and only a couple of miles from GV. However, not sure I will have time for it either. Decisions, Decisions. We were planning on being at Calf Creek about 9:30ish. My parents just sold there house and are building a new one, so they aren't sure if they are even going to be able to go with us. We are only going for 4 days, but they were going to be gone for 3 weeks and just meet us there. They just don't want to be gone that long while in the middle of building. So, now i'm in a mess for car rental. Have flight to fly

spirobulldog

Myer, not sure I can do Willis on this trip. I really liked Little Wildhorse, and if you look at toddshikingguide.com it is one of the few hikes that he rates high. I will have seen it, but everyone else with me will be new to it, and it is an easy to get to canyon and only a couple of miles from GV. However, not sure I will have time for it either. Decisions, Decisions. We were planning on being at Calf Creek about 9:30ish. My parents just sold there house and are building a new one, so they aren't sure if they are even going to be able to go with us. We are only going for 4 days, but they were going to be gone for 3 weeks and just meet us there. They just don't want to be gone that long while in the middle of building. So, now i'm in a mess for car rental. Have flight to fly

spirobulldog

to fly in to Grand Junction and out of Saint George, but the car rental is killing me at $800 or so. So, now not sure what the heck I'm doing, but I'm going one way another.

Myer

spiro,
At least you'll probably get to a slot canyon.

I'm going to Yosemite with my daughter and granddaughter in mid-June. We'll be there for most of 5 days.

It'll be interesting to see how a 4 1/2 year old manages. Or better, how I manager with her given that I'm usually non-stop.

The part that concerns me more is that drives to Mariposa Grove and Glacier Road are quite long. Hopefully not too boring for her.

Dayle

I hope you all have great trips! Hike on.

tomfuller

In SW Utah you are more likely to find lodging in St. George.
With the number of people, you might like a condo instead of hotel rooms. stgeorgerentals.com
The most recent slot canyon that I saw close to a parking lot was on the walk out to Landscape Arch in Arches NP.
Capitol Reef is also my least favorite of the Southern Utah National Parks. The petroglyphs were OK but I had seen some at Arches. Depending on your route to/through Capitol Reef, you should consider spending at least 2 hours at Goblin Valley SP.
With at least 2 drivers, you should be able to return the rental where you picked it up. The other airport to consider would be Salt Lake City. That is where I rented when I went to Arches, Canyonlands, Goblin Valley and Capitol Reef.

Myer

Goblin Valley is neat. So is Devil's Garden Escalante that I consider a grown up version of GV.

Pretty easy to get to and not far out of the way between Bryce and Lower Calf Creek Falls.

When I was there with my daughter I figured we'd be there for an hour max and then onto LCCF. We spent a good couple of hours there.

But we're both into photography.

sharondi

I hope you find a way to spend some time at Bryce - it is so amazing and an adventure to hike among the hoodoos. Not clear where you are staying Tuesday night - you could stay in or near Bryce and be there for a morning hike into the canyon. It is only 86 miles to Springdale from Bryce and the drive into Zion from the east entrance is incredible. The canyon overlook hike is short and fun with great views and the trail is just before you enter the tunnel.

We enjoy the food at Oscar's in Springdale - decent burritos, burgers, great fish tacos. And the Mean Bean has the best coffee in town.

We are big fans of Capitol Reef - the park is filled with interesting cultural and geological features and there are no crowds anywhere. We loved the Cohab Canyon hike. And Hickman Bridge was fun and short. I love Austin's Chuckwagon - it's a good bargain and beautiful location in Torrey. But its popular and may already be full. Never stayed at Rimrock but the restaurant was very good. We had a decent room at the Best Western in town too.

There are so many things to do along Route 12 - I will provide a link to our last trip to S. Utah which was spent checking out everything between Zion and Torrey over 8-9 days. You might find something in it that interests your group. We've traveled both directions on Route 12 again and again and always find lots of amazing things to see and do. Please let me know if you have any questions. Have a great trip! Here's the link: http://www.pbase.com/peterb/utah_tr

Myer

sharondi,

I went thru your complete trip. I vaguely remember skimming thru it before.

What's amazing is I have the exact same shots of Long Canyon (mine is a bit more zoomed) and that little slot canyon just off the road.

When we were there we passed a girl who had driven off the road. She said she didn't need help as a tow truck was on the way.

Great to see the drip thru other's eyes!!

gatormills

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions and comments.

Indeed, we have been to Bryce previously, and we loved it. We also visited Zion on that earlier trip, but we did not spend enough time there, and the boys were too young for the best hikes. This time, we plan to do the Narrows, Angel's Landing, and the East Rim trail.

Other than Cedar City, any ideas of where to stay Saturday night after spending the day in Kolob Canyons area? The next morning, we continue up I15 toward Cap Reef.

There certainly seems to be widely varying opinions about Capitol Reef. I think we will like it because we are all avid hikers, and I get the impression that it is a hiker's park. We wanted to drive Hwy 12 anyway, so it makes sense to spend some time at Capitol Reef. We will return to Utah at some point to visit Arches and Canyonlands.

I will contact Boulder Mountain ASAP, as we do not have reservations yet. If not available, any other suggestions for that area?

peterboy

If you could manage to drive for a couple of hours beyond Cedar City, I'd shoot for a night at Bryce Canyon. Another half hour gets you to Escalante. From Escalante you can choose to drive the Hell's Backbone Road to Boulder or drive Scenic Rt 12. Along Rt 12 is the Hole in The Rock Rd. where you'll find slot canyons to hike, the Devil's Garden to explore, Lower Calf Creek Falls hike as well as other oddities:

http://www.pbase.com/peterb/image/85804970

http://www.pbase.com/peterb/image/85564649

http://www.pbase.com/peterb/image/85564667

We used Torry as our endpoint as well. We still need to go back for more hiking. Also in range of Torrey is Goblins State Park:

http://www.pbase.com/peterb/image/21315268

and Horseshoe Canyon, a remote hike to an amazing pictograph panel. Here's a link to a description of our hike:

http://www.pbase.com/peterb/image/88472894

Rather than backtracking back down Rt 12 from Torrey you can take the Notom Rd. to the Burr Trail for a backroad adventure that dumps you out at Boulder. It can be done in a car but check at the Visitor's Center at Cap. Reef before heading out if there has been rain recently. Here's a description of that from our last trip:

http://www.pbase.com/peterb/image/88551214

However you tweak your trip I'm sure you'll have a great time.

spirobulldog

I did the hike to the pictographs that peterboy mentions. They are considered by most people to be the best in the entire world. The dirt road(long long dirt road)is right across the hwy from where you turn at Goblin Valley. This Canyon(horseshoe canyon) connects to Blue John Canyon about a mile after the pictographs. Blue John Canyon is where the young man that amputated his own arm was at. His vehicle was parked at the Horseshoe Canyon trailhead. This is a pretty remote hike, but you are likely to see at least a couple of hikers.

Nice pics peterboy, they are better than mine.

gatormills

Thanks, guys! Our plan, for now, is to spend the first Saturday in the Kolob Canyons section of Zion. The next morning, we will head to Torrey via Interstates 15 and 70, so Bryce and Escalante are not along this route (we will circle back to Zion/Springdale via Hwy 12 after Cap Reef). If I stick with this basic plan, is there a better place than Cedar City to stay on Saturday night? I definitely don't want to drive the 3 hours to Torrey that night, but don't mind driving an hour or so.

Boulder Mtn Lodge does have rooms for Monday night, so that one problem averted.

Dayle

gatormills,

Cedar City is the largest town on your route, so it will have the most options. All the other towns are quite small and don't have much to offer other than a budget chain place if anything.

I would just stick with Cedar City in this case.

Have a great time!