Utah's 5 National Parks
 

Going from Salt Lake City to Vegas and have a day or 2 to visit Utah's NPs (Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Zion, Arches). Need suggestions on what parks I should visit or eliminate with limited time.

For me, Arches, Bryce, and Zion are musts if limited to three. A full day visiting each strikes me as good.

Arches and Canyonlands are too far out of the way with your timeframe.

You can visit Bryce for half a day, then drive to Zion for the remaining time. If you truly only have one day, you'll mostly be doing a drive through it both parks. 2 days would give you a little bit of time to do some hiking.

When is this trip? Bryce is higher elevation and could have snow depending on the time of year.

With only a day or 2 you should pick a park!

They are very different.
Bryce is small enough to see most of the overlooks and viewpoints in under a day but if you want to hike I's recommend an overnight.
Sunset and sunrise overlooking the hoodoos are spectacular.

Arches is my favourite park. 2 days wouldn't do it justice in my eyes but if you're not hiking and want to drive through the park then you can visit overlooks accessible by car in one day.

Capitol Reef is a quieter park if that appeals. You can again drive through and see some of the sights from the road but I'd recommend the Hickman Bridge hike.

Zion has several demanding hikes impossible to do in 1 day. Drive by can be done in one day.

Canyonlands is huge but again you can drive to overlooks if thats all you want to see.

Each of these parks deserves a minimum of 1 day/overnight imo. Look at some photos online to see which ones appeal to you.
Time of year is important to consider too.

Cedar Breaks is similar to Bryce in terms of geology and closer to Zion. It might be a good compromise given the limited time.

I've been to all five of these parks -- twice each.

I can't emphasize enough that ALL of them are worthwhile for visiting. You won't go wrong no matter which you pick. So don't worry about making a "bad" choice -- that's not possible.

Since you're traveling from SLC to Vegas, Bryce & Zion are the natural choices -- Interstate Highway 15 (I-15) is the quickest route between these two cities, and the above two parks are not far from that expressway. You can visit Arches & Canyonlands by taking U.S. Highways 6 and 191, then I-70 back to I-15, and then south to Vegas. But, to maximize the time you have in the parks, getting right on I-15 and heading to Bryce & Zion makes the most sense to me.

Zion and Bryce are the closest to your route. Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada is sort of on your route too. Worth the stop.

All the parks are worth a visit at some point in your life.

Cedar Breaks National Monument is also on your route.

I don't think hiking will be a possibility on this trip with those traveling with me. I will do some research on Cedar Breaks and Valley of Fire State Park, too.

If anybody has any more good ideas or suggestions, please let me know. Will do the research and will probably be asking more questions.

Thanks everybody!

It is certainly not possible to see all 5 in a day or two. With only that amount of time, I would pick one that is near your route. I would probably chose Zion for its proximity to Las Vegas.

If you have just one day...Zion. If you have 2 days Bryce then Zion...the others are too far to include.

"A day, or two".... which one will make a huge difference in what you can do or see.

It will take you one day to drive SLC to Vegas (about 7hrs). So it would also matter if you had 1 or 2 MORE days, or just 1 day to drive and 1 day to visit.


With 1 day for the trip, I would drive to LV with a side trip to Kolob Canyons section of Zion.

With 1 day to drive and 1 to visit I would drive to Zion/Springdale and stay the night. Visit as long in Zion as I could the next day and then drive to LV.

With 1 day to drive and 2 days to visit I would head to Bryce, stay the night, then to zion for the full day, stay there the night and then to LV.