Family will be visiting Utah via Las Vegas in mid April 2020. We wish to hike in Zion, Bryce and Capitol National Parks. Our total visit will be for 6 days, not including arrival day and departure day. How much time would you devote to each park? Zion seems like the "most to do", but I'm getting a lot of feedback that Bryce and Capitol are more unique and can keep a family with 3 teenagers occupied for a couple of days apiece. Would 2 days per back be enough or too much at Bryce and Capitol? Feedback would be most appreciated. Btw, we are flying home via Las Vegas as well, but leaving a day of travel open so not really worried about which park we need to leave to make it back to Vegas.

I have twice visited all three of these parks, and two days would be about right for hiking in all three. Maybe start with Bryce and, if you find that one day covers it, then you will have an extra day to spend between Zion and Capitol Reef.

After Zion and Bryce Canyon you might choose not to visit Capitol Reef. If you go later in the year, you might want to visit the north rim of the Grand Canyon. IMO Capitol Reef (at least the parts I saw) was the least impressive of the "Big 5"

Use any extra days for Zion. Bryce can be done in a day. Maybe you can take a day from Bryce to go to Capitol Reef and back. That way you can see Route 12 which is a pretty wild road and you can stay 2 nights at Bryce (maybe at Ruby's) and have an easy drive back to Vegas.

Depending on when your return flight leaves, you might want to drive through Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada on the way back to Las Vegas. There is a road from the east side of Valley of Fire that goes south on the west side of Lake Mead which comes out near Hoover Dam. The Hoover Dam Lodge might be a good place to stay before heading to the rental drop off and airport.

One thing to consider is weather. There has been snow on the trails in Bryce every April that I have visited. You should be prepared for that possibility and plan for activities at lower elevations which are warmer.

tomfuller’s plan to head through Valley of Fire to lake Meade and Hoover Dam is a good idea.

Thank you everyone for the replies. Weather isn’t much of a concern. We hiked in and around Banff, Canada last Spring in deep snow. It was great.

Zion would be my pick for staying in the longest. We have been to Bryce twice. You can see everything there is to see in a day. We drove from Vegas to Bryce, did a nice loop hike down into the canyon that took a few hours, stopped at some of the other overlooks and then drove on to Zion for the night. We spent three days there where we did a long hike each day. Drove back to Vegas through Valley of Fire to the airport. It was perfect but could have easily stayed another day or two in and around Zion. We have not been to Capitol Reef.

Here is my blog report with loads of pics from our trip to Zion and Bryce.

https://wordpress.com/post/totraveli...dpress.com/235