Utah and the National Parks

We spent 4 weeks in Utah, in Kanab, Green River and Salt Lake City and we managed to visit all of the 5 National Parks, we also over-used the word “WOW”. When you look at the pictures you may have an idea what it was like walking or driving around a corner and being awestruck by a tremendous view.

Kanab was first, right at the southern edge of the state, really pet friendly; all the restaurants had seating areas outside. To get there from the previous site meant leaving Nevada, into Arizona, up to Utah, down again to Arizona and back into Utah, crossing 4 state borders in one day. While there, we made a trip over a dirt road to Paria, an abandoned village that had been used as a movie lot, sadly some idiots had burned down the old buildings, however the scenery was the start of our “WOW” trip.

Glen Canyon Dam, Lake Powell and Page were next, we missed out on Horseshow Bend, it was really hot and 1.5 miles round trip from the parking lot in very soft sand, so sadly we decided not to see it, it was also very crowded.

Zion Canyon was next, what a trip up, through the tunnels and down the other side, some of the cars when looking down were like hot-wheels, really tiny. Once we had travelled through (WOW) Zion National Park we drove across to I15 and north towards Cedar City. On the way we saw a sign for Kolob Canyon, “Canyon” seems to be synonymous with detour, so we went. It turned out that Kolob Canyon is another part of the Zion National Park, only accessible by road from I15, really lucky to have found it. That was a really WOW day, told you we used that a lot.

The road to Bryce Canyon passes through Red Canyon with its hoodoos, variously shaped pillars of vermillion rock. That rock continued in Bryce Canyon National Park, the amphitheater, the different views from the overlooks – WOW, just look at the pictures that just don’t have that WOW factor, you need to go there.

We left Kanab and drove to Green River, a very small town spanning the Green River, somebody had little imagination on this town name. Also very little to do in this town, as they say in Lancashire-UK, if you want excitement go and watch the bacon slicer, OK so that may not translate in the USA. From that base we went to the Capital Reef National Park, number 5 of 5 on the National Parks list in Utah.

It was named for the white domes of Navajo Sandstone that resemble capitol building domes, and reef for the rocky cliffs which are a barrier to travel, like a coral reef. Canyonlands was also on our list of National Parks to visit from Green River.

Arches National Park was next, now that is a WOW, just going to let a small selection of pictures tell the story.

Our last week was in Salt Lake City, the highlight was the trip to and around Antelope Island, herds of Bison, mule deer and big horned sheep. Got the oil changed in the CR-V, and did some grocery shopping, haircuts, Sams Club and good grocery shops. Once you have spent 3 weeks in the wilds of Utah, grocery shopping in a great store is a real treat, and we were going to cross Southern Wyoming next – wow!

3 Comments on “Utah and the National Parks

  1. I can understand why the word “WOW” was used so much a terrific holiday and photos will give lots of happy memories in years to come xx

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