Utah's Spectacular Parks and Monuments

In today's post we will be looking at some great country to put on your bucket list of places to see. Not only is the scenery spectacular, but the camping and river access is second to none! A few years ago, we took a month long trip and hit some cool places in our VW bus. It is hard to beat the big five. Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Zion National Parks.

We, unlike most tourist's, did our trip off season in November and pretty much had the parks to ourselves. Camping in the parks can bit a bit pricey, but worth it. Usually there is trail access right from the campgrounds. We had some amazing free camping just outside some of the Monuments as well. The hiking and climbing here has something for everyone. From paved trails to the most technical rock climbing routes, Utah has you covered! Our funniest memory of our trip was at a viewpoint in Canyonlands. A huge Motorhome was parked and kids were watching a movie on a big screen TV. 

The parents were taking photos of the scenery nearby. The mom says, "I'll text the kids a picture of this". We couldn't believe it! Canyonlands is a massive park, one could spend weeks wandering around and camping out. Capitol Reef National Park is home to cliffs, canyons, domes, and bridges. Called "Wayne Wonderland" in the 1920s by local boosters Ephraim P. Pectol and Joseph S. Hickman, Capitol Reef National Park protects colorful canyons, ridges, buttes, and monoliths. About 75 mi (121 km) of the long up-thrust called the Waterpocket Fold, a rugged spine extending fromThousand Lake Mountain to Lake Powell, is preserved within the park. "Capitol Reef" is the name of an especially rugged and spectacular segment of the Waterpocket Fold near the Fremont River.^[3]The area was named for a line of white domes and cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, each of which looks somewhat like the United States Capitol building, that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold. The local word reef refers to any rocky barrier to travel.

Arches National Park is a U.S. National Park in eastern Utah. The park is located on the Colorado River 6 km North of Moab, Utah. It is known for containing over 2000 natural sandstone arches, including the world-famous Delicate Arch, in addition to a variety of unique geological resources and formations.

The park is located just outside of Moab, Utah, and is 76,359 acres. Some of the arches here will eventually collapse, so get out there and see em' while you can!

Zion National Park is located in the Southwestern United States, near Springdale, Utah. A prominent feature of the 229-square-mile (590 km²) park is Zion Canyon, which is 15 miles (24 km) long and up to half a mile (800 m) deep, cut through the reddish and tan-colored Navajo Sandstone by the North Fork of the Virgin River. Zion is a center for rock climbing,^[51] with short walls like Touchstone, Moonlight Buttress, Spaceshot, and Prodigal Son being very popular. The Kolob Terrace area, west of Zion Canyon features The Subway, a slot canyon hike, and Lava Point, with a panoramic view of the entire area. The Kolob Canyons section, further west near Cedar City, features the world's second longest arch, Kolob Arch.

 .Natural Bridges National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of the Four Corners boundary of southeast Utah, in the western United States, at the junction of White Canyon and Armstrong Canyon, part of the Colorado River drainage. Natural Bridges National Monument should be added to your list while your in Utah. The three bridges in the park are named Kachina, Owachomo, and Sipapu (the largest), which are all Hopi names. A natural bridge is formed through erosion by water flowing in the stream bed of the canyon. 

The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a U.S. National Monument protecting 1,880,461 acres (760,996 ha)^[1] of land in southern Utah. There are three main regions: the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau, and the Canyons of the Escalante - all of which are administered by the Bureau of Land Management as part of the National Landscape Conservation System. We thought this was really neat and worth seeing.

There is no way to list all the cool places to see in Utah. Rainbow Bridge, Dinosaur National Monument, Monument Valley, Cedar Breaks, and tons of others are out there waiting for you to discover them! Utah's wide open spaces rate high in my book of refreshing landscapes. Camping is everywhere, people are friendly, and sky's are mostly blue. So get out there and see this stuff if you can. I hope you enjoyed today's blog. Please subscribe to my blog for more interesting story's on random topics. Cheers.

http://www.reverbnation.com/thelookoutsband?profile_view_source=header_icon_nav