Utah's National Parks

With the Great Salt Lake in your rearview, it's a long, largely uneventful drive (primarily on US 6) to the edge of canyon country, and your introduction to it couldn't be better. Just outside Moab, Arches National Park boasts the densest grouping of natural rock arches on the planet. A sunset hike to iconic Delicate Arch is a must for shutterbugs in good physical shape.

Before departing the Moab area, gaze at a vast, spectacular wilderness of starkly beautiful buttes and mesas from the viewpoints at Canyonlands National Park's Island in the Sky District. On your way to Capitol Reef, the often-overlooked San Rafael Swell area (off SR 24) has a state park where thousands of hoodoos (mushroom-shaped rocks) make for otherworldly terrain.

At Capitol Reef, the least visited national park on this route, you'll marvel at dramatic sandstone cliffs, domes and monoliths in relative peace. Next, drive to Bryce Canyon along Scenic Byway 12 (SR 12). A contender for this itinerary's most stunning stretch of blacktop, it snakes through the undulating slickrock country of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Sure, you could do Bryce in a half-day, taking in one of Mother Nature's masterpieces from a series of overlooks. But if time permits, go below the canyon rim and hike this magical place. Leaving the park behind, you'll travel through forested high-country on steep, windy SR 14 en route to Cedar Breaks National Monument (think Bryce Canyon, only smaller) and Cedar City.

Easily reached from Cedar City, Zion National Park caps off your adventure with a majestic canyon that's been described as Yosemite in Technicolor. Spring through fall, you'll need to leave your wheels at the main Zion Canyon entrance and ride shuttle buses to access park highlights such as Angels Landing, Weeping Rock and the Great White Throne.