Salt Lake City, Utah offers a mix of city life and easy access to the outdoors, including some of the best powder snow around. It's also ideally located for visiting many great national parks and monuments.
These parks, national monuments and other attractions are just a few hours away from the city. While we haven’t included some great places like Yellowstone and Grand Teton, which are within a day’s drive, the options for outdoor adventures around Salt Lake City are almost endless. Below are the nine best monuments and national parks near Salt Lake City.
1. Capitol Reef National Park
- Known For: Stunning rock formations
- Distance From Salt Lake City:
A bit under-the-radar in the pantheon of southern Utah national parks, Capitol Reef is nonetheless a stunning location just a bit more than 200 miles away from Salt Lake City. The name "Capitol" comes from the towering white domes of Navajo Sandstone, while "reef" refers to the natural barrier created by the park's rugged cliffs, spires, arches, bridges and canyons. These features stretch along the nearly 100-mile Waterpocket Fold, a giant tectonic wrinkle that shapes the landscape. Camping at Capitol Reef National Park ranges from the developed Fruita Campground to primitive campsites and backpacking.
2. Arches National Park
- Known For: World’s greatest concentration of natural rock arches
- Distance From Salt Lake City:
Compared to other Utah national parks and monuments Arches is on the smaller side, but few places in the world pack in as much scenery per square foot. Nowhere will you find such a density of rock arches, which create a dreamlike landscape right on the doorstep of the lively little adventure hub of Moab, Utah. The scenic beauty of Arches National Park is highlighted by its stunning slickrock formations, including the famous Delicate Arch and North America’s longest arch, Landscape Arch. Other landmarks like Balanced Rock and the towering cliffs of Park Avenue are set against the backdrop of the high, often snow-capped peaks of the La Sal Mountains to the east.
Arches includes a developed campground in the Devils Garden, a labyrinth of fins, arches and monoliths that’s also one of the premier hiking destinations in the park.
3. Great Basin National Park
- Known For: Ancient bristlecone pines, Nevada’s only named glacier, wilderness solitude
- Distance From Salt Lake City:
When it comes to national parks near Salt Lake City, Great Basin—just across the Utah border in the Basin-and-Range lands of Nevada—is about the least-visited. Here the Snake Range rises from a sagebrush sea to the noble summit of 13,063-foot Wheeler Peak, tallest standalone summit in the Silver State and host to one of the southernmost alpine glaciers in the U.S. The ecosystem spectrum from drylands to timberline is impressive and the high country includes several groves of Great Basin bristlecone pine, the longest-lived tree known to science.
Great Basin National Park serves up amazing scenery, but also a great deal of tranquility given its off-the-beaten-path location. And the night skies here come touted as some of the darkest in the Lower 58. The park includes both developed and clasical campgrounds as well as excellent opportunities for backpacking.
4. Canyonlands National Park
- Known For: Sweeping & sublime scenery, deep backcountry
- Distance From Salt Lake City:
A stone’s throw from Arches but much larger, Canyonlands National Park is another of the best national parks near Salt Lake City. Covering about 340,000 acres, the park comes divided into three sections, with the first being the easily accessible Island in the Sky District, a high-standing mesa delivering incredible views over the slickrock outback where the Colorado and Green rivers come together. The second is the Needles District in the southeast, a staggering realm of pinnacles, arches and twisty slots. The third section is the Maze, the furthest away and least-developed section, fabulously hard to reach and rather hard to explore.
Developed campgrounds exist in the Island in the Sky and Needles districts, while backpacking possibilities are nearly limitless.
5. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
- Known For: Incredible & varied Colorado Plateau scenery, remote backcountry, canyoneering
- Distance From Salt Lake City:
Covering nearly two million acres, the Bureau of Land Management-overseen Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is one of the crown jewels in America’s public-lands system and it lies in the very heart of southern Utah’s beautiful Colorado Plateau realm. The monument encompasses everything from the Paunsaugunt Plateau—part of the titanic topographic system known as the Grand Staircase—to the slickrock labyrinth of the Canyons of the Escalante, some of the last terrain in the U.S. to be formally explored and mapped. Highlights include the hoodoos of the Devils Garden and the improbable 126-foot plunge of Calf Creek Falls.
A few developed campgrounds and much in the way of backcountry camping allow you to extend your Grand Staircase-Escalante explorations.
6. Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve
- Known For: Some of the most recently formed volcanic landscapes in the country
- Distance From Salt Lake City:
Located in southern Idaho’s Snake River Plain, Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve features three lava fields—Craters of the Moon, Wapi and Kings Bowl—formed along the 60-mile Great Rift. The last eruptions happened about 2,000 years ago and geologists believe there could be more volcanic activity in the future. Visitors can explore the scenic loop or hike the trails to take in views of cinder cones, vast lava fields and unique kipukas—vegetation islands surrounded by lava—some of which have ancient juniper trees.
The Lava Flow Campground provides a unique opportunity to overnight among the lava scabland, also open to backcountry camping.
7. Bryce Canyon National Park
- Known For: Colorful hoodoo basins, far-reaching sightlines
- Distance From Salt Lake City:
Smallest of Utah’s national parks, Bryce Canyon is nonetheless one of the most breathtaking. Set mainly at 8,000 feet or above, this high-standing park preserves unbelievable hoodoo amphitheaters gouged out of the scarp of the Paunsaugunt Plateau by natural processes of weathering and erosion—most significantly freeze-thaw wedging. Hike down among the hoodoo corridors or take in vast views from the lightning-licked rim that suggest the vastness and geologic complexity of the Colorado Plateau.
Those overnighting at the historic Lodge at Bryce Canyon or the Sunset or North campgrounds can take advantage of the free park shuttle hitting up major attractions and overlooks.
8. Zion National Park
- Known For: Unbelievable scenery, iconic hiking
- Distance From Salt Lake City:
Among the most popular of Salt Lake City closest national parks, Zion is utterly monumental, encompassing a cross-section of Southwestern landscapes: from the Colorado Plateau (in the form of the White Cliffs of the Grand Staircase) down to Mojave Desert and Great Basin lowlands. The North Fork of the Virgin River’s Zion Canyon must be seen to be believed and you can do so via the park’s fine shuttle-bus system, which manages crowds while cutting down on vehicle emissions. Highlights include the celebrated hikes up to the head-spinning promontory of Angel’s Rest and into the steep-walled wonderland of the Narrows, not to mention unreal Checkerboard Mesa and mighty Kolob Arch (one of the biggest arches on Earth).
Along with three developed campgrounds and backpacking, the park offers accommodations at the Zion Lodge, which first opened in 1925.
9. Dinosaur National Monument
- Known For: Dinosaur fossils, petroglyphs
- Distance From Salt Lake City:
Set on the Utah-Colorado border at the foot of the Uinta Mountains, where the Green and Yampa rivers come together, Dinosaur National Monument is known the world over as a superlative prehistoric bonebed. Its Jurassic-vintage Morrison Formation has yielded a treasure trove of dinosaur fossils, some of which you can view at the Dinosaur Quarry building, host to the celebrated Wall of Bones. This rugged, beautiful landscape also has a rich human story to tell, the enigmatic petroglyphs left behind a thousand-odd years ago by the Fremont culture a case in point.
Dinosaur maintains six developed campgrounds, including Echo Park and Gates of Lodore, while backpackers can pitch a tent at developed or dispersed backcountry sites. Given the national monument is now an International Dark Sky Park, camping out and stargazing are highly recommended.
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