Yavuz Travels
Utah Zion National Park canyon walls at sunset with the Virgin River winding below in golden light
adventurephotography

Utah: Five Parks and the Red Rock Light

Zion's slot canyons, Bryce Canyon's hoodoos, Arches at sunrise, and the American Southwest at its most photogenic

Utah, United States·July 2, 2024

I did the Utah national parks loop in December 2016 — a slightly unusual time that turned out to be ideal for Bryce Canyon (snow on the hoodoos, almost no crowds) and manageable for Zion and Arches, where the winter light is longer and lower and better for photography than the harsh midday sun of summer. The parks in December are quieter everywhere and cold enough in the high sections to require real gear. The trade is worth it.

The road trip base logic for this area starts in Las Vegas (four hours from Zion) or Salt Lake City (five hours from Arches). Going in both directions creates a loop that covers all five parks. The distances look manageable on a map and are larger in reality — Utah is a big state and the roads are two-lane and the landscape slows you down because you stop constantly to photograph things.

Zion

Zion Canyon is 2,000 feet deep, cut by the Virgin River through Navajo Sandstone over millions of years. The Narrows — the section of the river canyon where the walls close to within a few feet — requires wading upstream through the river (knee-to-waist deep depending on season and snowmelt). It is the best hiking experience in Utah and among the best in the United States. The shuttle system that restricts private vehicles in the main canyon is one of the few cases where a national park's crowd management has genuinely improved the experience.

Utah Bryce Canyon hoodoos covered in snow at dawn with the pink cliffs amphitheatre at winter sunrise
Bryce Canyon in December. The hoodoos and snow together; the amphitheatre at 8,000 feet elevation. This is the correct time to visit.

Bryce and Arches

Bryce Canyon is not technically a canyon — it's a series of natural amphitheatres formed by erosion, filled with hoodoos (spires of soft rock capped by harder stone). At sunrise, when the pink limestone catches the first light, it is one of the great colour spectacles in the natural world. The short loop trails into the amphitheatre (Queen's Garden, Navajo Loop) descend among the hoodoos rather than looking down at them, which changes the experience entirely.

Arches, near Moab, has more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches — the highest concentration anywhere on earth. Delicate Arch (the one on the Utah licence plate) requires a three-mile round-trip hike that ends at the rim of a slickrock bowl with the arch framing the La Sal Mountains behind it. The scale is impossible to predict from photographs and immediately obvious in person.

Utah

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Bryce Canyon hoodoos in snow. December is the correct season; the crowds are gone and the light is better.
Bryce Canyon hoodoos in snow. December is the correct season; the crowds are gone and the light is better.
Zion Canyon walls. The Virgin River cut this 2,000-foot slot over millions of years; you walk the bottom of it.
Zion Canyon walls. The Virgin River cut this 2,000-foot slot over millions of years; you walk the bottom of it.
Arches National Park. More than 2,000 natural arches; Delicate Arch is the famous one, Landscape Arch is longer.
Arches National Park. More than 2,000 natural arches; Delicate Arch is the famous one, Landscape Arch is longer.
Utah road. The two-lane highways between the parks are as memorable as the parks themselves.
Utah road. The two-lane highways between the parks are as memorable as the parks themselves.
Capitol Reef pear orchards. Mormon settlers planted these orchards in the 1880s; the park maintains them.
Capitol Reef pear orchards. Mormon settlers planted these orchards in the 1880s; the park maintains them.
Canyonlands from the rim. The Colorado and Green Rivers meet here; the canyon system visible for fifty miles.
Canyonlands from the rim. The Colorado and Green Rivers meet here; the canyon system visible for fifty miles.
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Yavuz

Travel writer and photographer obsessed with slow travel, local food, and the roads less taken. Based wherever the next flight lands.