Utah Recommendations

Hey guys! I'm wanting to head south to get away from this Montana cold for a few days. Can anyone recommend some things to do in the Utah desert? Not really looking for any serious off roading. Just some site seeing and camping. I will have a topper on my truck and plan to sleep in it. Any recommendations? Thanks!

 

Moab.

 

I was thinking about Moab, but I've also heard that there's a lot of other place that are just as cool and less crowded.

 

That's not Moab.

PM inbound OP.

 

Thanks.

 

The National Parks in Utah are mind-blowing! Arches, Bryce Canyon (pic above), Canyonlands, Zion. You can spend a few days at each of the parks. Good times.

 

Oh man, so many places to explore and see great scenery. NP's are great but can be crowded and also paved....if you're trying to avoid that.

Moab is great too but also can be crowded. So many great roads. I have a Benchmark Atlas for Utah which has most dirt roads mapped really well. We like to just pick a road on the map we haven't explored and head out. Hard to go wrong on any of the roads south of I70 and east of I-15.

 

Yep. This is what I did. But just S.Utah... Buy an atlas, pick a road, and off you go. Can't go wrong with any of backwoods Utah.

 

If you like history and trains Promontory, UT is where they drove the Golden Spike. Not a lot of scenery in the area as far as Utah goes but I thought it was an interesting side trip. Impressive reproductions of the two trains, didn't see them run. Liked the auto tour down the track bed too.

 

True, but like most NP's/Parks, if you just head 1/4 mile from the parking lot, you'll basically be by yourself. So many people drive up snap a few pics from the overlook, and leave. I've hiked around several spots in Yosemite (most visited park in the country) and not seen a soul, or maybe a couple people.

 

Utah's NP's are bit different than a lot of other parks I've visited in this regard. Lots more people getting out into the more backcountry areas of the parks. But yes, you can still find some good solitude if you want to.

 

True, I was impressed the number of people out on hikes at Arches last time I was there.

I think part of the difference is that in places like Yosemite, you can see a bunch of the sights from the parking lot (i.e. Half Dome), so people can be lazy, and many of them are on bus tours, too.

Something like 90% of Yosemite visitors don't go more than 1/4" mile from the parking lot.

 

Yep. Yellowstone is the same way. But some of the coolest parts of Yellowstone are when you hike into the backcountry areas.

 

I’m bringing the family to Zion and Bryce this summer. Can’t wait.