Sample Utah itinerary
The sample Utah itinerary below is meant to inspire your next trip to Utah. Experience some of North America’s most striking and beautiful landscapes on an adventure-packed outdoor odyssey through five of Utah’s most famous national parks. You may choose to explore by four-wheel-drive vehicle, on horseback, and by river raft. The itinerary can be customized to suit your interests, tastes, and budget. Connect with local cultures and experience authentic travel on your own terms and depart whenever you choose.
Photo credit: National Park Services/Kait Thomas
Utah features 5 National Parks
- Arches National Park: The park’s 120 square miles of high desert includes more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches as well as a variety of unique geological formations like sandstone fins, towers, ribs, and balanced rocks.
- Bryce Canyon National Park: The park is one of the smallest national parks at only 56 square miles. It is famous for its beautiful rock spires called “hoodoos” (horseshoe-shaped amphitheaters carved from the eastern edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau), scenic vistas, and the dark night sky.
- Canyonlands National Park: The 527-square-mile park preserves a colorful landscape eroded into numerous canyons, mesas, and buttes by the Colorado River, the Green River, and their respective tributaries.
- Capital Reef National Park: The 378-square-mile park is a hidden treasure filled with cliffs, canyons, white sandstone domes, and bridges in the Waterpocket Fold, an almost 100-mile geological monocline.
- Zion National Park: This park’s 229 square miles include high plateaus, a maze of sandstone slot canyons, and waterfalls with colorful hanging gardens.
Day 1: Arrive in Las Vegas
Arrive in Las Vegas, Nevada and either meet your private driver-guide or pick up your rental car. You will proceed through the desert to the charming town of Springdale, Utah. If time permits, enjoy a guided hike in Snow Canyon State Park, known for its petrified sand dunes, sandstone cliffs, and ancient lava flows.
Day 2: Zion National Park
Explore Zion National Park on a private guided tour. Hike to incredible lookout points and interpreting the flora, fauna, geology, and history of the park with your expert guide’s help. Take in Zion’s spectacular rock formations including the Three Patriarchs, Cathedral Mountain, and Checkerboard Mesa. Consider stopping for a gourmet picnic lunch along the way.
With a number of hiking trails on offer for any level of ability, the guided tour is customizable to your preferences and interests. For example, you might prefer to visit The Narrows, considered one of the world’s best slot canyon hikes. The Narrow is a unique gorge, with walls a thousand feet tall and the river sometimes just twenty to thirty feet wide. Or, embark on a private canyoneering adventure to climb pulse-quickening passes and rappel down slot canyons.
No matter how you choose to explore Zion National Park you will enjoy the breathtaking beauty that surrounds you while traversing an unforgettable landscape.
Day 3: Bryce Canyon National Park
Today, you will discover Bryce Canyon National Park, home to some of the southwest United States’ greatest geological treasures. The canyon itself is a scenic wonderland of orange, rose, and tan sandstone outcroppings.
You will find the dazzling Bryce Amphitheater here, which features a forest of rock pinnacles called “hoodoos” that have been intricately carved by countless centuries of wind and rain. You may decide to walk along the amphitheater rim to learn about the park’s unique geology. Or, take a more challenging route and hike down to the canyon floor to get a closer look at this otherworldly landscape.
Stop for a picnic lunch among a grove of 2,000-year-old bristlecone pine trees, and continue to the best viewpoints the park has to offer.
Photo Credit: National Park Service
Day 4: Capitol Reef National Park
Meet your private guide for an incredible adventure, including hiking tailored to your skill-level and a jeep tour through the Cathedral Valley of Capitol Reef National Park. Set in the south-central desert, the park surrounds a long wrinkle in the earth called Waterpocket Fold, with layers of golden sandstone, canyons, and amazing rock formations. Take in the great white domes of Navajo sandstone that characterize the park along with a natural bridge high above the Fremont River. View many impressive sites including the Bentonite Hills, Gypsum Sinkhole, Temple of the Sun, and Temple of the Moon.
If you like to fly fish, add a private fly fishing experience and cast a line in the lakes and streams of Capitol Reef Country which is considered an angler’s paradise.
Day 5: Moab & Goblin Valley State Park
Today, your private driver-guide will take you on a journey to Moab. Stop along the way to explore Goblin Valley State Park, where you’ll encounter bizarre rock formations. The park features thousands of hoodoos, referred to locally as goblins, which are formations of mushroom-shaped rock pinnacles. It’s also been the filming location for several major movies, depicting otherworldly locations.
Day 6: Arches and Canyonlands National Parks
Explore two parks in one day as an experienced and knowledgeable guide shows you areas of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks that have seldom seen by other visitors. Your tour begins high atop Canyonlands’ Island in the Sky mesa and descends via the steep switchbacks of the Shafer Trail. Along the way, enjoy incredible views of the Colorado River and the surrounding natural beauty.
Arches feature the greatest concentration of natural stone arches in the world, offering spectacular displays of the natural forces of erosion at work. Hit the trails with your guide to discover unusual geologic formations, such as the 60-foot-tall, freestanding Delicate Arch; the Marching Men, seven towers lined in a row in the Klondike Bluffs area; and the Eye of The Whale, a fin-style natural arch that’s weathered into Entrada sandstone. Learn how these dazzling rock formations came to be, as well as about the people who inhabited this area over 1,000 years ago.
Exit the park via an old cowboy trail and stop to see dinosaur tracks on your way back to Moab.
Photo Credit: National Park Services/Chris Wonderly
Day 7: Colorado River – Adventure on the Water
This morning, join your river guide for a private excursion down stretches of the Colorado River. Plunge through rapids with exotic names like Funnel Falls, Sock-It-To-Me, Last Chance, Skull Rapid, and the Room-of-Doom, which surge between sandstone cliffs on the border between Utah and Colorado. Along the way, admire rare geologic formations of red sandstone over smooth black stone walls. Keep watch for eagles perched in hollows high far above the river. Later, back on shore, sit down to a gourmet lunch served as you soak in the Canyon Country sun.
Day 8: Salt Lake City
Enjoy your morning on horseback as you privately explore the trails surrounding Sorrel, and then transfer to Salt Lake City. Bordered by sparkling, buoyant Great Salt Lake and the imposing, snow-capped Wasatch Range, the populous capital of Utah still manages to exude a small-town feel. Spend the afternoon soaking up this inviting city’s ambiance and exploring the nearby restaurants and shops.
Day 9: Depart Salt Lake City
Drive to the Salt Lake City Airport and depart on your home-bound flight.
Start planning your Utah itinerary
We’re ready to start planning your Utah vacation. Are you? Contact us today to get going and arrange luxury accommodations at Utah’s top resorts.