Eight hundred miles
of driving, 5 whirlwind days of sightseeing and one red-eye flight later, our
Mighty 5 road trip ended as quickly as it began. Although I loved (almost)
every minute of the adventure, there were some things I would do again in a
heartbeat and some lessons learned. I'm definitely no expert, but here are five
tips for anyone else planning on conquering the Mighty 5. Heads up - none of these pictures are related to my tips, so just go with it ;)
1. SLOW DOWN.
This
tip can apply to almost all aspects of the trip (especially CJs driving ;)),
but my main advice would be to take the time to enjoy the beauty of the Utah.
For starters, we hit all 5 parks in four
days, but this same itinerary could definitely fill up two weeks. I could spend
four days in Zion alone. With our packed schedule, we were forced to fill our
days with the "highlights" of each park. Although I feel like we got
a great feel for each stop, it would have been nice to go on more extended
hikes, visit more remote viewpoints, or even take an entire afternoon to read a
book on a cliff.
Two
weeks isn't reasonable for everyone, and it definitely wasn't for our group. We
were constrained by budget and work schedules, so we took the time we had. Even
if you have to cram a trip like this into a short amount of time, there is
still ways to find time to stop and smell the cactus flowers :) Pick a path
less traveled and spend some time to take in the view, stop at overlooks, talk
to people you meet, spend an evening listening to live music. Even if your itinerary
is packed, it doesn't need feel like it is.
2. Make sure
you know where you're going.
Utah
is a place where you can't always rely on your GPS and our cell phone service
was spotty at best. Make sure you have directions to and from each of your
stops, and don't be afraid to ask if they end up being wrong. Our hotel in
Torrey had changed its name shortly before our stay, so if we hadn't asked the
gas station attendant for directions we never would have found it.
3. Go to the
grocery store.
If
you're on a budget, eating out for every meal adds up. We ate at moderately
priced restaurants - usually cafes or grilles - every night, but saved a ton of
money by eating food we packed for breakfast and lunch. We made one grocery
shop stop for peanut butter and bread. In addition to that, we subsided on
apples, bananas, beef jerky, and trail mix from gas stations.
4. It is
possible to camp without making reservations months in advance.
We
originally thought camping in each park might be a great sleeping option. It's
a win-win: we would save money (National Park campsites average around
$30/night) and get to sleep under the stars. When I went to reserve campsites 3
weeks ahead of time, everything was booked, so I gave up on the idea. There are
also a set number of first come first serve campsites at each park, but we
didn't want to risk it. It turns out that even if a National Park campground is
full, there are often state or regional park campgrounds right near the
entrance or en route between parks. The best way to find these would be to call
each park's visitor center and ask for camping options nearby.
5. The Visitor's Center is your friend.
As
much as you might enjoy researching, park rangers know their park inside and
out and can give you tips on what hikes to embark on. As soon as we got to each
park, we took a few minutes to talk to a ranger at the visitor center. We told
them how long we had in the park, the difficulty of hike we were looking for,
and what sites we especially wanted to visit. Almost every ranger pulled up a
map and highlighted our options. We then used their recommendations as a
backbone to build a plan for the day.
That's about it! For
anyone who is interested, our itinerary was:
Day 1: Drive Salt Lake City to Arches NP, visit
Arches NP, accommodation in Moab, UT
Day 2: Visit Canyonlands NP, Visit Capitol Reef
NP, accommodation in Torrey, UT
Day 3: Drive Scenic Route 15 to Bryce Canyon
NP, Visit Bryce Canyon NP, accommodation in Springdale, UT
Day 4: Visit Zion National Park, accommodation
in Las Vegas, NV
Day 5: Visit Las Vegas
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