10 Days in Southern Utah, Summer 2017

[Ted S.]

Originally Posted by Piggy Bank

Also I don't remember which one, but one of those parks is anticipating major road construction and road and campground closures in 2017.

Devils Garden campground in Arches is closing for when we will be there.

Here is the info from the NP website FYI:

Construction Projects
May 3-June 16: Crews will be working on the Tower Arch trailhead road. There will be large trucks on the road. You may experience delays.

June 2016: The parking lots at Arches Visitor Center, Balanced Rock, and Sand Dune Arch may be closed for chip-seal work. Check back here for dates and details.

March-October 2017: Extensive road construction may occur in 2017 that will limit access to some areas, particularly Devils Garden. Devils Garden Campground may be closed March 1 to October 31, 2017.

[larryglarson]

Congratulations, you have all the great ones. Your 10 days will go by fast, I guess I like Brice the best. Zion can be very crowded.

Relax and enjoy

[Larry49684]

Last September we spent a month in Utah. It was a great adventure. Like you we do a lot of hiking and found plenty of opportunities. We stay at most of the national parks and several state parks. Our trip took us from the North to the South end of Utah. It is key if you travel in the busy season to make your reservations well in advance. I found that you had to know the reservation openings in National Parks. I missed it by a couple of days in Arches and we had to stay outside the park. A recommendation is to stay at the Dead Horse Point State Park near Canyonlands. It is truly a great experience. You can check out our blog at larry-Jan-TVC.net for more information. Just scroll down the right side there are two links to Utah South #1 and #2. There are several other posts for that trip as well. You will enjoy your time there!

[Len n Jeanne]

Ditto on Dead Horse Point if you go to Moab. There is a nice reservable campground in the state park up there, a nearby BLM overflow CG (Horse Thief,) and permitted dispersed camping. You can drop your AS there while you tour Arches NP without it.

We normally visit southern Utah once or twice a year, having previously owned a second home in the state for many years. The crowd build-up between then and now is overwhelming, so we tend to seek out the less-visited places. There is a trade off between the beautiful world-class scenery in the popular parks, and getting into the back-of-beyond for us into scenery that is still incredibly beautiful, just not on everybody's iconic postcards.

For sure in the summer at the lower elevations, you'd want to think about AC. Normally it wouldn't be necessary at the higher elevations like Bryce. We seldom use our AC, but Zion Canyon is definitely the place.

You didn't mention dogs, but they are not allowed on most of the trails in the National Parks. Which is why it's good to know about the outlying BLM and USFS possibilities, where they're fine. There is also a nice kennel (Doggy Dude Ranch) outside of Zion in Rockville, UT that takes both day- and overnight dogs.