Rocky Mountain + Utah Big 5 National Parks

Covid19 put a hiatus on non-essential travel for several months this spring. I was a bit worried about our summer plans, which was to head west and hit several national parks. My son, Noah, completed 4th grade this year, and during the year that kids are in 4th grade, they are allowed a free pass to all of the national parks for that year. Originally, we were going to head out at the end of June and travel over the 4th of July, but we decided that would be too busy, plus I was going to begin a graduate course at the end of June, and my co-traveler was beginning summer school teaching. So, we bumped our trip up to the middle of June. We started from Eastern Iowa and went to Colorado, Utah, and Arizona (briefly). I used a post from MyUtahParks to guide our planning, and Noah helped me plan the whole thing out as part of his "voluntary-but-mom-required-schoolwork". Here's what the daily itinerary looked like: 

Day 1: Drive to Loveland, CO

Day 2: Explore Rocky Mountain National Park

Day 3: Drive to Moab, UT

Day 4: Explore Arches National Park

Day 5: Explore Canyonlands National Park

Day 6: Drive to Kanab, UT. Stop through Page, AZ at Horseshoe Bend & Lake Powell

Day 7: Explore Zion National Park

Day 8: We were supposed to go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, but it was closed due to fire. Instead, we rested and hiked to Moqui Cave in Kanab.

Day 9: Explore Bryce Canyon National Park

Day 10: Explore Grand Escalante-Staircase National Monument

Day 11: Explore Capitol Reef National Park

Day 12 & 13: Drive home

Whew! It was an amazing time, and we were able to do *most* of what we had planned. We used the AllTrails app plus the books I got about the national parks to guide our hiking. We hiked in the mornings and evenings to avoid the hottest part of the day and took picnic lunches with us lots of places. 

These are the two books I used, and I'm so thankful I bought both of them! They provided some background about each park as well as some tips about where to go and which hikes were most popular as well as some that aren't as popular. If you're going to hike more, I'd recommend the one on the left, as it has a chart for each park of every hike with details about how hard it is, how long, etc. If you're going to drive more, then the one on the left might be more helpful. But, if you've got the budget, I'd get both. 

 

We also stayed in some pretty unique places, including a tipi and a covered wagon! The tipi was at Ruby's Inn Campground right outside of Bryce Canyon National Park. The covered wagon was at Broken Spur Inn near Capitol Reef. The wagon was our favorite night of lodging--all of us agreed!