Utah's Big 5

[fishngamereaper]

The family and I are doing Utahs southern NP's in June. We are in Zion for 3-4 days. I really want to hike the Subway and Wallstreet. Any one here done them before. I think the Subway is permit only. Just looking for real world experience as some of the other web info I have found is sketchy.

Thnx.

[TheHunt]

My wife and I have done it.  Zion narrows hike is so much fun. Hiking the canyon in the stream is a blast.  Be prepared to get wet.  I brought some wadding shoes to grip the rocks.  CRAZY amount of fun. 

Arches is fun as well. I hope are not afraid of heights.  There is a trail that takes you way back spend the day and bring the camera. 

Bryce Canyon is pretty cool.  I think you need a reservation.  We took a tour as we wanted to learn about geology.

Petroglyphs in Capitol Reef are pretty cool. 

Canyonlands is fun.  There is a road called the Moki Dugway or something like that.  We say a dude drive up it in a semi with a 40 foot trailer.  There are signs that say no Semi's.   That cat was a heck of a driver.  If you like to drive windy roads you have to give that a go.  FUN!!! 

Keep an eye on the weather.  If you have a nice camera you need to make sure you can put it in a water proof bag.  We experienced two huge monsoons but my camera was dry.  Others were not so foresighted.

We spent two weeks experiencing the five parks. 

[fishngamereaper]

My wife and I have done it.  Zion narrows hike is so much fun. Hiking the canyon in the stream is a blast.  Be prepared to get wet.  I brought some wadding shoes to grip the rocks.  CRAZY amount of fun. 

Arches is fun as well. I hope are not afraid of heights.  There is a trail that takes you way back spend the day and bring the camera. 

Bryce Canyon is pretty cool.  I think you need a reservation.  We took a tour as we wanted to learn about geology.

Petroglyphs in Capitol Reef are pretty cool. 

Canyonlands is fun.  There is a road called the Moki Dugway or something like that.  We say a dude drive up it in a semi with a 40 foot trailer.  There are signs that say no Semi's.   That cat was a heck of a driver.  If you like to drive windy roads you have to give that a go.  FUN!!! 

Keep an eye on the weather.  If you have a nice camera you need to make sure you can put it in a water proof bag.  We experienced two huge monsoons but my camera was dry.  Others were not so foresighted.

We spent two weeks experiencing the five parks.

  Thnx for the info. We've done Bryce before but are going to do it again more in depth. The kid is old enough now to pack his own gear. I have some climbing experience but the wife and kid not so much so we are limited to a day in the Narrows but it will be fun. I hear the Subway is just as cool.

[swanny]

Dont miss out on Angel's Landing, it's pretty fun, especially if everyone is okay with heights. If heights aren't enjoyable for your wife and kid, the opposite side of the valley has a cool hike, Clouds Rest if I recall, that gets up higher but doesn't have the vertical factor. When my wife and I went, we really enjoyed taking the tram in Zion up canyon at night, just to hear and talk with the operator. We'd jump on the last one for the night.

[hollymaster]

Arches definitely had the most wow factor for me with lots of short hikes.

[timberghost72]

We did the Big 5 in 2013. Spent 10 days in southern Utah and it was not enough time and way too hot in late June/early July. Our daughter was 4 at the time so we didn't hike too much. A few more years and we''ll be back and do more hiking and exploring around. Maybe in April/May. We also skipped the day trip to Capitol Reef and went to the Grand Canyon North Rim instead. It was well worth it and freakin amazing. I want to do Angels Landing but my wife would never go up that.

[blackpowderhunter]

We roadtripped through last summer and did some back country camping along the way..
are you doing camper camping? how old are the kiddos? any backpacking camping or just camp site camping?
in canyonlands there is a back country permit to camp at murphy point.  one permit only.  it is AWESOME.  no water, and short short hike back there and the views are unreal.
if you're tent camping, bring a good tent, you will get some NASTY rain storms almost every night.

 angels landing is a must do, im kind of afraid of heights and there was some pucker factor for sure.  if you do it, do it EARLY before it gets too hot. 
I want to go back sometime and spend some more time in a few of the parks, maybe dedicate a trip to just 1 or 2. 
we didn't have reservations for a single one of the parks, and it only bit us at zion.
flew into salt lake and my plan was to drive to zion, get there by early evening, and set up camp on some BLM land.  well...pretty much all of that is fenced off around the park now due to people not taking care of it..we got "lucky" and a lady let us sleep in the car in the parking lot.
the rest of the nights and parks we ended up securing walk up back country camping permits, or actual camp sites that we could drive up to.  not having a true itinerary was awesome, as we stayed as long or as little as we wanted in each park..probably not as easy with kids though.
pretty sure my girlfriend has some notes somewhere about her favorite hikes in the parks.  ill try and dig those out

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[WAcoueshunter]

This is great...my wife is doing the rim to rim hike over Memorial Day weekend, so we're planning to camp in the Kaibab and do some day trips to the Utah NPs.  We'll barely scratch the surface with the limited time we have, but at least we can lay the groundwork for a future trip. 

We will have four adults and five kids in tow, ages 3 - 9.  Anything in particular we should do, given the kids' limited hiking ability and our short timeframe? 

[fishngamereaper]

Kid is 13 going on 16.... We have reservations for all our stops already. Plan on recreating hard during the day so wanted a comfy room at night. I heard Zion might be going to permit only soon because of over use...and also heard we may not be able to access the subway because of road closure. But wallstreet is still on the list...thnx for the info.

[fishngamereaper]

SO we made it back in one piece. Wife is still mad that I drove from Eastern Utah to home in one day, 16 hours 1200 miles, but hey I wanted to get home and get my scouting started for my Peaches tag


First priority of the trip was southern Utah for my buddies wedding. His new wifes family is hard core hunters and really cool people, hopfully I made some lasting connections as the stand in son in law since my buddy doesnt hunt. 

Now starts our National Park adventures. Let me first say my main goal was to see and do cool stuff, all while trying to avoid people. I just don't like vacationing with a bunch of other people....

We left the wedding town and drove over Brain Head ski resort and checked out Cedar National Monument. Pretty cool, like a little Bryce Canyon. Not crowded at all.

Onto Zion from there. Stayed at Cable Mnt Lodge. Great place to stay, great location. Jumped an afternoon shuttle for an quick look around and hike up to Emerald Pools. Not a bad hike and the scenery was ok, but to many people, without trail etiquette. 

We got a feel for the park and how the shuttle bus worked. Went back to the hotel, grabbed some grub and drinks and watched the sunset on the mnts.

Next morning came early. My goal was to be on the 6am shuttle bus heading up to hike the Narrows. We made it on the bus. The bus was full and I was a little concerned but most got off at Angles landing. End of the road arrived and we departed the bus with maybe 12 other people.

Started hiking into the Narrows with 3 really cool college age kids from Montana and didnt see another soul for 3 hours. I have to say the Narrows is one of the most amazing things I have done in my whole life. And we had it to ourselves, leaping frogging the Montana kids from time to time but eventually we let them trek on. The water was ankle deep to waist deep at times. But it didnt matter, the place is powerful and will damn near make you cry.


We hiked to the end and on our way back out realized why we started ealry. We passed hundereds of people, shoulder to shoulder hiking in. I got to the point where I just put my head down, planted myself in the middle of the river and powered on thinking of how peacful it was on our way in.


Hung out the rest of the afternoon at our hotel as we felt nothing would top the narrows.  We got what we came for.

[fishngamereaper]

Zion

[fishngamereaper]

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[fishngamereaper]

In my research I found some off trail hikes that I wanted to try that would help us avoid people.

We left Zion heading towards Bryce. We stopped along the hwy at a spot I read about and hiked a sandstone wash that was really cool. Spent a couple hours messing around before continuing on.

[fishngamereaper]

We rolled into Bryce in the afternoon and got checked in to our hotel. We drove around a little and did some overlooks but we where sharing them with hundreds of people. Went back at and hung at the hotel until 530. My plan was to do an evening hike down into Bryce in an attempt to avoid the crowds. It worked. We started hiking the Navajo/Queens loop trail and 630 and saw maybe 10 other people for 2 hours. I must say looking over the top of Bryce is one thing, hiking down into Bryce, especially in the evening, its a whole new world. That place is crazy cool.

We made a big loop and got back onto the rim in time to enjoy the sunset. That place at sunset is crazy cool to, the color changes are awesome.

[fishngamereaper]

Bryce