Utah Parks to the Vegas Strip

May 06, 2025

Utah Parks to the Vegas Strip

Utah After the Cold

Moab, Arches, Canyonlands

Once we saw temperatures would be consistently above freezing, we headed to Utah. Moab was first on our list. We camped along the Colorado River for a few nights while we explored Arches and Canyonland National Parks. Moab is a mountain biking, ATV, rock climbing, paleontology, and geology wonderland. There have been a multitude of dinosaur bones and fossilized footprints found in this area. The town (and surrounding area) boasts a beautiful biking trail with mountain bike trails splintering off from the main trail in different directions. We barely dipped our toes into this trail system, but would love to return to explore more.

Moab also seems to be a nomad safe-haven. We saw the highest concentration of sprinter vans in one town that we have ever encountered. To our delight, the town has embraced the dirtbag lifestyle of its many visitors and helps to maintain order by offering amenities around town (showers, laundry, water filling, free camping, etc). Needless to say, we felt pretty at home here.

Arches NP is a surprisingly small park considering how much attention it gets. The arches are certainly geological marvels, but it can feel pretty crowded. We did our first lap in the afternoon on the day we arrived to seek out some roadside arches. The next day, we opted for a longer trail early in the morning in an attempt to achieve some desert solitude. We were rewarded with stunning morning views of rock formations, quiet trails, and photo opportunities void of other people's children in the background.

Day one on the trail

Day one on the trail - The Windows Arches

early morning hiking - Devil's Garden Primitive Loop Trail

Partition Arch

Just outside of Moab also sits Canyonlands NP's Island of the Sky area (there are two other, more remote areas of the park: The Needles and The Maze). Our day there found us on a few shorter hikes, among them were Grand View Point and Upheaval Dome. The views were expansive and the pictures (as usual) don't capture the full magnitude of the place.

Hiking along the rim to Grand View Point

Chuck living on the edge

Walking a multi-use path back in Moab

Filling up at a public spring in Moab

San Rafael Swell, Bryce Canyon, Zion

We headed west after Moab with our sights set on making it to a couple other Utah national parks. We drove through the San Rafael Swell, an interesting geologic formation where older rocks and layers of earth were pushed up into an anticline about 50 million years ago. The area has been used in film as the setting for other planets due to the wild landscape.

We continued our journey to Bryce Canyon NP. We found a free wilderness camping spot nearby and set-up the Lil' Home for a couple of nights. On our second day in the area, we hopped on our bikes and explored the park under our own power. We stopped at the historic Bryce Canyon Lodge, originally owned and operated by a subsidiary of Union Pacific Railroad. We parked the bikes at Inspiration Point and continued on foot to Bryce Point for a stunning view of the canyon below. The hike along the rim offered spectacular views and a few butterflies as we go close to the edge.

San Rafael Swell in the background

Looking into the abyss at Bryce Canyon

Sprawling out before us

Next up: Zion National Park. There is limited camping around Zion, so we found a spot about forty minutes away that would allow us relatively easy access. On our way to Quail Creek State Park (where we were set to camp) we stopped at the lesser visited Kolob Canyon in the Northern section of Zion NP. We were able to drive the road and stop for some photo opportunities before heading to set-up camp at Quail Creek.

Kolob Canyon - Zion

Quail Creek Campground

The main part of Zion doesn't allow passenger vehicles to drive most of the park road, which is excellent for us since we love riding bikes. They have propane powered shuttle buses and a lot of local companies rent out e-bikes for visitors to access the deeper areas of the park. We opted to ride our bikes to the end of the road and hike into The Narrows. The Narrows is a (you guessed it) narrow section of the Zion canyon; it's a popular "trail" in the park. I use the term trail with hesitation because it is, in fact, a river. This section of canyon can be through-hiked from end-to-end, or a portion can be traversed as a day hike. The portion we did is very popular and wildly chaotic. Envision parents dragging their four-year-old through thigh deep water while the child screams with joy and swings a walking stick around: that's the scene for the first few hundred yards of the hike. The deepest section we encountered was a little below my armpits. We had to hold our bags above our heads to walk through. The rest of the walk consisted of a water depth around my knees (give or take a few inches) interspersed with dry patches along the canyon edges. The water was COLD. We had to take breaks out of the water to let our feet warm up. Overall it was magical and unlike any other "trail" I have ever walked.

Biking up the road to The Narrows

In The Narrows

Oh yea, Chuck wore sandals....

Heading back down the road <3

Onward to Flagstaff

After our Zion adventure, we headed back to the campground for the night. The next day we changed a damaged camper tire and put on our spare. It was our first time having to jack-up the camper - success! We headed out to Flagstaff where I was teaching a wilderness medicine course for the week with Flagstaff Field Institute. Chuck was in charge of getting the tires replaced, camper checked-out, and the truck oil changed in preparation for our trip through Canada. He also got in a day of skiing (his only day of skiing this year). I was busy teaching folks how to warm up a hypothermic patient and do CPR.

Arizona Snowbowl

CPR circle :)

Vegas, baby

Next up: Vegas, baby! En route to Vegas we stopped to camp on Lake Mead for a couple of nights. Since we have both been to the Hoover Dam (the time I biked to Hoover Dam is chronichled here), we opted for a hot springs adventure in the area instead of heading to the dam. The Goldstrike Hotsprings can be accessed two ways: by hiking or by boat on the Colorado River beneath the Hoover Dam. We hiked the trail in, which was quite adventurous. It goes down into the canyon and at times requires ropes to climb down steeper sections. After a dip in the hot springs, we took a dip in the much colder Colorado River before hiking the few miles back up the canyon.

Goldstrike Hotsprings

Chuck using a rope to climb in the canyon

The next day we went from playing in the wilds of the canyons to navigating the urban jungle of Las Vegas. We set-up the camper in an RV resort south of the main Vegas strip and prepped ourselves for the Dead & Co. show at the Sphere. If you do not know what the Sphere is, check it out here and see some pictures below. The venue can hold roughly 20-thousand people and is shaped as a giant ball (a sphere, if you will). It was created and is known for its state of the art visuals and immersive experience. We have heard many tales of the place and were excited to get the opportunity to see a show. It was truly unlike anything we have experienced before. Vivid, certainly immersive, and disorienting at times. Of course, seeing Bob, Mickey, Oteil Burbridge, and Jeff Chimenti was as magical as ever... oh, and John Mayer, who admittedly shreds the guitar, but still sounds like he's trying to woo someone in a rom-com when he sings. It was a grand old time, indeed. After the show, we wandered the streets and casinos of Vegas and didn't go to sleep until 3am - huzzah!