Best National Parks in Utah: All 5 Ranked and Compared

Last Updated on May 26, 2023 by Deanne

Are you planning a Utah road trip hoping to hit the best national parks in Utah? Our family toured all five of them and came up with our ranking of Utah’s best national parks, comparing them all in detail. Read below to gain valuable insight into what we, as parents, thought about each park as well as our three kids: our 16 year-old son, 14 year-old son and 11 year-old daughter.

We explore five different categories:

• Favorite hikes
• Favorite part of each Utah national park
• Best food in and around the parks
• How we describe each park
• Our ranking of best national parks in Utah

We also reveal one incredible adventure that we unanimously ranked in the top two of all our Utah experiences – and it wasn’t even in a national park! We can’t imagine not including it in a Utah itinerary. We’ll give you all the information so you can decide if you want to add it to your Utah travel plans, too.

Utah national park road trip overview

Before we rank all five Utah national parks, it’s important for you to know certain details about our Utah road trip, since these things may have played a factor in our opinions of each park.

Order of Utah national parks visited

We flew into Salt Lake City, rented a car and then drove to the parks in this order:

Salt Lake City -> Arches -> Canyonlands -> Capitol Reef -> Bryce Canyon -> Zion -> Salt Lake City

Number of days

We spent eight days touring Utah’s 5 national parks. (Nine if you count our last travel day back to Salt Lake City.) Deciding how long to make your Utah National Park itinerary can be a challenge. There are a lot of factors to consider. To help you out, we’ve compiled a comprehensive guide on the subject: “Utah National Parks Itinerary: How many days do you REALLY need?”

Time of year

We explored Utah’s Mighty 5 in fall. Weather plays a big part in how you view your outdoor adventures and experiences, so we highly recommend visiting Utah in the fall as the weather is mild and the scenery is even more striking than normal. For a complete list of 6 important reasons fall is the best time for a Utah road trip, click here.

Hiking in Utah

Hiking is one of our family’s favorite things to do while exploring national parks. Whether we’re trekking to a waterfall, scenic overlook, through a river, up a mountain, or along forested trees, hiking lets us get up-close with nature. We did a LOT of hiking on our trip through the 5 Utah national parks.

Before we rank our favorite hikes, here is a listing of the major hikes we did in the order that we did them:

TOTAL HIKES (in order we hiked them)

Arches National Park: Delicate Arch at sunset, Windows (North Window, South Window and Turret Arch), Devils Garden Trail to Landscape Arch

Outside of Arches: Corona Arch and Bow Tie Arch

Canyonlands National Park: Mesa Arch at sunrise

In-between Canyonlands and Capitol Reef National Parks: Little Wild Horse Canyon

Capitol Reef National Park: Goosenecks Overlook, Hickman Bridge

Bryce Canyon National Park: Queens Garden Trail and Navajo Trail

Zion National Park: Canyon Overlook, The Narrows, Watchman Trail, Emerald Pools *We opted not to do the popular Angel’s Landing hike since it can be dangerous in parts and is not for people scared of heights.

Here’s a breakdown of our top three Utah national park hikes ranked. *Note: Little Wild Horse Canyon Trail is not within a national park.

FAVORITE UTAH HIKES RANKED

	#1	#2	#3
Ryan	The Narrows	Little Wild Horse Canyon	Queens Garden and Navajo Trail
Deanne	Queens Garden and Navajo Trail	Little Wild Horse Canyon	The Narrows
16 yr old son	Little Wild Horse Canyon	Queens Garden and Navajo Trail	The Narrows
14 yr old son	Little Wild Horse Canyon	The Narrows	Queens Garden and Navajo Trail
11 yr old daughter	The Narrows	Little Wild Horse Canyon	Delicate Arch Trail

We were almost unanimous on our choice of top three hikes. These major hikes were so impressive and unlike any other hikes we’ve done. Here are a few more details…

LITTLE WILD HORSE CANYON

Little Wild Horse is a slot canyon trail that was so fun and unusual we all listed it in our top 2 Utah hikes. Each of us had a blast squeezing through the narrow parts and climbing up and around the rocks. We highly recommend including this trail in your Utah itinerary. This trail is not in a Utah national park, it’s located between Canyonlands and Capitol Reef near Goblin Valley State Park. We hiked about five miles on the out and back trail, which took us approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes… although we stopped to take a lot of pictures.

QUEENS GARDEN AND NAVAJO TRAILS

The Queens Garden and Navajo Trails in Bryce Canyon National Park blew us away with their other-worldly scenery. Walking through the soaring rocky spires, called hoodoos, during the Wall Street portion (the area with the highest walls and narrowest walkways) of the trail was especially impressive! It felt like being on an Indiana Jones movie set.

Queens Garden and Navajo Loop are actually two separate trails, but you can walk a combination of both including the incredible Wall Street section in one 2.9-mile hike. We highly recommend starting your hike at Sunrise Point and following the Queens Garden trail to the Navajo Trail, ending at Sunset Point. You can do the reverse, but then you walk through Wall Street first. Our family agrees it makes more sense to finish the extraordinary hike with Wall Street at the end – saving the best for last. The entire route took us 1.5 hours.

THE NARROWS

The Narrows trail in Zion is another unbelievably impressive hike between towering canyon walls, but this time you’re walking through a river. Depending on what time of year you visit, you may want to rent warm gear to wear as you venture through the cool water. At times the water can be waist-high.

We were there in fall, so we rented dry pants, neoprene socks, canyoneering boots and walking sticks from Zion Outfitter in Springdale. The gear was essential at this time of the year to keep us warm. The walking sticks and boots are necessary any time of year, in our opinion, as you will be walking over slippery and uneven rocks almost the entire way. NPS.gov describes it like “walking on slippery bowling balls.” The extra effort and expense to rent gear is well worth it. Be mindful of the weather and the potential for flash flooding before you begin The Narrows hike. Also know that in spring The Narrows is sometimes closed due to spring snow melt.

This world-famous hike makes you feel tiny surrounded by stunning and soaring rock walls with light peeking through the very top. Most people begin along the Riverside Walk and hike through to Wall Street (not to be confused with the Wall Street in Bryce Canyon) and back. We hiked approximately 5 miles round trip and it took us 5.5 hours (remember you’ll be walking a lot slower than normal through the water and uneven rocks) – that’s including the walk to and from the river on Riverside Walk, a stop for lunch on a rock and A LOT of pictures.

DELICATE ARCH

We dedicated a whole article to hiking Delicate Arch at sunset as there are definite things you should know before embarking on that adventure. You can find the information here.

Favorite Part of Each National Park in Utah

The 5 national parks in Utah are packed with adventure, unbelievable scenery, and serenity. Some aspects of the parks thrilled us more than others. Here’s a list of our favorite part of each park.

	Arches	Canyonlands	Capitol Reef	Bryce Canyon	Zion
Ryan	Delicate Arch at sunset	Mesa Arch sunrise	Hickman Bridge	Queens Garden/Navajo Trail	Hiking The Narrows
Deanne	Windows	Mesa Arch sunrise	Hickman Bridge and Capitol Gorge (tied)	Queens Garden/Navajo Trail	Large sunlit lawn (with deer roaming freely)
16 yr old son	Windows, places to climb, everything so close	Mesa Arch sunrise	Fruita picnic area and pie	Queens Garden/Navajo Trail	Grassy area in middle of park with deer
14 yr old son	Climbing sand dune just outside entrance to park	Mesa Arch sunrise	Scenic Drive	Queens Garden/Navajo Trail	The community feel of staying inside the park
11 yr old daughter	Delicate Arch at sunset	Mesa Arch sunrise	Scenic Drive	Queens Garden/Navajo Trail	Middle of the park surrounded by tall canyon walls

Sometimes it’s the little things that make a national park unique and inviting. For instance, we lodged inside the park in Zion. Just outside the main building was a large sunlit lawn with deer roaming around. We all enjoyed relaxing on the grass with speckled sunlight shining through the trees. It was the perfect respite after a day of hiking. The large cottonwood tree in the middle and steep canyon walls surrounding the courtyard attracted people to just sit, relax, and even nap. When my 16 year-old son first saw the grassy sunlit area with deer roaming freely, his first words were, “This is like a dream.”

Best Food In and Around Utah’s National Parks

Having good food to eat on vacation is important, but sometimes you find yourselves in more remote towns with not much variety to choose from. The city of Moab (near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks) and Springdale (outside of Zion National Park) offered the most food options, while the area surrounding Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef were more sparse. Touring the best national parks in Utah we managed to find some delicious dishes that really made an impact on us. Here they are:

	Favorite Food
Ryan	Pancake dippers at Blondie’s Diner (Springdale)* In-N-Out Burger (Salt Lake City area)
Deanne	Fish tacos at Brew Pub (Springdale)
16 yr old son	Steak at Brew Pub (Springdale) Pancake dippers at Blondie’s Diner (Springdale)*
14 yr old son	Pancake dippers at Blondie’s Diner (Springdale)* Hot breakfast buffet at Broken Spur Inn (Torrey)
11 yr old daughter	Grilled cheese at Brew Pub (Springdale) Pancake dippers at Blondie’s Diner (Springdale)*

We all agreed the pancake dippers at Blondie’s Diner were out of this world. (*update: I just got word that Blondie’s Diner is now under new management and they no longer serve Pancake Dippers. We are bummed!) The Brew Pub offered up some tasty treats as well as a fun atmosphere. As for the fast-food chain In-N-Out Burger? Well, it’s an obsession we have when traveling out west since we don’t have them close to our Midwestern hometown.

Descriptions of Each Utah National Park

I was interested to know what my family took away from each of the 5 national parks and what stood out most to them, so I asked them to give me a short 1 or 2-word description of the parks. Without knowing what everyone else said, this is how each of us described Utah’s national parks in our own words.

	Arches	Canyonlands	Capitol Reef	Bryce Canyon	Zion
Ryan	Gorgeous	Stunning sunrise	Surprisingly beautiful	Other-worldly	Spectacular
Deanne	Fun	Cool! and Cold!	Surprisingly stunning	Unbelievably unique	Massive and majestic
16 yr old son	Beautiful desert hikes, pretty lighting	Best sunrise with massive canyons	Cool community (Fruita)	Good views, great hike into canyon	Very cool place to stay in park, cool city nearby, lots of hikes
14 yr old son	Cool arches of different sizes	Cold and beautiful	Scenic (tall canyon walls)	Pretty sunrises and sunsets	Pretty grassy area surrounded by tall mountains
11 yr old daughter	Fun climbing on rocks around the arches	Good place for sunrise	Huge Hickman Bridge, cute picnic area	Gorgeous lookouts, see very far	Big rock walls, fun rocky hikes

As you can see from some of the descriptions, Canyonlands was very cold the day we visited, 19 degrees Fahrenheit with near 0 degree windchill. We were in the park bright and early to see the sunrise and it had snowed overnight. The glistening snow made for stunning scenery, but blistery temperatures prevented us from doing any long hikes. Fortunately Canyonlands has many overlooks that are accessible by car and a short walk, so we viewed the park that way. With better weather, we would have checked out some of these Best Hikes In Canyonlands.

What are the Best National Parks in Utah? Here is our Ranking.

While all the parks were unbelievably impressive, we managed to come up with our favorites. Here they are – all 5 Utah National Parks ranked 1-5 as seen through the eyes of two 40-somethings and a 16, 14 and 11 year old.

	1	2	3	4	5
Ryan	Zion	Bryce Canyon	Arches	Capitol Reef	Canyonlands
Deanne	Zion	Bryce Canyon	Arches	Capitol Reef	Canyonlands
16 yr old son	Zion	Arches	Bryce Canyon	Capitol Reef	Canyonlands
14 yr old son	Zion	Bryce Canyon	Arches	Capitol Reef	Canyonlands
11 yr old daughter	Zion	Arches and Bryce Canyon (tied)		Capitol Reef	Canyonlands

An interesting note: Even though Zion National Park was the last park we explored during our 8+ days of unbelievably scenic travel, it still made so much of an impression on us and we all ranked it #1. You’d think seeing so much Utah red rock scenery for a week straight would be sensory overload, but it wasn’t. In fact, the parks kept amazing us with each new one we ventured into. We hope it’s the same for you. Happy travels as you explore possibly the most beUTAHful state in the country!

Have you been to Utah? Do you agree with our ranking of best national parks in Utah? Let us know in the comments. We’d love to hear from you.

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