Utah

June 2025

Michael Pistrang, June 2025

About

In June 2025 our family of four took an 8 day trip to Utah to visit a couple national parks and see a part of the country none of us had been to before. Here is a recap of our trip and what we did.

The trip spanned from a Thursday to Friday the following week. Our trip included 4 stops, starting with a late night arrival into Vegas, then to Zion National Park, to Bryce Canyon area, and then Salt Lake City. I'll list out the specifics of where we stayed, hiked, and ate throughout the recap.

A nice moment on our second flight from CLT to LAS.

Day 1 - PLM -> CTL -> LAS

Portland airport was busy on Thursday in late June, but our flight from PWM to CLT was uneventful. Our second flight from CLT to LAS was delayed 2 hours so we had extra time to sit, rest, and eat in the hot Charlotte airport. Our plan was to stay in Vegas that night by the airport and pick up our rental car the next morning, so it was not a big deal that we got into Vegas 2 hours later than what we had planned.

Day 2 - To Utah!

Friday morning we picked up our rental car and decided to drive through the strip on our way out of town. We were on East coast time so it was early and there was minimal traffic. We all had a lot of fun seeing the sights.

We had booked a mid-size SUV for our rental car through Hertz but the car assigned to us was a Jeep Wrangler 4xe Sahara. After confirming it was the same price, we took off. We all loved the jeep, and some scenic pictures of it will be highlighted below

We drove from Vegas to St. George, UT. We had an awesome lunch at Irmita's Casita. It was a small Mexican lunch spot that we knew immediately upon entering was going to be great. We had enchiladas (mole and chipotle), carnitas, and rice and beans. We also had a tamarind agua fresca and a couple Jarritos. One of the top meals of the trip.

Then we headed to the other side of town to the Dino Cliffs trail. We had to adventure off road for this which was the first test of the Jeep and our off road driving skills. We drove as far as we could and then had a short but extremely hot walk up and then down to some dinosaur tracks which we really wanted to see. This ended up being the worst outing of the trip due to the heat and some post-flight fatigue, but we still got a good pic.

After a pit stop at Walmart to get some supplies, we made the 1 hour drive to Springdale, Utah where we'd be staying at the Springhill Suites in town. The pool and hot tub helped us all recover from the heat, and the view got us excited for our next few days in Zion.

We had dinner that night at Thai Sapa which was fine but not enjoyed by all, and then went for a drive up the Mount Carmel Highway and through the tunnel. We put the top down on the Jeep and enjoyed the amazing views. We also stopped by the visitor center to check out the scene.

Day 3 - Zion Hike #1

After a solid night's sleep we woke up early with plans to take the shuttle into Zion National Park and hike in the Emerald Pool area. We had this hike in mind, and the information we gathered from the park ranger the day before at the visitor center helped us immensely in our planning for the day.

We took the Springdale town shuttle into the park, and arrived at the park shuttle line around 7:45am to find a very long line given it was a Saturday. Most folks were headed either to The Narrows or to hike Angels Landing. After about a 25 minute wait we got onto a shuttle and got off at the bottom of our planned one-way hike.

We hiked from Zion Lodge up the upper Emerald Pool trail to Middle Emerald Pool, then up the .4 mi climb to Upper Emerald Pool, and then back down and around the Lower Emerald Pool. Then we trekked along the Kayenta trail ending at The Grotto. Here we picked up the shuttle and headed back to the visitor center, and then back to our hotel to swim in the pool. The hike was about 3.7 miles and totaled somewhere around 700ft elevation gain but I can't say for sure because the steep canyon walls confused the GPS.

Upper Emerald Pool - no swimming!

There were 15 or so folks at the pool, but we still got some time and space to play.

Morgan took this good pic of Maeve and Mike!

We got some nice views looking back on the ridge we had hiked on previously (the low down ridge on the right)

We swam before dinner, ate at a pub type place in town called Oscar's Cafe, and then swam again after dinner.

Day 4 - Zion Hike #2

Sunday morning was much cooler, and a lot less busy. There was no line at the park shuttle that morning as we made our way to The Narrows. We didn't plan on hiking in too far as the river gets waist deep which would be too much for the kids. Most folks rent special water hiking boots from an outfitter at the park entrance. We brought our sandals just in case.

The Narrows starts off with a paved easy park path with some fun places to play along the way. When we got to where The Narrows hike starts, we decided to put on our sandals and wade through the water. Morgan was carried by Mike, and Malcolm and Maeve did their best to stay upright. The water was cold and we had fun working our way up the canyon just a bit.

I didn't track this hike well but it was essentially no elevation gain and just about 1.5 miles into the canyon before turning around.

With one more final stop in the park to take some more pictures, we made our way back to the hotel and swam for a bit. We went to Zion Pizza & Noodle Co. for dinner. The adults got salads and the kids got pasta. Everybody was happy on our last night at Zion.

Day 5 - Bryce and Cannonville

We slept in a bit and then started our drive to Bryce Canyon. We had been watching the news of the France Canyon forest fire leading up to this travel day and were able to confirm that Bryce was open and save to travel to. We drove up through the Mount Carmel tunnel again and stopped on the side of the road for a quick excursion for some rock scrambling.

We continued our drive to Bryce and got to drive through some cool arches.

We arrived at Bryce Canyon National Park around 11:30am, and given it was a Monday had an easy time parking at Sunrise Point. We ate our lunch on the edge of the Rim Trail and started our hike from Sunrise Point, down into the canyon, and back up to Sunset Point. This was an amazing hike with perfect desert temperatures and clear blue skies. The trail was busy but the views masked any annoyance of this.

This hike ended up being about 3.5 miles and 700 feet elevation.

After our hike we continued our journey to where we would be staying the next few nights: a geodesic dome in the desert east of Bryce. This was a short drive into the rural Utah desert.

Bryce Canyon Glamp and Camp was beautiful and we all had fun in our dome. We also got to cook a bit with the grill and hot plate provided in our kitchen. You can see some wildfire smoke in the background here.

A small trail behind our dome led up to this amazing view.

Day 6 - Kodachrome Basin State Park Hike

The next day we went to Kodachrome Basin State Park for a desert hike. This was a true desert experience; sun, red cliffs, and lizards. It was a long hike with a lot of cool features along the way, ending with "Cool Cave" which made the hike worth it. 5.5 miles with 500ft elevation gain.

After a rest back at our dome, we went back out again to a small canyon nearby that had really easy access into the narrows of the canyon. The drive there was a bit more intense, 6 miles on a back-country road that tested our Jeep (and Mike's nerves) even further. The canyon was amazing, and we got to experience much of what we couldn't at Zion's Narrows. This was a small hike, just 1.5mi with no elevation.

That evening we wen back up the trail behind the dome (in our pajamas!) for what we told the kids was their last hike of the trip (whoops). You can see some more smoke from the France Canyon wildfire in the background here.

Day 7 - Drive to SLC

The next morning we packed up and started our drive to Salt Lake City. Along the way we stopped at a grocery store, a nice town park for our picnic lunch, and a hot spring that was pretty but not inviting for swimming.

Our first destination in SLC was an enormous splash pad playground complex we had read about. We all had a fun cooling off as it was a hot day. Malcolm went down the slides.

That afternoon we checked in at our hotel, had a good Mexican dinner at The Red Iguana, and swam in our (small) hotel pool. We stopped by Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City but much of it was under construction so we did not get to go into any of the impressive buildings there.

Day 8 - Antelope Island

Our last hike (for real this time) was to Dooly Knob on Antelope Island, the biggest island in the Great Salt Lake. Originally we had our sights set on swimming, but it became clear that was not the right activity for the lake. The hike was amazing. We didn't see any bison but we got some great views. 2.6 miles and 700ft elevation gain.

Even though we didn't swim, we still checked out the water (and bugs!) but soon headed back into the city.

That evening we had dinner at Afghan Kitchen Restaurant which was another top meal of the trip. It was just what we needed. We returned the Jeep that night. We'll miss you!

Day 8 - LAS -> DFW -> PWM

We woke up early and got ourselves to the airport via the hotel shuttle. Our flights were all on time and we ate about half of the 15lbs of food we packed for ourselves. We got one last shuttle ride back to the Pink Lot at PWM, picked up some sushi takeout, and got home about 12 hours after we left the hotel.

Recap

We all had different favorites of the trip, from the food to hikes to places we stayed. We are thankful for logistics that worked out, for the folks working the forest fires, and all the people we met along the way. Everybody we met was very nice and helpful throughout the whole trip. Our Jeep was great and took us where we needed to be, which was important considering we drove 863 miles (many off road). This was the first trip the four of us have taken to a brand new place, with a major focus on hiking. It was a great success!

Let us know if you want any more information about where we stayed, what we did, or any of the maps I bought to help plan our hikes.

All the photos we took can be seen here.

Report abuse