Welcome to the Mighty Five series! In the next 4 articles (linked below), I will be sharing my tips and tricks for visiting each of Utah's national parks from my experience seeing them all in one year.
I have lived in Utah for most of my life, but it wasn't until I was about to move across the world that I finally got around to visiting all 5 of its national parks. Now, that doesn't mean that I had never been to ANY of them. One of my earliest memories is getting lost in Arches with my family and accidentally stomping through a field of cryptobiotic soil (unforgivable, I know). I've also hiked Angels Landing in Zion like 15 times (yeah, that's a flex). BUT I had never been to Capitol Reef or Canyonlands and had only glanced into Bryce Canyon.
So, after purchasing an annual National Parks Pass in August 2021, I set a goal with my husband, Jake, and best adventure buddy, Nat, to visit every park in Utah by August 2022 which is coincidentally both when the pass expired and when Jake and I moved to London.
Here's how we did it:
January 29-31: Capitol Reef
March 5-6: Bryce Canyon
May 14-15: Canyonlands and Arches
July 23: Zion
Okay. Without further ado, welcome to my journey conquering the Mighty Five!!! I have written these articles as I would if I friend wanted to do a similar trip and asked for my advice, so hopefully they are helpful to you too!
I have written them as separate articles so you can click below to read about each park:
Fair warning before you proceed: This is a documentation of a grand adventure and not necessarily a perfect guide on how you, dear reader, should proceed if you also wish to see the Mighty Five. In fact, it may even be a guide on what not to do. Snow storms and heat waves and getting home at 2 a.m. with work at 9 definitely add to the memorableness of it all, but they aren't for the faint of heart.
But if anything, it shows that you don't need to take 3 weeks off work or wait for the perfect seasons to see these parks! We all lived in Northern Utah at the time and fit everything into weekend trips without taking time off work. So, I'm hoping to prove that adventure is out there! You just need to go and get it.
