Top 5 Places to Visit in Utah
1. Zion National Park – America is pretty popular with the abundance of very spectacular national parks, but even the best of them hardly can match the breath-taking beauty of Zion National Park in Utah. Located near Springdale in southern Utah, the park features a series of protected rock formations and high sandstone cliffs. Zion National Park is hands down, a favourite destination for backpackers, hikers, camping and canyoneering enthusiasts. Unlike many other national parks in the country, where visitors look down from the rim of the canyon and cannot experience the natural wonder’s beauty and magnificent atmosphere to the fullest, Zion National park allows for a more in-depth exploring and visitors can walk on the canyon’s floor.
2. Bryce Canyon National Park – Despite the name, Bryce Canyon National Park is actually not a canyon and it features a collection of massive natural amphitheatres nestled alongside the Paunsaugunt Plateau in southwestern Utah. The impressive and stunning kaleidoscope of rocks coloured in different colours is simply irresistible and so unique that thousands and thousands of tourists visit Bryce Canyon National Park every year, which makes it one of the most popular destinations in Texas. Bryce Canyon was officially settled by Mormon pioneers during the mid-19th century and became a national monument in the 20s of the 19th century, later designated as a national park too. In addition, the park is a home to an impressive number of wildlife species and hundreds of unique tree species.
3. Arches National Park – Another natural wonder worth visiting when in the state of Utah is the Arches National Park that is mostly known for its beautiful and picturesque natural arches as the name suggests. 300 million years ago salt beds deposited from the receding ocean in the area and this helped for the creation of more than 2000 natural arches dotted around the park, including one of the iconic symbols of the state – the Delicate Arch. In addition to the unique arches, the park features towering spires, fins, and balanced rocks, creating a very remarkable, very quirky, and definitely one-of-a-kind scenery. To amplify the unique beauty of these rocky figures, even more, the backdrop of contrasting colours, shapes, and textures adds even more to the overall picturesque setting.
4. Canyonlands – Canyonlands National Park is located in southeastern Utah near the town of Moab and features a well-preserved, vast, and spectacular colourful landscape with innumerable canyons, buttes, and mesas dotted around the park and alongside the Green River and Colorado River. Canyonlands is divided into four very distinctive and unique districts – the Needles, the Maze, the Island in the Sky, and the rivers. With such a unique and breath-taking setting, the park is considered as one of the top places to visit in the state of Utah.
5. Capitol Reef National Park – Utah is truly a home to many spectacular landscapes and one of them is Capitol Reef National Park situated in the south-central part of the state. Despite the impressive 100 miles of length, the park is pretty narrow and features colourful canyons, monoliths, buttes, and ridges that are traditional for Utah’s landscape. However, the main highlight of Capitol Reef National Park is the very rugged line of white cliffs that used to be a very serious barrier for travellers and migration until the early 1960s. Inside the park, visitors enjoy a spacious campground and the Burr Trail Scenic Backway.