Off to utah

**Justonemore** · 09-21-2019, 04:53 PM

Sounds like a great trip. We stayed in Zion park about a 1/4 mile from the entrance and right outside of Springdale a nice little town. We stayed at the loop B campground with a view of the river. The sites are good size and most are not to close to your neighbor as well the sites have 30 amp service. They do have a dump station on the way out with potable water but not at the sites. We went on the website and got lucky and got a cancellation.

https://www.nps.gov/zion/planyourvis...campground.htm

**MarioG9999** · 09-21-2019, 05:39 PM

I know that area very well. Best if you call me. To connect, email me at [email protected]

**TravelingRam** · 09-21-2019, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by AustexGP

Well we finally got all the details in place and are heading out to Utah in late September. So far we're trying to keep the driving to 500 miles, so we have a stop just outside of Lubbock another one in Albuquerque and finally to Moab.

In Moab we're staying in Spanish Trail RV park for a few days then to Park City and ending up around Zion National Park before heading back.

If anyone has any information/suggestions about Utah I'd love to hear them.

I'll keep you posted on how we do as this will be our BIG trip outside of Texas.

We hit the five National Parks in Utah last September culminating with the balloon fest in Albuquerque in early Oct. What a great trip, took 32 days and what a blast. Have fun.

**mjohn59** · 09-22-2019, 07:04 AM

I agree Not much to see in Park City, I would stay in southern Utah much more to see and do Cedar Breaks is also not that far from Bryce Canyon, and Capitol Reef. Zion has become to crowded for me anymore.

2019 F350 diesel
2020 310 GK
Andersen Ultimate Hitch

**WhittleBurner** · 09-22-2019, 07:17 AM

Utah is on our list for the next big trip, we like to take our time to explore areas of intrest. How much time is realistic in Utah without rushing through ?

**mjohn59** · 09-22-2019, 08:18 AM

My suggestion would be a minimum of a couple of weeks. There is a lot too see I would hit Zion, Cedar Breaks, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef and then Canyon Lands. Cedar Breaks is fifty to sixty miles from Zion, and on your way to Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef.
If you map this out it would be nice loop through the Southern part of the state and see a lot of beautiful country.

**Ribboy58** · 09-22-2019, 08:35 AM

In the Park City area, there is a very nice campground in Heber City called Mountain Valley RV Resort. It's a little drive from there to PC but it is the nicest resort in the area. This also gives you good access to Deer Creek Reservoir State Park, Midway UT (a quaint alpine town) and Wasatch MTN state Park. Golfing is good in this area as well along with fishing. Enjoy our beautiful state!

**Justonemore** · 09-22-2019, 09:24 AM

Utah is a pretty large state with lots to see and do. I would make sure I did some research on the National Parks and try to come up with a plan. We spent a few weeks there on our way back to MT and stayed off of highway 15 and stuck more to the back roads and was not disappointed. What a wonderful state, fishing, biking and touring you name it as well as very friendly people.

**AustexGP** · 11-12-2019, 02:30 PM

Sorry it has taken so long to reply. We got back from our Utah trip and right into our grand girls gymnastics competition. Off to New Braunfels, then Allen and this weekend Denton.

For everyone planning a trip to Utah over the summer or next fall make your reservations NOW! Though I can't complain about any of the campgrounds that we stayed at in Utah most of the "5 star and close to the National Parks were full".

We left Austin and traveled to Lubbock and backtracked to Slayton and stayed at Twin Pine RV Park. Thought this park was a little out of the way it is close to Lubbock's loop and had easy access to gas stations and restaurants.

From Lubbock we went to Albuquerque and stayed at Enchanted Trails RV park. This park was recommended in prior post, but it does not have cable TV and most sites are not level. This is where our inexperience came into play. It took us over 2 hours to get the 5th wheel level, most was our mess ups. Putting the leveling blocks on the wrong side, putting to many or not enough. Finally got it done and had time to enjoy Albuquerque Old Town for a few hours.

From Albuquerque we went to Gallup and up to NM491 to Utah 191 to Moab. The only problem we had with the portion of the trip was the road construction. It seemed like we would go 10-15miles then have to stop for 15-20minutes while traffic coming south would pass, then we could go. This went on from Gallup to Dove Creek Colorado (made this the longest part of out trip).

In Moab we stayed in Spanish Trails RV Park as recommend in a prior post. This was a great park with gravel (but level) sites and we used it as the base for Arches NP, Canyon Land NP, Capitol Reef NP and Dead Horse State Park. Each of these parks were beautiful and quite a site to behold (pictures don't really capture the real feel of the parks) but BEWARE there is a lot of hiking in each park. If I could do it over again I would add a couple of extra days in Moab. Moab restaurants all had super good food with reasonable prices and -starting in 2020- will have real beer!

From Moab we went to Heber City Utah using Utah 191 and hwy 6 to IH15 through Provo. Not the way RV Trip Wizard recommended but the way our Chevrolet Nav System took us. This was a beautiful drive up and down mountains with narrow roads. Not much fun for the driver but everyone else loved the sites. We stayed at Mountain Valley RV park in Heber City (the owners of Mountain City have purchased Spanish Trails in Moab). Mountain Valley on a scale of 1 to 10 was about a 15. What an awesome place. We met one of the Utah Grand Design State Organizers and had a terrific visit with all the other GD owners in the park.

Several folks had wondered why we were going to Park City but I thought the Olympic Village was well worth the trip. If you go, take the tour as it gives you great information and make sure that you have enough time to spend in the visitor center. Did you realize the both Denver and Salt Lake are bidding on the next winter Olympics. If Denver wins then the opening day ceremonies will be held in Denver, but the ski jumping, cross country skiing, skating events, snow boarding events, luge will be held in Salt Lake (they have the facilities already - interesting). Park City was like any little town taking advantage of the tourist, very interesting and touristy. If you go be sure to stop by the visitors center near the Olympic Village to get the scoop on Park City. Hint take the free shuttle to the top of the town and walk down. On our way back from Park City we stopped in a little town of Midway. Very interesting history but the main attraction was Memorial Hill. A monument to all of the service men and women from the area who served and died.

Salt Lake City was interesting - parking the 3500hd was a problem - a very clean city and well laid out. We spent most of the day at the Mormon facility. If you are interested in how the Mormon religion got started it is a very interesting place. Be sure to take one of the guided tours, listen to the organ recital and do spend time in the grand hotel. We were able to sit in on a rehearsal for the next days organ recital. Me a very nice gentleman of the sweet age of 89 (he was going to be 90 the next week but didn't want it to be rushed) who gave us a great person insite into the Mormon religion as it is in Salt Lake.

From Heber City we traveled to the little town of Tropic and used that as a base to visit Bryce Canyon and Zion NP. Tropic was small town and off of Utah's famous hwy 12. No cable TV and only 10 rv sites. But they did have a great fire pit in the evening for all to enjoy.

Bryce Canyon was as advertised, beautiful but again lots of hiking to see everything. We just decided to use the pull-outs and take pictures from there and only hiked to a few of the sites that were less than a mile. Zion was packed as usual and parking was in the town of Springdale ($20.00 all day). Going though to tunnel - just the 3500HD was $15.00 - was a blast. They close the entire tunnel so we could go through. You have to drive right down the middle. Not sure that I would want to pull an RV through the tunnel into/out of Zion. Man those are some small twisty roads.

I was disappointed in Zion - not in the beauty and history of the park - but in what you could do without spending the entire day hiking. Nothing was a short half mile walk, when we got on the tram we were told that 2 of the 8 stops were closed due to rock slides. So we got to stop at the visitors center, the lodge and the virgin river stop. The visitors center was good but not as good as the other national parks, the lodge and grounds were covered with people and it was an hour wait just to get a beer. We did enjoy hiking to the water falls from the lodge and up to where the Virgin River come from the canyon.

It was a great trip - for our first long trip - but in retrospect we should have traveled to Zion NP first and back tracked to Moab. The way we went added a day to our return trip.