Southwest Road Trip - Utah

Our family is attempting to travel to all 50 states through creative road trips. We prefer to choose a route which may have several destination stops throughout the trip. This often results in spending a short amount of time in one city. We love to get the flavor of the place that we are visiting by experiencing dining experiences, seeing a well-known icon from that area or simply experiencing the understated charm of that particular area.

Our Summer 2024 trip took us to the beautiful Southwest. We flew into Las Vegas and then made a loop through Arizona and Utah returning to Las Vegas to fly home. We also stopped in Four Corners so our kids say we crossed off New Mexico as we technically ate in New Mexico. We also traveled into Colorado to visit Mesa Verde once we realized how close we were. We allow extra time in our itineraries so that we can make these impromptu decisions if we choose to do another activity. Technically, this trip allowed us to cross off five new states as a family: Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. We knew we wanted to spend our time exploring this area so our trip spanned 12 days.

This destination guide covers the portion we spent in Utah. If you would like to read the entire guide, click here.

Utah Overview:

Day 1: Arches National Park

Day 2: Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Treehouse stay

Day 3: Bryce Canyon and Glamping

Day 4: ATV ride at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, Arrive in Zion

Day 5: Zion National Park

Day 6: Drive back to Vegas, explore Vegas, Mat Franco show

Day 7: Flight home

Day 1: We explored Arches National Park on this day. At the time of our trip, you needed a timed entry to enter so check for the details on the NPS page. Arches is a beautiful park! We packed picnic lunches and enjoyed lunch in the park. Bring plenty of water!

After the park, we enjoyed dinner at the Moab Diner. After being hot all day, it was nice to have some comfort food and ice cream options!

We returned for another night at the Holiday Inn Express Moab for more fun pool time!

Day 2: The next day we visited Canyonlands National Park and Capitol Reef National Park. Both were beautiful. I love the red rocks, but I was so happy to see some green grass at Capitol Reef! We had a picnic lunch at Capitol Reef and bought an apple pie from the Gifford Homestead which is in the park.

After a day of sightseeing, we arrived at our accommodations and grabbed some dinner nearby. We stayed in a "treehouse" at the Stone Canyon Inn. This was such a memorable stay! While the cabin was not truly in a tree, the cabin was elevated and had a firepit underneath. This was a memorable stay for our daughters.

We grabbed dinner at Showdowns Restaurant. We really enjoyed this restaurant. The food was good and the atmosphere was fun. My daughters loved that there was popcorn. We returned home to make s'mores at our treehouse.

Day 3: The next day we explored Bryce Canyon. We loved seeing all the Hoodoos!

For our accommodations that night, we had chosen another fun experience. This time it was glamping! We stayed at one of the tents at Cave Lakes Canyon Resort. While it was a tent, it was climate-controlled, had air mattresses and and even had a mini fridge. This was another memory-maker. We were able to have another s'more night- this time in a cave!

Day 4: The next day, we decided to explore Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. We had some extra time and my husband decided that an ATV experience would be fun so we obliged him with an early Father's Day gift. It was a unique experience for sure! It is a guided tour as you follow behind a guide in another ATV. The tour ends with sand surfing! Be aware that the sand can get very hot. It can also get very messy if your surfing goes awry. Luckily, we had towels and extra clothes in the car.

After this experience, we continued on toward Zion National Park. We stopped for a couple pictures as we entered the park.

We continued on to our accommodations and some much-needed pool time! We stayed at the Desert Pearl Inn. This stay was pricier than we usually choose, but it balanced convenience and was highly recommended by a friend. The views were breathtaking! And, deer came to visit every evening on our back veranda. This stay did not disappoint!

Day 5: On this day, we explored Zion National Park. Plan ahead and read the NPS site as there are buses that transport people into the park. Make sure you have a plan! We enjoyed exploring. I loved the scenery at Zion!

After the park, we enjoyed dinner at Oscar's Cafe. We returned for another night at Desert Pearl Inn and were visited by more deer.

Day 6: On this day, we packed up and headed back toward Vegas to close out our trip. Of course, we needed a stop at In-N-Out and a picture at the iconic Las Vegas sign. We spent some time exploring "Old Vegas" and had dinner at La Mona Rosa. We ended the night with a magic show with Mat Franco in the Linq. The show was great! We were able to score reasonable tickets on Groupon. (Always check activities on Groupon!)

Our accommodations for the night were at the Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South. We headed to bed for an early flight home!

We loved our Southwest Trip! We saw five states and saw seven National Parks! Read more about our entire trip, by exploring the earlier leg of Arizona.

Read about our entire road trip on this post: 50 State Journey-Southwest Road Trip

Follow along for more multi-destination trips at Middle of the Road Mindset.