Learn me Moab, Bryce, Zions

Headed to southern Utah for the first time in late September. We're meeting my parents and some old friends from Blighty in Moab, spending a day or two there, then on to Bryce. The four of them will head back to Colorado after a couple days in Bryce while SWMBO and I will go on to Zions.

Looking for suggestions for places to stay and things to do. Note that the group of people involved range in age from around 60 to mid-80's, so this isn't going to be a gnaw-your-arm-off extreme hiking adventure in the boonies. We'll be there in rental cars, too, so any off-road excursions will have to be guided or will require renting ATVs or whatever it is you can rent out there.

Looking for "nice" places to stay. This isn't about pinching pennies. Maybe even a resort-type place for a few nights if it doesn't require a first-born child...

Oh, and as if I need to mention, car stuff?

Never been to Moab, but I have been to Zion and Bryce. If there is anything I can suggest, it's slow down. Both places are probably like nothing you've seen before, especially Bryce. Just slow down and saver it.

That part of Utah looks like you're visiting another planet. It's just amazing. Get out and see the sights - Arches National Park, Canyonlands, etc. They really are natural wonders, and many sights can be seen from/near your car.

You'll love it. Get a National Parks pass if you don't already have one, it'll pay for itself.

Drive from Moab to Bryce via Rt 12. Bonus points for taking a side trip down the Burr Trail.

Bryce: if you just go to the lookouts, it'll look exactly like the postcards. There are horsie rides down in to the canyon. I've never taken one, but I've hiked the same trails and I'd highly recommend it. I'm not sure where there is to stay in the area other than the obvious hotels. I don't know of any high end hotels there.

Zion: Stay in Springdale. The Desert Pearl Inn is really nice, and I've been able to get some screaming deals there off-season. It's worth looking at, and I'd make a phone call instead of booking online because it seems to be run by people. Our good prices came from talking to the owner. Really nice.

About all you can do in Zion without gnawing your arm off is take the shuttle up the Virgin River road. It's gorgeous. Make the typical little walks up to the typical scenic things, and do the walk up the river at the end of the shuttle run. If you've got a little athleticism, the Overlook Trail is my favorite. It's not sketchy like Angel's Landing, but it is strenuous.

Moab: I rarely stay in a hotel here, but the La Quinta is nice :) The Sorrel River Ranch sure looks good as I drive by. There are lots of Jeep/Hummer tours available. I don't know where they take you, but the following trails are beeyoutiful:
- Poison Spider
- Metal Masher
- Kane Creek (quite a variety here)

Arches National Park is an obvious one, make sure you hike to Double Arch. Delicate Arch is a bit of a walk, there's a distant viewpoint that's a lot easier to access. I can get you more info if required. Dead Horse Point is iconic.

Look into the various petroglyphs in the area. There's one on the Kane Creek road (Birthing Rock, I think) and Newspaper Rock is close by. There are also some dinosaur fossils that are accessible on a short walk, I can get you info - they're not all that well known.

Rt 128 near Moab is another great drive - you'll recognize the scenery from movies and Marlboro ads.

Car stuff - take a drive up Snow Canyon as well as the Virgin River Gorge on I-15. In Snow Canyon there are a few places to pull off and just take it in. For the Virgin River Gorge, pull off at the only exit in the middle and go down to the rest stop and take a little hike.

For dinner drive up to Pine Valley and have dinner at the Brandin' Iron. Steak place with great food. It is more of a saloon with awesome food not a Morton's type of place. Last time I was there they had a Colt 45 on the wall hung by a nail in the bar where we waited for our table.

St George is the largest city so you can look for better places there. It has been a while since I was there.

Google Toroweap as another place to visit. It is the north rim of the Grand Canyon and a little hard for the average tourist to go to. No railing so don't get too close.

There are petroglyphs near St George. Kinda cool to see.

>Scott

We rent a house when we go to Moab. It's out of town a little bit but here is the view off the back deck:

It's very peaceful and almost silent at night.

My Flickr page has the photos from our last trip to Moab on there: https://www.flickr.com/photos/132195864@N08

So many good options of things to do including hiking, Biking, and off-roading. Can't wait to get back there and do a 4 day mountain bike adventure in the canyonlands.

There are plenty of hotels/resorts right outside the gates of Zion (Springdale I believe). We stayed at an expensive resort when we were there for the Zion half marathon earlier this year. The previous summer we rented via AirBnB in St. George. I think it was a 45 minute drive each way. The sights in Zion are absolutely incredible, but the best experiences involve hiking. Some of which are pretty gnarly (and potentially deadly!), so maybe not the best place for the demographic you'll be with. Might want to just do a drive-thru and picnic at the visitor center.

The Narrows (not for the faint of heart)

Bryce also has incredible views. The colors of the landscape look downright CGI and alien. We did a couple moderate hikes while there. Good thing is the outlooks that are short walks from the main center have awesome panoramic views.

Unfortunately these pictures just don't do them justice. These were just some random iPhone pics, all the high res DSLR pics are at home on my hard drive.

Next time we will hit up Moab and Arches

Thanks, guys!! I knew y'all would come through. Forgot to mention that both the people coming from Blighty have had heart attacks in the past year (talk about "feint of heart"), so "gnarly" and "potentially deadly" are off the table. The wife and I (particularly I) might be interested in some of the more challenging hikes in Zions, since we'll be there without all the old folks, but still, we're not there to scout BASE jump locations.

In reply to Basil Exposition:

Google "angel's landing". There have been more than a dozen deaths from that "hike", although 7 are of "suspicious nature". My wife did it while I stayed back on Scout's Landing with the kids. The Narrows is gorgeous, but besides hiking through ankle to waist deep water, being in there during a flash flood is deadly. Sure made it an exciting hike when you hear thunder in the distance

Here is a video of Snow Canyon

Snow Canyon

Not exactly the outdoorsy adventure, but there is a Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City if that kind of thing interests your group. Might be a way to have a nice relaxing evening. IIRC, they do something like 8-10 plays each summer with each one running 2-3 weeks. Around half of the total are plays written by Shakespeare.

All of those parks are beautiful, so enjoy what you can without overdoing it for the elderly members of the group. Make special effort to keep everybody hydrated. If they aren't used to the dry heat it is very easy to dehydrate because the perspiration evaporates so quickly that you don't feel hot or sweaty and don't realize how much fluid you are losing. I would think that elderly folks might be more susceptible to not noticing.

I figured you might be up to more interesting hikes in Zion due to the description. Angel's is really exposed. I personally like the Overlook one more, you get to look down on Angel's from above and it covers a much wider range of climates and rock types. Plus you get to hike through a cool little slot. It's a constant grind all the way up, but there's lots of space to stop and admire what my mother calls "breathless views".

If you want to try the exposure, near the bottom of the Overlook trail is a side trail to something like "hidden canyon". It'll have you hanging on to a chain on the side of a cliff if you want it...

How are the temps in late September? I'm hoping it will have cooled down some by then.

Moab and Zion will be nice, that's my favorite time of year. Bryce could be cool, it's actually quite high.

Rent a Crown Vic. Conquer MOAB.

The Canyonlands overlook (just outside of Moab) is pretty amazing and easy to get to by car. I've never been to the Grand Canyon but seeing the immense geologic impact of water over time of the Canyonlands (3 levels of erosion to current river bed) is truly impressive.

Stop by the Moab Brewery and bring home a pint glass or two. I still smile every time I pull one of mine out of the cabinet.

Also, a lot of the dirt roads around that area are very passable by "normal" cars and they give an excellent idea of the true barrenness of the landscape. Check maps before you take any roads to insure there aren't any water crossings causing you to backtrack. Some of the roads between Moab and Bryce go up into forested areas and are very pretty drives.

When we did Zion we stayed in Springdale at the Desert Pearl Inn.. Downtown and close to everything but with a great pool and cool rooms with poured concrete counters, etc.

Have an awesome time. This is one of my favorite areas in the US to visit.

Basil Exposition wrote: Thanks, guys!! I knew y'all would come through. Forgot to mention that both the people coming from Blighty have had heart attacks in the past year (talk about "feint of heart"), so "gnarly" and "potentially deadly" are off the table. The wife and I (particularly I) might be interested in some of the more challenging hikes in Zions, since we'll be there without all the old folks, but still, we're not there to scout BASE jump locations.

It's amazingly beautiful from the main roads. You don't need to get way back or do the gnarly to see it.

Since the folks you are with aren't very mobile, I'd look into Jeep tours in Moab. This would give you an appreciation of how desolate and other-worldly the landscape is, without straining anyone physically. I'd be sure to ask the Jeep tour guys how extreme their path is though---- to be sure it's appropriate for your group. What may seem tame to them......may be terrifying to your company.

I've spent time backcountry camping outside of Moab, and it was one of the spookiest, most magical and awesome trips of my life. You can see why John Ford filmed many of his Westerns in this area--- it feels like sacred ground.

In reply to Joe Gearin:

Have you been to Iceland yet?

^^^ I have not, but a good friend and his family just returned from there with fantastic stories. Being car guys, most of the stories were focused on the "SuperJeeps" that abound over there. They are sort of like the HiLux that the Top Gear guys drove to the North Pole in----- amazing trucks!

I've only heard good things about Iceland and it's people.