Utah's Mighty Five National Parks

Nature’s sculpture park is a feast for the eyes: humped mesas, spearing pinnacles, vermilion canyon walls and gorges carpeted with cottonwood trees. Exploring this wild playground can be as relaxed or as high-octane as you desire; whether long-distance hiking, horseback riding or rafting down roaring white rivers, the tremendous landscapes of southern Utah always take center stage. 

Here, along the rocky ridge of the Waterpocket Fold, millions of years of geological drama have unfolded, forging a landscape as wild and rugged as any of the other, better-known national parks. Lose yourself in the desert wilds and be awed by soaring, golden sandstone rock formations, fittingly christened with holy names: set out for the Walls of Jericho, Cathedral Valley and Temple of the Moon.

Marooned in Utah’s ochre vastness, Moab is the state’s adventure capital. Local museums chart the area’s ancient origins, with exhibits exploring paleontology and the rich indigenous culture, but the outdoors soon beckons: a land of hiking trails snaking to secluded waterfalls and canyons, of weathered sandstone pillars soaring like the spires of a gothic church, and of sunsets that plunge the desert into a blazing bath of pink, red and gold.

The state capital is man’s claim in an untamed Western landscape, an easy-going city with a small-town feel, watched over by the snow-dredged Wasatch Mountains. City museums focus on natural history and paleontology, while pretty Temple Square is a florid carpet to the soaring Mormon Temple, whose white spires evoke the dreamy pinnacles of Utah’s national parks.