What Are The Best Utah National Parks? Here Are Our Rankings

In April 2022, my parents flew over from the UK to join me and Shae on our 50 state road trip for a month. Part of the reason was so they could see the Grand Canyon, but the other was so that they could visit all five of Utah’s National Parks with us.

All five National Parks were beautiful in their own way, but we all had some that we loved more than others.

Seeing as we all had different viewpoints on which parks were better than others, I thought it would be fun to publish a post where we each share our rankings from favorite to least favorite.

As a quick reminder, here’s a list of Utah’s National Parks in the order we visited them with links to each of my posts about them:

• Canyonlands
• Arches
• Capitol Reef
• Zion
• Bryce Canyon

Now, without further ado, here are all of our rankings!

Stephen

1. Zion – Zion takes top spot for me as it was such an incredibly beautiful park. I’m also slightly basing its ranking on a couple of hikes I’d love to return to do – The Narrows and Angels Landing.
2. Bryce Canyon – When visiting Bryce Canyon, its hoodoos were impressive but I wasn’t overly blown away by it at first. However, at the end of that day we walked some of the Navajo Loop Trail which takes you down among the hoodoos and seeing the park from that perspective gave me even more of an appreciation for how magical it was.
3. Arches – I initially put Canyonlands third, then put Arches there, then Canyonlands and finally settled on Arches. As you can tell, there wasn’t much between them in terms of rankings despite them being such different parks. In the end I gave Arches the edge because it lends itself to being a better place to go hiking and having 2,000+ arches made it so unique.
4. Canyonlands – Being pushed down into fourth place doesn’t do Canyonlands justice. It’s not that it’s not beautiful because it is and I preferred it to the Grand Canyon. It’s just that Zion and Bryce Canyon in particular are so amazing that they’re the top two and Arches narrowly pushed this down. If, for whatever reason, Canyonlands was the only National Park in Utah you were able to see, you wouldn’t be disappointed.
5. Capitol Reef – Capitol Reef is deserving of its last place. There is a lot of beauty in the park, it just wasn’t memorable or special in any way that would make me recommend it as a must-see place. If your time in Utah was limited, I’d put a much higher priority on visiting the other National Parks than Capitol Reef.

Shae

1. Bryce Canyon – It’s incredibly close for me between Bryce and Zion. While Zion is beautiful, the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon stay with me even today. I can’t wait to go back to ride my bike in the park as well as hike amongst the hoodoos. I also really appreciated how much more dog-friendly Bryce is compared to all the other National Parks.
2. Zion – It’s really hard for me to rank these three – Zion, Canyonlands and Arches. They each have their merits. But since we saw bighorn sheep at Zion, it edges the rest out for me. Zion also has a beautiful hike along the water – but I hope to return to go through the Narrows to see even more canyons and water.
3. Canyonlands – This was our first Utah National Park, so it’s very special in that regard. I’d really like to go hiking amongst the canyons and drive along the rivers and canyon rims. I loved the views from all the overlooks and the easy hike up to the Mesa Arch.
4. Arches – This one could move up to the top if I’d had a chance to hike more, particularly through the Fiery Furnace which requires a permit. The hike up to Delicate Arch was really beautiful despite the high winds, although I’d like to go back when it’s a bit calmer to really enjoy the moments at the arch.
5. Capitol Reef – I put this last since we just drove through it and it didn’t seem particularly special, but since visiting I’ve been told that we missed the best part – the pies. So as I’ve not had the pies I feel I can’t move it up, but I also didn’t get to fully appreciate everything it had to offer. It’s beautiful, but worth only a drive through unless I went for a hike there and was convinced otherwise.

Mum

1. Canyonlands – Canyonlands comes first because of the sheer scale of the canyons, the depth, the colours, the shapes….need I go on?!
2. Bryce Canyon – It’s a very close 2nd & it’s Bryce. The hoodoos were fascinating, as were all the other rock formations. The different colour rock strata were amazing. Photos didn’t do it justice. Oh dear, can I tie those two as first??? Now I talk about it I can’t decide which is best!!
3. Zion – It was amazing seeing all the other canyons & rock formations from above, but it gave a whole new dimension from deep in the canyon itself, looking up at the height of the rocks. It was extra special walking beside the river too.
4. Arches – I enjoyed seeing all the different arches & hiking there, but it terrified me having that photoshoot under the arch with such high winds. I really thought I was going to be blown off into the canyon.
5. Capitol Reef – It was interesting but nothing really special like the others.

Dad

My favourite list is as follows and all based around the wow factor on the rock formations:-

1. Canyonlands
2. Bryce Canyon
3. Arches
4. Zion
5. Capitol Reef

Final Thoughts

So there you have it – Capitol Reef is clearly the least interesting of all of Utah’s National Parks! As for which is the best, it’s different for most of us.

I found it interesting that both of my parents picked Canyonlands as their favorite and Bryce Canyon as their second favorite. The UK doesn’t really have canyons and hoodoos, so it probably shouldn’t be too surprising that unique landscapes like that would be even more appealing to them.

Although I grew up in the UK, I’ve lived in the US for the last 13 years and we’ve seen a lot of different landscapes on our 50 state road trip so far. That includes quite a few canyons and hoodoos, so despite still finding them beautiful, I guess I’ve lost a little of the initial awe. Having said that, I think part of the reason I liked Zion so much is because we went down in the canyon rather than simply viewing it from above.

Question

If you’ve been to all five of Utah’s National Parks, which did you think were the best? Let us know in the comments below.