Shannon O'Brien Travel Itineraries

The best destinations

Photo of Utah
Photo of Utah

The Best of Utah

#58 best destination in the world

Map view

Photo of Bryce Canyon National Park

Best time to visit: May-Sept

Cost: $

  • Park whose major feature is Bryce Canyon, which despite its name, is not a canyon, but a collection of giant natural amphitheaters
  • Bryce is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos, formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rocks

The Zion Narrows Riverside Walk, Zion National Park

Photo of Zion National Park

Walk difficulty: Easy

Best time to visit: April-Nov

Cost: $

  • Park located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions
  • The park features a variety of life zones that allow for unusual plant and animal diversity
  • There are four life zones in the park: desert, riparian, woodland, and coniferous forest
  • Zion National Park includes mountains, canyons, buttes, mesas, monoliths, rivers, slot canyons, and natural arches

Delicate Arch Trail, Arches National Park

Photo of Arches National Park

Walk difficulty: Moderate

Best time to visit: April-May, Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • Delicate Arch is a 52-foot-tall (16 m) freestanding natural arch located in Arches National Park
  • The arch is the most widely recognized landmark in Arches National Park
  • Delicate Arch is formed of Entrada Sandstone
  • The original sandstone fin was gradually worn away by weathering and erosion, leaving the arch

Corona and Bowtie Arch Trail, Corona Arch

Photo of Corona Arch

Walk difficulty: Moderate

Best time to visit: April-May, Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • The Corona Arch is a natural sandstone arch near Moab, in a side canyon of the Colorado River
  • The arch is located within the same rock formation as Pinto Arch and Bowtie Arch, and is accessed by a hiking trail

Temple Square, Salt Lake City

Photo of Salt Lake City

Best time to visit: Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • Temple Square is a complex owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), in the center of Salt Lake City
  • Contained within Temple Square are the Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake Tabernacle, Salt Lake Assembly Hall, the Seagull Monument, and two visitors' centers
  • The square was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1964, recognizing the Mormon achievement in the settlement of Utah

Monument Valley

Photo of Monument Valley

Best time to visit: May-Sept

Cost: $$$

  • Monument Valley is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of sandstone buttes, the largest reaching 1,000 ft (300 m) above the valley floor
  • The most famous butte formations are located in northeastern Arizona along the Utah–Arizona state line
  • The valley is a sacred area that lies within the territory of the Navajo Nation Reservation, the Native American people of the area
  • Monument Valley has been featured in many forms of media since the 1930s and has signified the American West in American film

Canyons Village at Park City

Photo of Park City

Best time to visit: Jan-March, Dec

Cost: $

  • Home base at Park City ski resort with lodging, equipment rentals, dining, and chair-lift access

Mesa Arch Trail, Canyonlands National Park

Photo of Canyonlands National Park

Walk difficulty: Easy

Best time to visit: April-May, Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • Mesa Arch is a pothole arch on the eastern edge of the Island in the Sky mesa in Canyonlands National Park
  • Mesa Arch is a spectacular natural stone arch perched at the edge of a cliff with vast views of canyons

Bonneville Salt Flats

Photo of Bonneville Salt Flats

Best time to visit: Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County
  • A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, it is the largest of many salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake
  • It is known for land speed records at the Bonneville Speedway
  • The salt flats are estimated to hold 147 million tons of salt, approximately 90% of which is common table salt

Tuacahn, St. George

Photo of St. George

Best time to visit: April-Nov

Cost: $

  • The Tuacahn Center for the Arts is an arts organization located at the mouth of the Padre Canyon
  • The facility was completed in 1995 and includes a 1,920-seat outdoor amphitheater, a 328 seat indoor theater, a black box theater, a dance studio, a costume shop, a scene shop, and the campus of Tuacahn High School for the Arts

Logan Utah Temple

Photo of Logan

Best time to visit: Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • The Logan Utah Temple was completed in 1884, and is the fourth temple built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
  • Located in the city of Logan, it was the second temple built in the Rocky Mountains, after the St. George Temple, which remains the only Latter-day Saint temple that has been in operation longer than the Logan Temple

Hickman Bridge Trail, Capitol Reef National Park

Photo of Capitol Reef National Park

Walk difficulty: Moderate

Best time to visit: May-Sept

Cost: $

  • Park established in 1971, to preserve desert landscape
  • The park was named for its whitish Navajo Sandstone cliffs with dome formations—similar to the white domes often placed on capitol buildings—that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold
  • Locally, reef refers to any rocky barrier to land travel, just as ocean reefs are barriers to sea travel

Lower Calf Creek Falls, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Photo of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Best time to visit: May-Sept

Cost: $

  • Pair of perennial waterfalls on the Calf Creek in the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, that total 214 feet (65 m)
  • The land is among the most remote in the country; it was the last to be mapped in the contiguous United States

Daddy Canyon, Nine Mile Canyon

Photo of Nine Mile Canyon

Walk difficulty: Easy

Best time to visit: April-May, Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • Canyon promoted as "the world's longest art gallery", the canyon is known for its extensive rock art, most of it created by the Fremont culture and the Ute people
  • The rock art, shelters, and granaries left behind by the Fremont make Ninemile Canyon a destination for archaeologists and tourists alike
  • The canyon became a main transport corridor in the region during the 1880s
  • Settlers established a number of ranches in Ninemile Canyon, and even a short-lived town named Harper

Donut Falls Trail, Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest Salt Lake Ranger District

Photo of Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest Salt Lake Ranger District

Walk difficulty: Easy

Best time to visit: Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • Hiking trail located in Big Cottonwood Canyon, featuring a waterfall

Deer Valley

Photo of Deer Valley

Best time to visit: Jan-March, Dec

Cost: $$$

  • Alpine ski resort in the Wasatch Range, known for its upscale amenities, is consistently ranked among the top ski resorts in North America
  • Deer Valley was a venue site during 2002 Winter Olympics, hosting the freestyle moguls, aerial, and alpine slalom events

Dead Horse Rim Loop Trail, Dead Horse Point State Park

Photo of Dead Horse Point State Park

Walk difficulty: Moderate

Best time to visit: April-May, Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • State park in San Juan County, featuring a dramatic overlook of the Colorado River and Canyonlands National Park
  • The park opened to the public in 1959 and covers 5,362 acres (2,170 ha) of high desert
  • The plants and animals of Dead Horse Point have adapted to a land of scarce water and extreme temperatures