Utah Parks Zion, Arches, & Bryce: Adventure Travel with Kids
In the fall of 2022 we took total advantage of that three week intercession our year-round kiddos get and we spent two weeks in the southern Utah parks Zion, Arches, Bryce, and some adventures in between. It was the first time any of our kids had been on an airplane, the first time we’d packed camping gear for SIX people and lugged it across the country, and the first time we’d traveled with our kids without our plans set in place 100%. This is adventure travel at it’s finest on a budget, and I’m going to delve into our trip details including the hiccups we had along the way!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links which means I may earn a small commission when you click on the links and make a purchase. I will never recommend a product that I don’t support 100%.
How Budget Travel Builds Confident Kids
When you are prepared to plan everything perfectly and shell out hundreds per night on a hotel room, restaurant meals, and Ubers, things are quite likely to go your way. Despite the few minor hiccups you’ll likely encounter, your trip will be splendid and relaxing.
We don’t have the luxury of these things in our budget. As it turns out, traveling on a budget with kids forces you to make last minute tweaks to your plans. It allows them to share in the problem solving of a leaky tent at 2am. They learn that any number of things can go awry, and that we can also brainstorm a solution. This is where our best travel memories are made!
Don’t let the potentially high cost of travel keep your kids from seeing the world. It sure costs a lot more to do things with a large family, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Days 1-2: St. George, Utah
We flew from NC to Las Vegas, and from there we rented a minivan (hellooooo boatload of kids and luggage!). We didn’t want to schlep carseats across the country, so we picked up four booster seats at Walmart along with a grocery order and small cooler.
Our plan? To only eat at a restaurant a few times in the two weeks of our vacation. The rest of the time we’d be preparing meals over a campfire!
The first day we drove 4 hours from Vegas to St. George, which was the cutest Utah town! We could have easily spent a few days here, but only booked a hotel here for one night. We enjoyed a swim in the pool with views of the red rocks, ate crepes for dinner at this amazing place called The Crepery (@thecreperystg on Instagram).
The next morning headed to the all-inclusive Thunder Junction Park playground. It was incredible and I think our kids would have spent the entire day there if we’d let them! I didn’t get any photos, but if you want all the details, check out the Utah Adventure Family blog post.
On the drive up to Arches, we stopped at the Red Reef Trail. Located in Cottonwood Canyon, this park had a great dry riverbed and plenty of red rocks to climb on!
Utah Parks Arches Camping Catastrophe Turned Out Amazing
Arches is one of those national parks where, if you want to camp at the national park campground, you have to be on your computer at a specific time precisely 6 months from when reservations open to stand a chance of securing a spot. In March of 2022, I sat waiting with my coffee and a quick finger on my mouse. My phone open to double check the time. Despite refreshing my screen at exactly the right time, I DIDN’T GET A CAMPSITE!! They all booked up in milliseconds I tell you!
I was devastated, but we decided to wing it. We booked a hotel for our first night in Arches so that early the next morning we could drive by the handful of BLM campgrounds in hopes of getting a first come, first serve site for our next three nights. I was definitely a bit nervous, not knowing where we’d have to spend the night if these campsites were full!
Well let me tell you how incredible this turned out to be! The BLM campgrounds are all located on a beautiful rt. 128 down in a canyon right next to the Colorado River! We stayed at Big Bend, which was close enough to hear the rushing water. We were so spread out from the next site that we couldn’t see our neighbors! It was a gem and I highly recommend going this route instead of the mayhem that was trying to book a site in the park!
Double decker s’mores, not-so-fancy tortellini pasta cooked over a fire, and races on pathways through the scrub made for the most simple, yet best memories!
Days 3-5: Utah Parks Arches: Hiking and Rafting
After we found our campsite, we spend the next two full days exploring Arches. We started off with a doozy on the Delicate Arch hike, but our kids were champs! They tromped up that exposed stretch of rock mountain and along narrow cliff trails, and the infamous view was totally worth it. The strangest part was the number of other hikers with bubble travel backpacks for CARRYING THEIR CATS. So many cats on that hike… they didn’t look too happy about their travel digs! Wish I had a photo of that.
We ventured to Landscape Arch, which is the longest arch in the park, and also to double arch where we scrambled up to a precipitous overlook. This is such a great challenge for kids to scramble up and down!
One of our full days we had reserved a morning to raft the Colorado River with Moab . Unfortunately for us, it was cool and rainy. Our younger two spent the entire trip huddled in the boat with borrowed rain coats trying not to freeze, but Pippa and Sawyer loved every minute and can’t wait to go back! It was a tame section of the Colorado with only one class III rapid, so a great introduction to rafting for young families like ours.
Days 6-7: Utah Parks Bryce and Covered Wagon Glamping
There is this great glamping spot we found 30 minutes outside of Bryce Canyon National Park, called Whispering Pines. Their wagons had two sets of bunks and a king bed, all of them with heated mattresses! Good thing too, because we went from sweating at night in Arches and in just a few hours drive there was frost on the ground in the morning near Bryce.
We only spent one day in Bryce, which was probably about perfect for our crew. It was Bodhi’s 5th birthday, so we woke up early to decorate his bunk with streamers and balloons! That day we hiked the Queen’s Garden trail, which was several miles down into the canyon to see the hoodoos. The kids were champs until the long series of switchbacks to get out of the canyon. And I tell you, it was a long bit of uphill walking!
Possibly one of the very best parts of the trip was meeting strangers from New Zealand who stopped to give our kids a pep talk on those zig zags back up the canyon. I can’t believe I don’t have a photo or a video, but when they learned it was Bodhi’s birthday they got the ENTIRE CANYON of close to 100 hikers to sing to him! It was pretty incredible, although Bodhi was not too thrilled- ha!
This is one of his many birthdays we’ve celebrated away from home. Since we didn’t have a spot to store a cake in our covered wagon, we did cake the following day when we could pick one up on our way to Zion.
Days 8-12: Utah Parks Zion Camping
Of all the Utah Parks Zion is so huge and mind-blowing – there are so many great parts to this end of our trip! First, I actually managed to get us a campsite inside the park at the Watchman Campground (A loop), and I’m really glad I did! I had no idea that this park is so crowded that people can often wait in line for hours to catch the shuttle bus to the trails. We were there in the slower season so this wasn’t an issue, but I can’t imagine having to drive into the park, find parking, and THEN wait for a shuttle. We were able to walk right from our campsite.
Our site had gorgeous views of red cliffs, and was just a few minutes walk away from the Virgin River. There was a swimming hole with a swing tied to a tree, and I tell you we played in that water every afternoon when it was too hot to stay at our tent! I would camp here again in a heartbeat!
The other amazing thing about camping here? It was just a 5-10 minute walk out of the park an into the town of Springdale. I walked to an incredible coffee shop called FeelLove Coffee every morning, and we found the best pizza joint Zion Pizza and Noodle (it was so good we ate here twice!). There is nothing better than just being able to walk back to the campground under a sunset sky and red cliffs!
Days 8-12: Utah Parks Zion Hiking
The first hike we did was Emerald Pools, and we saw a tarantula on the trail! The pools were fun and a pretty easy hike, which gave us lots of playtime in the river later and time to celebrate Bodhi’s birthday with hot dogs and a cake from Walmart (fancy over here, y’all)!
The second full day of Zion we hiked up to the base of Angel’s Landing trail. The portion we hiked was 2.5 miles each way with an elevation gain of 1500 feet!
Did all our kids make it? Yes, even our newly 5 year old made it all the way by himself! We took lots of breaks for water and snacks, and reminded them that they can do hard things. We also go hiking at home, so they are all used to being on their feet. I highly recommend doing some practice hikes with lots of hills before taking kids on this one!
Guess who we ran into at the top? Our New Zealand friends – ha! Small world. You can read more details on the full Angel’s Landing hike here.
Our last day in Zion we took the shuttle to the final stop and hiked a portion of the Narrows. It was nearly a mile from the shuttle stop to the river and packed with tourists.
Once at the river, we changed into water shoes and found one of the many leftover hiking sticks. The water was freezing (our kids were impressed at how fast their feet went numb!). We hiked not quite a half mile up the river before deciding to turn around. If you want to do this hike for longer, renting waders and boots is really critical since the water is so cold! There was a great rental spot walking distance from our campground.
Days 13-14: Vegas and Flying Home
We thought we had a great idea to spend two nights in Vegas and check out the city with our kids. If I could do the trip over, this is the one big thing I would change. It was so expensive and parking was really hard to find. I felt like we just got so much more for our money in the first 1.5 weeks.
So what did we do? Besides not taking photos, we did go up the Stratosphere for some amazing views. We went out for insanely expensive ice cream in a casino and visited M&M world (probably the highlight of this town).
We did have an authentic German Hoffbrauhaus next to our hotel. THAT was some amazing food, and questionable entertainment. The live band was great. The waitress spanking people with a wooden paddle as they took shots was a bit hard to explain…
5 Tips for a Successful Family Trip
Tip #1: Indulge in s’mores – it gives everyone something to look forward to at the end of a long day! Maybe you’re staying in a hotel and you can choose popsicles or ice cream instead.
Tip #2: Provide car ride entertainment. While this wasn’t a road trip in the normal sense, we did drive 3-4 hours every few days. Car activities were key, mainly our favorites of road trip bingo and a Would You Rather Family Adventure Edition book!
Tip #3: Buy the kids age appropriate cameras. I lost count of the number of photos and videos our kids took on this trip, and they loved those cameras! These were about $40 each at the time we bought them and provided hours of entertainment!
Tip #4: Bring a rainy day tent game just in case. We spent most nights playing Egyptian Rat Screw by lantern light in the tent, and a couple rainy hours as well. Pack something small that the whole family can get in on!
Tip #5: Preserving those memories are just as important as making them! I prefer to spend time putting all our photos and written memories of the trip into a Shutterfly hard cover photo book and ordering a copy for each kid. You can usually find some good coupon codes online, and this way each child has a keepsake to look back on.
