If Utah travel is on your bucket list, or if you’re already in the planning stages for your trip, you’ve come to the right place. This is an epic guide for 2 weeks in Utah, filled with tons of outdoor adventure and cultural discovery, based off the exact trip I took in 2024.
I didn’t want this post to be too overwhelming, so I wrote about all the Utah National Parks (the “Mighty Five”) separately and will link to those guides when they come up in this itinerary. That way, you can reference them for more information specific to each park by clicking the link.
There were 3 other stops on our itinerary that weren’t National Parks. Those days made this trip a well-rounded Utah adventure, not just a rushed loop of the “Mighty Five.” I’m going to write about those three sections of the trip in more detail here because none of them were mentioned in my Utah National Park posts: Salt Lake City, Kanab, and horseback riding in Torrey.
Utah is such an interesting state to visit on a road trip. It’s otherworldly and utterly American at the same time. Its connection to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as Mormonism, cannot be ignored. It is called the Beehive State, after all, which pays homage to the early Mormon settlers who worked hard with a cooperative spirit to create success.
Utah Travel and Religion
Vermont-born Joseph Smith founded Mormonism, officially called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (what a mouthful), in New York in the 1830s. It moved west and found its forever home in Utah, which is now the state with the highest number of practicing Mormons. If you’ve never done a deep dive on this religion, I highly recommend doing so before (or even during) any Utah travel. It will give you a much deeper understanding of this place, which is what any good travel aims to do.
I first learned about Mormonism back in 2009 in a college English class. We were assigned to read Under the Banner of Heaven, the story of a double murder investigation that uncovered how practicing this faith led to violent consequences. (It’s also now a show on Hulu if you prefer TV.) I was completely shocked by that book and have been fascinated by this religion ever since, I think in part due to its Americanness and its modernity (and the polygamy of it all).
Fast forward to present day, and I’ve continued to learn more about Mormonism. I read Prophet’s Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation Into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-day Saints and was equally horrified. The way this religion and scripture is set up to let men (and women as we’ve recently seen in the news) get their own “messages from God” and to act on them behind the protection of religious freedom is very scary. Especially since Mormonism has amassed BILLIONS of dollars and has infiltrated our political system.
The most current Mormon crimes you might have heard about would probably be the Lori Vallow/Chad Daybell story and/or the Ruby Franke/Jodi Hildebrant story. Their religious zealousness led to horrific crimes against children. I have a few recommendations featuring these stories that I highly recommend listening to before or during this Utah road trip to help get you up-to-date with the worst consequences of Mormonism.
Last Podcast on the Left did a 4-part series about the Vallow-Daybell murders, episodes 609-612.
Some Place Under Neith is doing an extended series about Mormonism which would really help you wrap your mind around how this religion ticks if you’re not familiar with it already. Even though I know a good amount of history from the books I’ve read, I’m still learning so much new, sinister information from this series. They go all the way back to the beginning and show you how its foundation leads to crimes we’re seeing in present times. It starts at episode 125.
I also have to shout out Ruby Franke’s oldest daughter’s audiobook. It’s a first hand account of the spiral into madness that Mormonism primes its followers for so well. The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke was fantastic.
Despite all this, most Mormon people you encounter are kind and generous, albeit very naive, and do not practice the fundamental version of the religion (the sect that praises polygamy). I don’t know if any Latter-day Saints will come across this Utah travel blog, but if they do, I don’t wish to be offensive by highlighting the negatives above.
It’s healthy to question the religion you were born into, to be a well-rounded person with different experiences of the world outside the bubble you grew up in, to see if it holds up to scrutiny. It’s something I’ve done in my own life with Catholicism, which has its fair share of crimes as well. The reason I bring religion up at all is because it goes hand in hand with Utah, a tangled web of place and people.
Utah’s landscapes have you thinking you’re on another planet, while we also know that the vast beauty and wild terrain of America is part of what makes it special. Then you have Mormonism, so tied to this land, which is also completely American. Yet it too is extraterrestrial in its own way. While debated in current times, Mormon scripture alludes to celestial inheritance in the afterlife. AKA when you die, you get your own planet. (Only the men, don’t be crazy!) The link between America and the heavens is part of what makes Utah travel so fascinating.
Utah Travel Itinerary (in about 2 weeks)
Now that you have a better idea of where you’re headed, let’s get into the actual locations to visit. You are in for an incredible time in such a unique place. I’ve been fortunate to travel a lot, but this easily takes the cake for the most adventurous, outdoorsy trip I’ve ever done. I’m still pinching myself that it happened, and I’m so happy you’ll get to experience it, too!
Here’s the exact itinerary we chose, after lots of research on my end. We did start and end our trip with a ride on the California Zephyr, which took up a couple days. If you’re not doing that, you’ll have 2-3 days to play with, out of the 2 weeks, to plan a few stops of your own in addition to these.
Remember to click the links to read more about the National Parks and about our time on the train. Those posts contain so much information about what hotels we stayed at, where we ate, and how we scheduled our time in each park.
Day 1: Leave Chicago on the CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR.
Day 2: Arrive in Grand Junction, CO, and drive 2 hours to Moab, UT.
Day 3: ARCHES NATIONAL PARK
Day 4: CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK
Day 5: CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK
Day 6: rest day horseback riding with Wilderness Ridge Adventures
Day 7: BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK
Day 8: rest day glamping at Base Camp 37 in Kanab, UT.
Days 9 and 10: ZION NATIONAL PARK
Days 11 and 12: Salt Lake City
Day 13: Drive back to Grand Junction, CO (such a cute, artsy town).
Day 14: Ride the California Zephyr home.
Wilderness Ridge Adventures
We did want to schedule in some time for rest, since neither of us are avid hikers and we were putting in between 7 – 14 miles per day, but we wanted to enjoy the outdoors on those slow days, too. Horseback riding near Capitol Reef seemed like the perfect solution. We had a wonderful couple of hours on a private ride enjoying nature on horseback.
Our guide was married to an ex-Mormon, and we had a really interesting conversation about the religion during our tour. She spoke about the reason he ultimately decided to cut ties with the church. While he was on his mission in Africa (something most Mormon men participate in around the world), he felt deep discomfort (as one should) telling Black people that dark skin was a sign of a curse from God. That made him question everything, and slowly, as he opened his eyes, he saw the damage being done by this institution.
He didn’t leave right away, since his family are all members of the faith. He even got married super young to another Mormon–very common in the church since you can’t have sex before marriage. But he did finally get out, and ended up marrying our horseback riding guide. She also told us about how his sisters use her Starbucks app to hide their coffee consumption from family and fellow church goers. Drinking coffee (as well as alcohol) is not allowed in Mormonism. We ended our morning on the trail and headed to The Wild Rabbit Cafe to drink our lattes in plain sight.
I always recommend taking some sort of tour with a local guide during travels, because you will walk away with a more human understanding of the area’s history and what daily life is like currently. This horseback riding experience was a great blend of place and people, of conversation about planetary afterlife while riding through nature on Earth that looks like Mars, exemplifying that theme of Utah travel we couldn’t escape.
Base Camp 37
The other rest day we scheduled in also took advantage of Utah’s natural beauty. Utah is home to several Dark Sky Communities and is a paradise for stargazers (there’s that connection to the heavens again). I also was interested in “glamping,” AKA glamorous camping, and this trip seemed like the perfect time to do so when I happened to stumble across this property during my research.
I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, but we had such a wonderful day/night here. We enjoyed the slower pace of having no plans. We played bags, read books, made s’mores, and looked for shooting stars. The bed was incredibly comfy, and we both had our best night of sleep here. We left feeling peaceful and recharged and ready to take on Zion.
Salt Lake City
We wrapped up our travels in Utah with 3 days/2 nights in Salt Lake City. As fascinated as I am by Mormonism, there was no way I was skipping SLC on this trip. I don’t see it as a place I’ll ever purposely return to (the vibes weren’t great), but I’m so glad I got to experience it once.
On our first day, we went to the Church History Museum. Here you can see exhibits that take you through the whole history of the church (from the Mormon perspective obviously). It’s hard to put into words how it feels viewing it all critically as an outsider while having conversations with devout believers who work there–a very interesting time to say the least. They have a lot of Joseph Smith’s personal items, including his plaster-cast death mask. There’s also an immersive theatre that was showing a short film about Joseph Smith receiving his first vision from God. Highly recommend stopping in to check it all out.
We did have an amazing culinary experience this day as well. We had dinner at The Red Iguana, a highly rated Mexican restaurant serving fantastic moles and cocktails. This meal had to be a highlight of our whole trip. And we had lots to chat about after that museum visit…
Day 2 in SLC was more of a mixed bag. We got sodas from Swig Soda Shop. Mormons cannot drink coffee, but it’s not strictly a caffeine thing (??). They are allowed to have pop, so there’s soda shops all over where you can purchase drinks made with crazy combinations of sodas and other ingredients. I was super excited to try a concoction but must admit I was not a fan haha.
On day 2 we also went to Ensign Park View Point to see SLC from above (I always try to do something like this in a new city). We got Indian food for dinner at Mumbai House which was very good. We stopped at a Gold ATM which was something on my boyfriend’s bucket list. And our main Mormon event of the day was stopping in to see a bit of their church choir practice, which is free and open to the public on Thursday evenings.
We had a free morning on day 3 before heading back to CO to catch the California Zephyr. We got Dutch Brother’s Coffee since we don’t have any by us here. And then we went shopping at the fancy mall across the street from the main Mormon Temple (which was sadly under construction during our visit so I didn’t get any good photos of it). I didn’t know at the time, but it turns out the fancy mall with high end luxury brands is owned by the church. They tell their members that the required-10%-of-their-income-tithing is going to charity, but really it’s being invested on Wall Street and in real estate to make the people at the top richer and to enact their political agendas. Sadly our Utah travel had come to an end, but the experience will stay with us for years to come.
Links:
Utah Travel Conclusion
Not only will this trip stay with me due to the beauty of America–what actually makes it special and should be protected–but also for encapsulating the self-believed exceptionalism of America. That we are the best country in the world. That Jesus came to America after his resurrection, because duh, why wouldn’t he? A travel experience that was a big jumbled mix of Gods and mortals, heaven and Earth, dinosaurs and aliens, the best of America and the worst. Opposing forces that make coming together logically and rationally seem like an impossibility at this point, unless we get religion out of politics and financial accountability into religion.
My heart breaks for all the cuts to the National Parks Service. I’m not sure how those cuts will affect this Utah travel itinerary. But I truly think this is one of the most epic road trips you can take in the US. It’s a good travel option for people living here to explore a very modern, very American story. It’s a fantastic option for visitors from abroad (if there’s even an interest to come here anymore) to highlight the dream of this country versus the reality. At the very least, leaving the cultural aspects out of it, you are going to see some of the most unique natural formations in the world.
I hope I’ve convinced you to visit Utah and learn a bit more about it during your trip! Happy travels!
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