SW Utah

Hmm don't have any idea why sentence split like that, sorry. Went to edit it but was fine. Tara

IMO the best hiking is at Bryce. It is higher altitude and much cooler. Hiking back out of the canyon is rather tiring but worth it. The trails are well graded and excellent.

Arches will be hotter than Hades, get up very early and get your hiking in early before 10 or 11 AM. Carry lots of water. Zion has good hiking but the altitude changes are even more extreme than Bryce and it is hot too.

Capitol Reef is also quite warm but there is a fantastic drive you can take. A high clearance vehicle is best but we saw passenger vehicles making the trip which is down a well graded dirt road. Ask the rangers about how to do the Cathedral Valley drive. There may be water running over the road is some places but it is only a few inches deep. Walk across the water first before driving. This is an all day trip. Check out this gallery: My photos

And this is what you see at the end:





This is the sign at the beginning of the road:

Bryce Canyon NP has easy, moderate, and strenuous hikes. There's a rim trail that is probably the easiest of the bunch, with the Peekaboo Loop, Navajo Loop, and Queen's Garden all in the up and down category, and they all intersect. The Fairyland Loop is long.
The Welcome Center Rangers have all the info on which are which as far as degree of difficulty. It's a good idea to touch base with them before heading out.
If you don't mind some serious vertical trails, I'd take BCNP over any of the others. I guess I'd say Bryce has the best variety of hike options for every skill level. Last time we were there they were working on adding asphalt trails from the town into the NP, presumably for walking/cycling/roller blading??? They raised the camping fees to pay for it.
I'm not a great hiker, I just like the hoodoos.

Cathedral Valley drive is long but awesome.

I would recommend you decide if there are certain hikes you really want to do and then figure out the route more than focusing on the parks. For example, Zions has the Narrows, Angel's Landing and Arches has Devil's Garden.

If you want to shorten the travel time, you can find similar hikes but in closer proximity to your route or area. E.g. you can find narrows without going all the way to Zion. If you want hoodoos you can find those too. If you want rappelling, you can find places to do that. Petroglyps, etc, are all over Utah.

I would also recommend breaking it up and doing some non-hike things... rent a side-by-side in Moab. The Monitor and Merrimack trail is an easy beginner one. Do the horseback riding in Bryce Canyon as well as hiking there. Bryce and Capital Reef are known for star gazing if you're into that.

There's a bunch to do around I-70/Green River like Goblin Valley state park, San Rafael Swell, etc.

My BiL says Capital Reef has all that Zions does, just more rural, smaller, less crowds.

Capitol Reef is very rural. Low in altitude, probably very warm in June.

Natural Bridges has a lot of hiking options, and Canyonlands Needles area isn't too far away. I recall a spiders web of roads/trails going every which way, leading to hiking and horse trails.

It will be quite warm in Moab in mid-June. Although with the drought we're now having, with your ability to bring rain, we'd all like you to come out soon to get the precipitation going again. ;)

As noted, Bryce will be cooler as it is higher in elevation. One can plan hikes at Zion so you do hikes on the east side of the canyon in the a.m. and the west side of the canyon in the p.m. to take advantage of the shade. On the hottest day, hike the Narrows. I find most of the hikes at Capitol Reef to be pretty sunny. Not nearly as many hikes around Kodachrome although Calf Creek falls is worth visiting.

Maybe look for some higher elevation hikes in someplace like Mesa Verde NP or Black Canyon of the Gunnison HP? Personally I'm finding it more difficult every year to deal with really hot temps.

We just did the loop from Moab to Bryce to Zion. At the end of Oct. All three were warm enough for me so I’m guessing June would be brutal. We had similar times with 3 days there and back and 10 days for hiking. Spent 4 days in Moab, a day to drive to Bryce, spent 1 day there and easy 2 hours to Zion and spent 3 days there.

In June plan to do Arches hiking early morning. Delicate Arch is quite often done for the sunset which will be cooler. If you'll have a full moon - terrific. Make a reservation for the ranger-led Fiery Furnace hike a favorite of ours. You'll even be in some shade for this one.

I'd then concentrate on Bryce. The trails are awesome - be sure to do at least one below the rim.

Capitol Reef and Kodachrome will be hot hikes. Have fun!

Great ideas by all of the responders. Have you thought about the North Rim of the Grand Canyon? At 8000 feet elevation and with many great hiking trail both into the canyon and along the rim, it will be cooler. We enjoyed driving the National Forest roads near the North Rim.

caysea7254 wrote:
We have been twice to Utah, in September of 2013 when major flooding was going on and also again

in august of 2015 and again a lot of rain.

So we have been to Zion, Bryce, Capital Reef, Arches and canyon
land, but seriously haven't had the chance to hike much in any of them.

Both times most trails were closed because of flooding. This year we are going middle of June.

Hopefully better weather.

We have reservations at Arches campground for 3 days now we really don't know if we should try to make the loop again.

takes us 3 days to get out to Utah and 3 back home so that leaves us 11 days.

So we would appreciate ideas from those of you that go out there.

We enjoy easy and moderate hiking.

We thought after Arches maybe Kodachrome Basin State Park then Bryce, then Capital Reef.

That seems like a lot of driving and less hiking.

So suggestions please.

Thanks Tara

Tara,

Not sure my solution will work for you, but here goes..............................

As I read through your post it seems the Mission is to Hike where it is not Bad Weather, and the Problem has been the weather/rain in the locations you have chosen in January.

"So Suggestions Please"

Not sure I have a solution for the Weather other than maybe you need to be more Flexible - Meaning no Reservations - Go to where the weather works not to where you have a reservation - a Little more Gypsy - a little less Ridgid schedule?

Maybe the Mission needs to be to take a HIKE not get to a Particular destination, location,................ Possible?

I understand that there are basically TWO types of RV travelers - those who make RESERVATIONS and those who DON'T. I fall into the second category, and rarely make reservations, so if the Weather is bad we can move/pick a location that works, or wait it out, as we still will have options.

So suggestions - Big Picture trip - From Indiana to Utah is 1400 miles - https://binged.it/2ABqyhk - with so much to see and do along the way.

As you go through Colorado your will have the option of Thousands of HIKES. Some in the mountains that are to the North and South as you drive through the Rockies - some that are just, minutes to the north or south, along the way. So if the weather is RIGHT, STOP and "Take a Hike".

Golden - Peak to Peak - RMNP - Steamboat - Grand Lake - Dinosaur NM - To South - Leadville - Collegiates - Browns Canyon NM - Great Sand Dunes NP - Crested Butte - Marble - Ouray - Lake City - Colorado Monument. All these locations will give you great Hikes.

Same is true in Utah - stay Flexible and go where you LIKE the Weather. We've hiked to the top of Angels Landing in December then Hiked through the HooDoos in the snow a day Later.

All of the above can easily be a non scheduled destination - as all have locations you can Boondock in if there is not a spot to get a RESERVATION the day before.

So Suggestions are............ to just add some FLEX to the schedule, if you see the weather is not to your liking where you originally have decided to go, then CHANGE the DESTINATION.

Guess it just Boils down to taking the Risk of being a Little more Gypsy.

JMHO, Hope this is of some Help,