Utah - Early Planning

Lauren -- if by "interesting" you mean the 150 is twisty, it is not bad at all. Great views, especially near the summit.

Oh my - thanks! And maybe more coming. We DO NOT plan to be in SLC - you can count on that - bad enuf to drive thru!

Heber City was about as close and as far up as I had planned at this point. Then I saw Kamas and hmmm. The drive up the 150 looks "interesting".

We have been to Bryce, Zion (went to Kolob secton years ago and want to get back & also Brian Head), Cap Reef (Thousand Lakes 3 times) and will include those again. As well as Page & Kanab again. And some of the other more common ones.

Been to Mon Valley, Blanding and up a few times - will be too hot there then so staying up and down the 89 - I15 area. With a side trip to Cap Reef. (Ken, you would appreciate this - we hiked up the plateau and went one end to the other and back; can't even imagine it now)

This thread is doing exactly what I wanted - tossing out ideas and I see many that I would never have thought of. Thanks to all so far!

Lauren

Ken, good point about the Mirror Lake area -- how could I forget? We were just there during September:

High Uintas

Maybe too warm in the summer, but if you haven't explored this area it is worth it. If you need full hookups, you can stay at Blue Mountain RV park in Blanding, UT, and explore some interesting nearby photo opportunities. Mule Canyon is about 20 miles west of Blanding, and among the ruins is House on Fire, well worth the 1 mile hike over fairly flat ground.

A bit further down UT 95 takes you to Natural Bridges National Monument, lots of arches along the drive through the monument.

South off UT 261 on Cigarette Springs Road is the Fallen Roof Ruin. A bit more difficult hike, but again, well worth it.

Further south on UT 261 is a dirt road on the right just above the Moki Dugway is Muley Point Road. Drive to the end for an almost 360° view of the valley below. If you venture down the Dugway, Goosenecks State Park has a great view of multiple goosenecks on the San Juan River.

Continue through Mexican Hat (worth a stop to photograph the unusual formation) to Monument Valley on the Arizona border.

Heading west in UT means getting away from the crowds. Someone already mentioned Great Basin NP. Nice cave tour there. A drive up to Wheeler CG and trailhead is great on the hottest days of the year, as it is still pleasant up there. There's a hike from the top that takes you through a bristlecone forest. They have markers near some of the trees saying how old they are and what was happening in human history when they started growing. Really interesting. On the way there, if you take UT 21, you'll go by the ghost town of Frisco. Some interesting buildings. Disconnect from the 5'er and explore for an hour or two.

Ely NV sits around 6500' so is cooler than the valley floors. Lots of mining history there, plus the Northern NV RR. Never ridden it though. There are charcoal ovens near Ward. We stay at Cave Lake SP. No hookups, but there are showers and flush toilets and a dump station. Around 7000' elevation so it usually cools off nicely at night.

Of course there's Cathedral Gorge SP, although with all your time in UT, you might get enough of red rock territory.

Back in UT, there are several of really nice scenic drives around mid-state. Nebo Loop is on the backside of Mt. Nebo (surprise!). Alpine Loop is on the backside of Mt. Timpanogos. There's also Skyline Drive that goes along a ridge for quite some distance. None of these are roads to tow on, but nice day trips.

Have you ever spent any time in the western Uintas? Many have seen the eastern end north of Vernal near Flaming Gorge, but the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway is quite gorgeous.

All of these scenic drives have great wildflower displays in mid Summer, elevation dependent.

Maybe stay around Heber rather than dealing with the SLC valley. You can do many of these scenic drives from a central location in the Heber area. You could also take a day trip to Mt. Timpanogos Cave NM, although there's a 1000' climb in 1 1/2 miles on a paved trail to get to the entrance.

Have you investigated Nine Mile Canyon. Lots of petroglyphs and other ancient rock art. Worth a day trip. Do a search on Nine Mile Canyon and restrict your search to PDF files to find several guides to the area.

You do plan in advance. I'm still finishing up our planning and we're leaving in four days!

Have a great trip to Colorado this year.

re Capitol Reef.......
if you take highway 12 (wonderful scenic route), stop at the Anasazi State Park at Boulder. Nice little museum and displays and a shady picnic table out front for your lunch. Or, there is a little cafe in Boulder.
If it is hot and you want FHU, Thousand Lakes RV at Torrey is a good place.
The campground inside Capitol Reef is really pretty with lots of shade trees, no elec. and the park has kept the old mormon farm orchards, so you might hit it at harvest time.. fruit inside the park is free (donations).

Lauren, is Great Basin National Park too far out of your way? It's almost in western Utah. Very cool, beautiful, and scenic -- I can only imagine what your photos of GBNP would look like.

Here are some amateur photos:

Great Basin blog post

Lauren wrote:
OK, I plan well in advance because many times as part of our two month summer journey we go to high demand places - I make reservations on those well in advance.

OK - set for this year but looking for general info for next year. Going to Utah - no further north that SLC. Going to stay to the west - no Mon Valley to Moab in the summer. We will, of course, will - once again - do Page (az), Kanab, Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, etc. But looking for some maybe out of the way places or even popular places but not so well known. Geez, I saw a place in Kamas and the drive up the 150 - from first glance - looked interesting.

I do a lot of photo work so always looking for different things.

We prefer FHU but can live with just W/E for a few days. Clean and all but do not need a ton of amenities - we like to get out and hike or drive Nature.

All input is welcome and much appreciated.

Be safe. God bless.

Lone Pine, pine on sandstone hill, Zion Plateau, Zion National Park, Utah - Great Images are possible.

Lake Powell - Provides Great Images - Especially Sunrise and SunSet - the Sandstone, the Water, the Sky...........

Strawberry Reservoir - outside SLC - just many opportunities......

Dinosaur NM, in particular, the Green River and Josie Morris Cabin - ..............

So much to see and do in Utah can't wait to see your Images,

Bill

Definitely not a place to pull your fifth wheel up to from the west, but really worth a day trip and a hike around. We stumbled across it on a nomad trip to escape the heat. About 10,000 feet ASL so don't plan to push yourself hiking, just take your time.
Cedar Breaks