Three National Parks (Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef)
Goblin Valley State Park
900 total driving miles
19 hiking miles

Part of the reason we decided to park it in Palisade (and the Western Slope in general) was its proximity to Utah.

Utah? Yes, Utah! Ever since we had a quick visit to Zion National Park a few years ago we vowed to get back there.

So, with a three day weekend and temperatures finally dropping below 100 we were off.

Fist Stop: Zion National Park 

After reading ahead of time that the campgrounds in the park fill up quick we decided to plan on camping in BLM (Bureau of Land Management).  BLM is public land open to all and finding campsites is as easy as finding a back road with fire rings.

As you can see, we found a gem of a campsite!  This place is located off of Smithsonian Butte National Backcountry Byway – GPS: 37.1514, -113.059 (since it’s not easy to find).  If you camp on this road stay patient and keep driving uphill until you see switchbacks that will lead to multiple existing campsites.

Going to Zion the next day we debated on hiking Angels Landing or Observation Point.  Guidance from the park ranger led us to choose the 8 mile, 2,100 ft climb up Observation Point.

Getting started we took a short detour to check out Weeping Rock:

Observation Point Hike:

Worth it!

Check out a portion of the trail – intense!

Hiking back down.

For our second night camping at Zion we went back to Smithsonian Butte Road and checked a few switchbacks to see if somehow a nicer campsite existed.  Nope!  We headed back to our first night campsite and it was taken.  All good, we kept driving down the path and found an even nicer spot!