Grand Circle National Parks Road Trip Planner

With incredible scenery and incredible hikes, one of my absolute favorite places to visit in the United States is the Southwest. So it’s no surprise that the Grand Circle is one of my favorite trips ever!

If you’re planning your own trip, read on below to find my personal recommendations and highlights for where to stay, which parks you should spend more time at, my favorite hikes, hidden gems along the route, resources to help plan your trip, and more!

What is the Grand Circle?

The AI Overview on Google sums this up pretty well: “The Grand Circle is a classic American Southwest road trip that loops through numerous national parks and other scenic areas in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico. It is known for its stunning geology, including massive canyons, natural arches, and hoodoos, as well as its rich Native American history. While specific itineraries vary, a popular route covers parks like Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, Capital Reef, and the Canyon Canyon, often taking at least two weeks to complete. Primarily spans southern Utah and northern Arizona, with some itineraries also including parts of Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada.”

Grand Circle Locations Included in this Post

The rest of the post includes an overview of my recent Grand Circle trip and provides recommendations on how to start planning your own trip. Dig deeper by clicking the links on the locations below for detailed information on each stop along my Grand Circle route:

Zion National Park
Bryce National Park
Capitol Reef National Park
Goblin Valley State Park
Canyonlands National Park
Arches National Park
Monument Valley
Antelope Canyon
Lake Powell / Horsehoe Bend (Page, AZ)
Grand Canyon
Las Vegas

Planning Your Itinerary

There are many different routes you can travel along the Grand Circle and you can shorten / lengthen your trip to fit the amount of time you have available. My partner and I made our trip in late August 2024. Below is our itinerary as we did it, and I’ll tell you more about any modifications and adjustments I’d recommend as you read on about each park.

9-Day Grand Circle Itinerary

Day 1 – Stay near Zion (South Entrance): Arrive in Las Vegas – Drive 2.5 hrs to Zion National Park
Day 2 – Stay near Capitol Reef: Zion National Park in the AM; Drive 1.30 hrs to Bryce National Park & explore; Drive 2.25 hrs to Capitol Reef National Park
Day 3 – Stay in Moab: Explore Capitol Reef National Park; stop for lunch in Hanksville; drive 1.25 hrs for pit stop at Goblin Valley State Park; drive 1.75 hrs to Moab
Day 4 – Stay in Moab: Drive 30 min to Canyonlands National Park & explore; late lunch in Moab (if you can make it before going back to Moab for food, Dead Horse State Park is recommended for a visit, right outside Canyonlands, or it will be 30 min from Moab); stargazing in Arches National Park
Day 5 – Stay in Monument Valley: Drive 10 min to Arches National Park & explore; drive 3 hrs 15 min to Monument Valley; Stop for a Forest Gump picture 20 min from Monument Valley; explore Monument Valley
Day 6 – Stay in Page, Arizona: Drive 2 hrs to Antelope Canyon; visit Lake Powell; sunset at Horseshoe Bend
Day 7 – Stay near Grand Canyon (South Rim): Drive 2.5 hrs to south rim of Grand Canyon National Park & explore; stargaze at the Grand Canyon that night
Day 8 – Stay in Las Vegas: Drive 3.30 min to Hoover Dam; drive 40 min to Las Vegas & explore
Day 9: Depart home

If I had to adjust the intinerary above, I’d recommend staying a second night in Zion. This was one of my favorite parks and I would have loved to have a full day in the park! I’d also recommend staying the night in Bryce instead of continuing on to Capitol Reef and trying to fit 3 parks in on the same day (see Day 2 above). If you have more time, there are more places you can add on in Colorado, such as Mesa Verde. There are also lots of other great state parks to add in along the way as well.

Itinerary Planning Recommendations

My key itinerary-related recommendations when planning your own trip:

Airports / Itinerary Length: Figure out which airport makes sense to fly into and out of. You don’t have to fly in and out of the same airport or even through Las Vegas. I had a friend that only had 5 days for a trip. She flew into Vegas, completed the itinerary above through Moab and then flew out of Salt Lake City. Albuquerque and Phoenix are other major airports on the route. There are also a few smaller airports, closer to the national parks you could explore.
Transportation/Hotels: For our trip, we rented a car and stayed at mostly Holiday Inn Expresses because they have breakfast included, and we could earn points by staying loyal to one hotel chain. Other options are to stay at AirBnBs, rent a camper and stay at campgrounds, and many places even have “glamping” options where you can stay in a covered wagon or yurt under the stars.
Drive Time: Our itinerary covered about 1,000 miles! For us, our appetite for driving was to not be in the car longer than about 2 hours at one time. Our longest drive ended up being about 3 and a half hrs at the end of the trip to get back to the Las Vegas area. Think about how long you want to be in the car to get to your next location and plan your stops/hotel stays accordingly. Luckily, the scenery is beautiful and the drives are mostly easy (only a few portions going up mountains) so that helps the time pass by quickly.
Zion Multiple Park Entrances: For Zion NP, definitely stay near the South entrance, near Springdale. Springdale is a cute, touristy town right outside the park and many of the hotels are walkable right to the Visitors Center. The South entrance is the best way to get to most of the key highlights I’ll write about and that you’ll see recommended online. There is also a north entrance that looks like it’s conveniently in the middle of Zion and Bryce NPs but the North Entrance of Zion NP does NOT connect to the South entrance.
Grand Canyon Multiple Rims: For the Grand Canyon, note that there are multiple rims you can visit (North, South, and West, which is owned by the Hualapai Tribe). The South is the most visited and where we stayed for this trip. As of Oct 2025, the North Rim is only partially reopen, after closing in July 2025 due to the Dragon Bravo wildfire. Check the driving time between your previous and next stop to decide which rim makes the most sense to visit.
Time Zone Change: You will likely switch between Pacific Time and Mountain Time throughout your trip. For us, that especially came into play when we flew into Las Vegas and then drove directly to Zion NP in Utah, which is on Mountain Time, meaning we lost an hour. Another interesting thing to note: Arizona does not follow daylight savings time (DST) meaning you could be on “Pacific Time” or “Mountain Time” depending on the time of year. If you visit Monument Valley in Arizona, which is on the Navajo Nation, note that the Navajo Nation does follow daylight savings time, which means that during DST (roughly March to Nov), Monument Valley would be one hour ahead of other locations in Arizona and would be the same time as locations in Utah.

Favorite Hikes

Just remember, there is no end to the different hikes you can do. We like to do 3-4 mile hikes. Our goal was to complete a quintessential hike at each national park. Here are our favorites that definitely showed off what that park has to offer:

Zion: Emerald Pools Trail – 1.8 miles RT to Middle Pool (various lengths)
Bryce: Navago Loop Trail, paired with Queens Garden Trail – 2.9 miles RT with 600 ft elevation
Capitol Reef: Hickman Bridge Trail – 1.7 miles RT
Canyonlands: White Rim Overlook Trail – 1.8 miles RT with only 159 ft of elevation gain
Arches: Delicate Arch sunrise hike – 3.4 miles and 480 ft elevation gain (includes rock scramble)
Grand Canyon: South Kaibab Trial to Oo Aah Point – 1.8 miles RT

Hidden Gems

Below are some of our favorite hidden gems from across all the places we visited:

Thai Bella – Dinner in Moab
Stargaze at a Dark Sky Park (or two!)
Drive from Capitol Reef to Moab – very scenic! Stop at Hanksville for lunch at at Outlaws Roost for Mexican food & margaritas
Fruit Pies at Gifford Homestead in Capitol Reef (pies are baked using fruit from an orchard right inside the national park
Hiking to Delicate Arch at sunrise (perhaps not a hidden gem but still very cool to do at sunrise!)
White Rim Overlook Trail at Canyonlands – 1.8 mile RT hike has awesome views and we had the hike all to ourselves

Be Prepared

Here’s some advice to help you plan a smooth trip:

Timed entry permits – Some parks may require a timed entry permit, which is in addition to purchasing a national parks pass to enter the park. The timed permits give you a certain block of time when you can enter the park for the day and you can stay as long as you wish. For our trip, Arches National Park was the only park that required a timed entry permit. You should reserve these in advance, ASAP, as they can sell out. If there are no timed entry permits available, then more are relased at 5 pm the day before you need the permit…but log in right when they are released so you don’t miss them. If there is a timed permit requirement, often you can enter before or after a certain time (e.g., before 8 am or after 4 pm) and get in the park without a timed entry permit. Visit Nps.gov or Recreation.gov web sites to look up current requirements.
Water – It’s very important to bring enough water with you while you’re hiking, especially if you’re going during hotter weather. Even in late August, there were constant reminders from staff and signage to hike with enough water, which is one liter per hour hiking or one gallon per day. My husband and I each brought a 32 oz Nalgene and a 16 oz Nalgene, which we were able to easily fill up. All of our hotels and all of the National Park visitor centers have water bottle refill stations, so we didn’t even need to buy bottled water.
Grocery stores – In Moab, grocery stores sell beer but they don’t sell wine! You’ll have to go to a liquor store if you’re looking to split a bottle of wine for an apres hike treat.
Get an early start to your day – Many blogs and sites will recommend arriving before/around 8 am at the visitor center parking lots as they can fill up very quickly (most notably Zion NP). At some parks, you may have to take a shuttle around (Zion and Grand Canyon), while others are less crowded and you are able to drive around in your own car (Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches)
Restaurants close early – Just be aware, especially if you’re arriving late to a new location, that restaurants don’t stay open super late and there are often not a lot of options. For example, we had planned to grab dinner after our hike in Bryce NP before we continued to Capitol Reef but we couldn’t find many options and had to drive to Capitol Reef. We got in maybe around 9 pm and the only restaurant still open was a pizza place (which luckily was good!)
Bring snacks – Most of the national parks on this trip don’t have food options inside the park. Especially if you want to get in hiking without leaving the park, you’ll want to bring enough snacks or bring your own food for lunch inside the park. We did fine by having breakfast at the hotel before we headed out in the morning (can’t recommend finding hotels with breakfast included enough!), bringing snacks to eat while hiking (protein bars, goldfish, etc.), and then having late lunches as we continued our drives. My friend brought a collapsible cooler in her suitcase and then bought lunch provisions after she arrived in Vegas.

Additional Resources

When I was researching for the trip, there are several resources I used to help compile information and recommendations:

A Complete Guide to the Grand Circle National Parks – I’m a huge fan of Rick Steves but Rick Steves does not cover the United States. I’d recommend this travel guide – super detailed and easy to read/follow. Very helpful!
Reddit – especially great for hikes and restaurants. Just add “reddit” to the end of your google search to pull up related posts
Podcasts – I’d look for the “Grand Circle” and specific national parks to learn more. Lots of good podcasts with people talking about recommendations for visiting the national parks
Google search – read through multiple blogs looking for common Grand Circle interaries and routes and to get hiking recommendations
Alltrails – Good resource to look up ratings for specific hikes

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