Utah National Park - Montana Owners Club

Illini Trekker · 02-12-2007, 08:03 AM

Planning a trip to see Arches, Zion, Bryce, and then the North Rim. We are from Illinois and will be traveling mid June. The DW and I will be making the trip and enjoy hiking and biking and all that goes with it. I'd like some information on length of time in each park to see it and camping ether in the park or outside the park suggestion.

sreigle · 02-12-2007, 08:33 AM

Dennis, that is a fabulous trip you have planned. We spent a month by Arches and Canyonlands. We stayed in Moab, UT, about 2 miles from the entrance to Arches. We stayed at Portal RV Park.

We spent a month by Bryce Canyon, too. We stayed at Cannonville KOA, at Cannonville, UT. It was an "ok" park but the wifi was not working well. In fact, it did not work most of the time. Neither verizon nor cingular had a cell signal. We had to go four miles down the road to get a signal. This park is right around 12 miles from the Bryce entrance. I would recommend the rv park just outside the entrance in Ruby, UT. I think that's the name of the place. Just outside the park on the north end.

Zion we only spent a few days at but want to do more. We stayed at a the Zion River resort in Virgin, UT. Very nice park but pricey. Wifi was available but expensive.

Arches and Zion both have rv parks within the national parks. The one at Arches has just a very few sites where a Montana will fit but there are a few. I'm not sure about the one in Zion.

If you need any help figuring out hikes and other things to see and do in those areas, please look at our website. We did a bunch of hikes and trails in Arches and Bryce. www.geocities.com/stevereigle , then 2006 Postcards, March 18, 2006 through May 21, 2006.

HamRad · 02-12-2007, 09:43 AM

Illini Trekker,
We stayed at the RV park at Ruby's. It is a very nice park. The sites are excellent. All set in a forest setting with full hookups. Most are pretty level. Be sure and get reservations if going during busy season. From the park you are only about one mile from the park entrance. There are also a couple of National Park CGs just inside the park entrance. They looked nice but we did not check them out.

I believe we had good cell service at the park. We have Verizon. But I don't remember if they had Wi-Fi or not since we use the DirecWay system. I know you can make a connection at the restaurant. I remember seeing many computer screens.

Bryce is a MUST see park as has already been indicated. Enjoy your trip. It sounds great.

HamRad

patodonn · 02-12-2007, 03:43 PM

We stayed at Zion for a week. As I recall, the CG was just South of the main gate. Nice park. We did have satellite TV reception; I don't recall the details of wi-fi...I seem to recall that there was little or no Verizon cell phone reception.

There are two routes between Bryce and Zion. Big difference in driving distances. We elected to leave the rig at Zion and drove the TV to Bryce, spent two nights at Ruby's Lodge (nice place), then returned. We did that so as to avoid the "hassle" of either towing via the "long route" all the way SW and then back around to the NE to get to Bryce, or trying to navigate the North Tunnel out of Zion with the Monty. Our rig is 12' 9" tall, and 38 ft long. I'm sure it would fit...I think....probably...but didn't want to try it out. You have to pay to have the tunnel shut down for your transit. It is 1 1/2 miles long and not a straight shot. I can just visualize getting stuck in there!! So, we wimped out and did Bryce without it.

If you are thinking of using the North entrance and the tunnel into Zion, be sure to check with the Rangers re the max size of rig through the tunnel, and the procedure for using using it.

In hindsight, we could well have used more than two nights at Bryce and would have taken the long route. We could easily spend 5-7 days each at both Bryce and Zion, maybe longer, time permitting. It was, however, the last week in Sept, was starting to snow a bit in the higher elevations, and Bryce was closing in a couple of days.

No info on G. C. North Rim.

Illini Trekker · 02-13-2007, 02:10 AM

Thanks All If you have any more thoughts they are appreciated! We will be leaving Illinois mid June and have maybe 5 weeks to spend out west. Went to the South Rim last year great place. Thinking of 5 days at the North Rim and dry camp (hope the batteries last) two 6 volts? First time at the other Parks. Looks like fuel will be cheaper this summer!SeeYa

sreigle · 02-13-2007, 05:21 AM

If you are traveling the southern route between Arches and Bryce, a drive through Natural Bridges National Monument and Capitol Reef National Park are interesting. We towed the Montana through Natural Bridges. It's a small park and can be done in an hour or two with time to stop at the lookouts, etc. At Capitol Reef we dropped the trailer at their CG parking lot, after asking permission. You cannot take a trailer beyond a certain part. A couple of hours in that park was enough to see what we wanted to see. You'd need more if you want to take the hikes. If you go this route, be prepared for some steep grades (up to 14%) on Utah Highway 12. That's a beautiful drive and the Ford did a great job on those grades. Your truck should do just fine, too. The grades are about two miles long. Use that tow/haul for braking on the down side of those grades.

timandsusan · 02-13-2007, 09:00 AM

We stayed at Ruby's Inn RV Park when we visited Bryce this past fall. Really nice people and a great park. If you want to hike the hoodoo's at Bryce then plan on 3-4 days. We drove "around the tunnel" to get to Zion (our front AC measures 13' 3" from the ground) At Zion, we stayed at Zion Canyon Campground that is about 1/2 mile from the entrance to Zion. Since they use buses in Zion to transport everyone, the bus stop is just outside the Zion Canyon Campground. While at Zion, be sure and visit the Kolob Canyon site that is about 40 miles from the main canyon entrance. You have to drive over to Kolob Canyon. With hiking and side trips, I would recommend 4-5 days here. The best guide book is Fodor's National Parks of the West. If list everything! For the North Rim, we stayed at the Kiabab Camper Village at Jacob Lake, Az. While it is 45 miles from the North Rim Visitors center it is a great park and we enjoyed the ride to the Rim. At Jacob Lake, Az, be sure and visit the Kaibab National Forest office. The National Forest roads are extensive and we drove only 25 miles to the Grand Canyon on these roads without the Monty. Again with hiking, you could spend a week at the North Rim. We also visited Arches and Canyonland near Moab. In our opinion, Canyonland is the best in the area. We went to the Island in the Sky district and hiked and had a great time. We also hiked in Arches. By the way, at Arches there is a database of the arches in the park, it was put together by my old boss (Doug Travers) over about 30 years of visiting the park. In Moab we stayed at Portal RV Park. We will get back there sometimes but are heading to Alaska in 2007 and the US West Coast. Have a great trip. Email me if you have any questions.

sreigle · 02-13-2007, 10:06 AM

At Bryce Canyon, I very highly recommend the Navajo/Queens Garden Loop hike. It's roughly 3 miles total. If I could do only one hike in this park, this is the one I'd do.

Illini Trekker · 02-14-2007, 06:50 AM

sreigle Thats for the tips, and thanks for the tip about you Postcard travels! Looked like you had a nice time at the parks. I believe you liked Arches best? Steve I know how you must have wanted to get in a Jeep and hit the rock! Looked at renting a Jeep at Moab, $125.00. Think we'll do like you did keep it tame and use the truck.

Do you buy your window cleaner at Sam's, you must go through a ton GREAT PICS, no dead bug shots on the windshield.LOL SeeYa

jrgwdenner · 02-14-2007, 08:16 AM

When we were at Zion, we found out that we would have to pay the extra fee just to drive our dually through the tunnel.

sreigle · 02-14-2007, 10:37 AM

Dennis, we liked both parks immensely. But if I had to pick one, I'd say we had the best time at Arches, simply because of all the hikes we did there and the "off road" adventures. Plus, Canyonlands National Park is maybe 35 or 40 miles from Moab and Dead Horse Point State Park is a bit closer than that. Both are must sees. Since you've been on our website you can see all the possibilities. And I'm sure we missed some. We both want to go back to the Moab area someday but also maybe go back to Bryce when we can do more of the hikes there.

If you go to Bryce, don't forget the Butch Cassidy childhood home/farm. It's now unmarked so when you go, email me and we'll get you directions. We had to go into town to ask and they told us because of vandalism the sign had been taken down and the family (his family still owns it!) had said to give directions to those who ask but otherwise don't volunteer the info.

As Judy said, duallies are just a bit wider than the limit for the tunnel and you have to pay for an escort through the tunnel. That's so you can drive down the middle of the tunnel. Likewise for rv's, including fifthwheels. If I recall, it's about 10 bucks each direction. If I had been thinking we would have offered to take Glen and Judy through in our truck since we were there at the same time. Sorry, Judy.

nkwist · 02-14-2007, 11:27 AM

We spent a week at "Watchman" campground at Zion a couple of years ago. It was one of the best sites in a 9 month trip. They have electric only, so after a shower we needed to drain the gray water into a bucket (pail) and dump it in the approved drains by the restrooms, then haul a bucket full of fresh water back. There were 4 adults, but we were only about 200 feet from a washroom...no big deal. They will tell you the max length for a trailer/5w is around 28 feet, but we got a "class A" site and had plenty of room.

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