Utah in one day

I just booked a last minute flight from NJ to Salt Lake City for Thursday evening April 7th to Monday morning April 11th. Two others and myself are planning on skiing Friday and Sunday. We're staying in Sandy UT (a little south of SLC) and renting a full size car.

Saturday we plan on pushing ourselves and are leaning towards a marathon trip to southern Utah for the day. While it is unlikely we'll be able to catch the sunrise and sunset due to the driving times, we are hoping to catch one or the other in it's entirety. None of us have shot too much landscape photography, but between the three of us we have some decent equipment (all Canon thankfully) and we hope to test it out. I did visit Zion last fall for a few hours, but we arrived as the sun was setting and missed almost everything (won't make that mistake again).

My question is to those that know the area, what park do you recommend? Realistically we would be arrive southern Utah around noon on Saturday and stay there until about an hour after sunset then head back to our hotel in Sandy very late that night. I think all of the areas are magnificent based on what little I witnessed back in the fall and what I've read online, but I'm struggling to decide what is best for such a short time frame. We are not serious hikers, but we are in decent shape, ages range from 21 to 49 (me) and not afraid to do some walking or minor hiking. Some of the destinations we are considering are Bryce Canyon, Zion and Big Bend, but we are open to suggestions. Again, I realize I could spend a week at just Zion and not get to see everything, but we are obviously short on time.

Thanks for any suggestions or ideas,
Scott

Since you are looking at a 4 hour car ride each way, have you thought of doing Arches, Moab & Canyonlands NP? It is about 40 miles less each way (about a half hour less each way). A couple of years ago I also saw McInnis Canyon NP in Colorado, it was a nice park, but wanted to visit during the spring or fall (it was a very cold January).

Of course, you might want to check the passes if there is still some snow.

Finally wanted to reply that the trip was a blast and anyone (including me) could easily get a few good photos from Bryce and Zion. I now understand how so many people can get respectable photos of this area with any camera or phone, it's just that scenic. I thought the two guys I was with would be complaining that we weren't skiing everyday of our whirlwind trip, but to my surprise they claimed they actually enjoyed the national parks more than the skiing.

We got to witness Bryce at sunset and sunrise but only from the top as it was foggy in the evening and snowing pretty hard in the morning, with more fog. Under good weather conditions it's tough for me to get keeper photos (I promise you it's not the gear it's the guy behind the camera), with inclement weather I struggle more. We visited Zion and it started to rain, I assumed this would ruin our five hour stay and boy was I mistaken. Instead we witnessed some interesting cloud cover and plenty of waterfalls that I gather are not present most of the time. Again, we barely scratched the surface of what each park has to offer, but for roughly twenty four hours we covered a lot of ground.

As most of you already know, if you ever get the chance to visit this area don't hesitate as it really has to be seen in person to be appreciated. By the way I'm headed back with my daughter and her friend in two a few weeks when her semester at college is over to do some day hiking at Zion and Bryce, this time for five days (my wife thinks I'm crazy).

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Originally Posted by Always Looking

Finally wanted to reply that the trip was a blast and anyone (including me) could easily get a few good photos from Bryce and Zion. I now understand how so many people can get respectable photos of this area with any camera or phone, it's just that scenic. I thought the two guys I was with would be complaining that we weren't skiing everyday of our whirlwind trip, but to my surprise they claimed they actually enjoyed the national parks more than the skiing.

We got to witness Bryce at sunset and sunrise but only from the top as it was foggy in the evening and snowing pretty hard in the morning, with more fog. Under good weather conditions it's tough for me to get keeper photos (I promise you it's not the gear it's the guy behind the camera), with inclement weather I struggle more. We visited Zion and it started to rain, I assumed this would ruin our five hour stay and boy was I mistaken. Instead we witnessed some interesting cloud cover and plenty of waterfalls that I gather are not present most of the time. Again, we barely scratched the surface of what each park has to offer, but for roughly twenty four hours we covered a lot of ground.

As most of you already know, if you ever get the chance to visit this area don't hesitate as it really has to be seen in person to be appreciated. By the way I'm headed back with my daughter and her friend in two a few weeks when her semester at college is over to do some day hiking at Zion and Bryce, this time for five days (my wife thinks I'm crazy).

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show her the pics - the landscape is what is crazy - I agree with you. That part of the world is both unique and completely overwhelming the first time through. I have studied my pics of zion and the other areas nearby and I want to go back and get several different vantage points and I think the effort will produce something other than really cool snap shots

Zion is fantastic and I hope to get back there. There are some great hikes and each one seems unique in its own way. If you get a chance hike the Narrows.

Some pictures from when I went: http://community.the-digital-picture...ead.php?t=6777

You can rent gear to help hike the Narrows: http://www.zionadventures.com/zion-n...tal-equipment/

Bryce was nice too and I hiked down into the Hoodoos, but Zion was my favorite.

Eric