Utah is known for its amazing National Parks and Monuments.
National Parks
National Monuments
- Arches
- Bryce
- Canyonlands
- Capitol Reef
- Zion
- Cedar Breaks
- Grand Staircase-Escalante
- Natural Bridges
- Rainbow Bridge
- Timpanogos Cave
However, they are not the most pet friendly national parks. Most are rated 1 or 2 paws with the exception of Bryce which I recently upgraded to 3 paws. The park added a 5 mile multi-use trail giving Bryce 2 pet friendly trails.
The pet friendliness of Utah national monuments isn’t much better than the parks except for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. At Escalante it is easier to describe where your pet can’t go than where they can. It is that pet friendly! Grand Staircase-Escalante is one of the few parks which gets a 4 paw rating.
One paw parks have no pet friendly trails
It has been a long time since we visited either Arches National Park of Canyonlands National Park. In fact we had our harlequin Great Dane Selar, our first Great Dane, when we visited the two parks.
It was a spring break road trip during which we tried and failed to stay ahead of some bad weather. By the time we got to the Arches and Canyonlands area it was cold and rainy. We decided it was better to trade in the idea of tent camping for a hotel room in Moab. A good idea in theory however, spring break in Moab means rock crawlers have taken over the town. For those unfamiliar with rock crawlers they are off-road vehicles designed to crawl over large rocks. Luckily the hotel reservationist took pity on us and found us a room.
Since the weather was cold we were able to leave Selar safely in the SUV while we did short walks to the major view points. The current regulations at Arches do not allow a pet to be left unattended unless it is in a paid campsite.
Unpaved roads in Canyonlands
Canyonlands has hundreds of miles of unpaved roads to explore. From past experience we have learned that Utah takes their 4WD roads seriously and I recommend you know what you are getting into before venturing onto them. Some of them require technical driving and equipment to get through. Pets are allowed on unpaved Potash/Shafer Canyon road between Moab and Island of the Sky. However, pets are not allowed on or even in a vehicle on any of the other unpaved roads.
Night in a yurt
As we left Canyonlands behind the weather turned to snow which gave us an opportunity to experience what a stormy night in a yurt is like. It’s rather loud if you’re wondering. But a gas heating stove kept the yurt nice and toasty warm. We did have a bit of a set back when it came to cooking dinner. Our camp stove developed an o-ring leak. The room heater was a stove after all, right? It just happened to be controlled by the room thermostat. So the yurt ended up getting really warm for a while why dinner was cooked.
