Utah may be my favorite camping destination

During my inaugural camping trip in Mesa from February 22 to April 12, 2026, I traveled and camped in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado. There were highlights in every state, most notably Big Bend National Park in Texas, Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, Chiricahua National Monument, Patagonia, and Canyon de Chelly in Arizona, but Utah continues to amaze me during every visit. I think I’ve spent time camping, hiking and cycling in Utah almost every year after retiring at the end of 2015 and I still feel like there are many places left to discover.

In my earlier travels to Utah, I spent most of my time in the National Parks; Zion, Canyonlands, Arches, Bryce and Capitol Reef. I also explored some of the National Monuments: Cedar Breaks, Howenweap and Escalante-Grand Staircase. During the past few years, I’ve added some State Parks and Bears Ears National Monument.

Utah has over 40 State Parks and I’ve only camped in a couple, Kodachrome Basin and Dead Horse Point. I really enjoyed hiking in Kodahchrome Basin and the Kayente Campground in Dead Horse Pointe was the best campground I’ve stayed at in any state park in the U.S. It’s a small campground with very level sites, good separation from other campers, electricity, and a large paved area at the back end of my site with a clean metal picnic table and fire pit. I’ve visited Bears Ears three times and my favorite dispersed campsites in the U.S. are located there: Valley of the Gods Road and Muley Point. Hiking in Bears Ears is a bit challenging, primarily because there are so few visitors that the hiking trails tend to be overgrown in spots. But where else can you find yourself alone on a trail for a 2-3 hour hike to ancient cliff ruins?

So while I have many places to visit for the first time in Southern Utah, especially in Canyonlands, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Bears Ears and many State Parks, I haven’t even started to explore the mountains of Northern Utah! I could easily spend months exploring Utah every year.