Grand Circle Loop
Fourteen days, eight parks, and a very doable big scenic loop without turning it into a death march.
Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) → Zion National Park → Bryce Canyon National Park → Capitol Reef National Park → Goblin Valley State Park → Moab → Arches National Park → Canyonlands National Park → Dead Horse Point State Park → Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park → Page → Glen Canyon Dam / Lake Powell → Grand Canyon South Rim → Petrified Forest National Park → Flagstaff → Sedona → Pahrump → Death Valley National Park → Harry Reid International Airport (LAS)
- Parks covered in the core loop: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, Death Valley
- sunrise for Bryce, Monument Valley, and Grand Canyon; early entry for Arches and Death Valley; late afternoon for Horseshoe Bend and South Rim arrival
Las Vegas to Zion
09:00 Depart: Pick up the car at Harry Reid International Airport, get out of Vegas before the city heat fully kicks in, and settle into the rhythm with a pretty easy first drive. Once you cross into Utah, the scenery starts changing fast—wide desert, rust-red cliffs, then those giant Zion walls suddenly feel close.
09:00 Depart
Pick up the car at Harry Reid International Airport, get out of Vegas before the city heat fully kicks in, and settle into the rhythm with a pretty easy first drive. Once you cross into Utah, the scenery starts changing fast—wide desert, rust-red cliffs, then those giant Zion walls suddenly feel close.
13:30 Zion National Park South Entrance
Roll into Springdale, ease into the trip, and spend the afternoon on the Zion Canyon shuttle rather than trying to cram in a huge hike after a travel day. You’ll get those towering sandstone walls, the river, hanging gardens, and that classic “how is this place real?” feeling almost immediately. If you still have energy, do a short riverside walk or just ride the shuttle to soak it in without rushing.
17:30 Springdale
This is a good place for an easy dinner and a sunset wander with the cliffs glowing above town. After a long arrival day, keeping it simple here pays off.
Zion’s big walls, then Bryce
Day 2｜Zion’s big walls, then Bryce (140km, 2.5h drive)
08:00 Zion Canyon Scenic Drive
Start early while the canyon is cool and the light is soft on the walls. This is the morning for your main Zion experience—whether that means a longer hike like Emerald Pools or simply hopping between viewpoints and short walks. The canyon feels best before midday crowds build.
13:30 Mount Carmel Highway
Drive out through the east side of Zion, which honestly feels like a second park—slickrock, tunnels, bighorn country, and huge open views. It’s one of those drives where you’ll keep wanting to pull over.
17:00 Bryce Canyon National Park
Get in with enough time for that first rim view at sunset. Bryce works beautifully as an arrival park because the payoff is instant: hoodoos everywhere, pink-orange stone, and that strange natural amphitheater look that doesn’t really resemble anywhere else.
Tonight stay
Bryce Canyon City or near the park entrance — staying close makes sunrise tomorrow painless.
Bryce sunrise and the drive to Capitol Reef
06:30 Bryce Canyon National Park
Sunrise is the moment here. The hoodoos go from muted gray to orange and gold in stages, and even a short rim walk feels huge. If you want one classic half-day experience, drop below the rim on a shorter trail and then come back up before your legs start asking questions.
11:30 Scenic Byway 12
The drive toward Capitol Reef is part of the point, not just the transfer. This road gives you cliffs, forest, open slickrock, and those long empty Utah views that make the whole loop feel properly cinematic.
16:30 Capitol Reef National Park
Arrive with time for the orchard-and-cliff feel of Fruita and a relaxed first look at the waterpocket country. It’s a nice contrast after Bryce—less immediate drama, more quiet layered beauty.
Capitol Reef to Moab
Day 4｜Capitol Reef to Moab (250km, 3h drive)
08:30 Capitol Reef Scenic Drive
Spend the morning on the scenic drive and a couple of short walks before the day heats up. Capitol Reef rewards slowing down: folded cliffs, old orchards, petroglyphs, and the sense that fewer people are trying to elbow their way into your photo.
13:00 Goblin Valley State Park
This is a fun change of mood on the way east—less grand overlook, more wandering around weird mushroom-like rock formations and feeling like you landed on another planet for an hour or two.
17:30 Moab
Pull into Moab in the early evening, stretch your legs, and enjoy actually being in a lively trail town after a few quieter nights. Sunset light on the red rock around town does a lot of work even before you enter tomorrow’s park.
Arches National Park day
## Day 5｜Arches National Park day (30km, 1h drive)
07:00 Arches National Park
Get in early, because Arches is much better before the heat and timed-entry stress of the day. This is the day for the famous shapes: giant fins, balanced rocks, and those impossibly elegant sandstone arches. Pick two or three zones instead of trying to tag every viewpoint; Delicate Arch area plus one of the Windows sections is already a full, satisfying day.
12:30 Devils Garden
If your legs still feel good, spend the middle of the day here on shorter walks among dense clusters of formations. It’s one of the best places in the park to really feel surrounded by sculpted stone.
17:00 Moab
Head back before dinner, shower off the dust, and take it easy. After a dawn start, a relaxed evening keeps tomorrow enjoyable.
Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point
This is one of the easiest “big scenery per effort” days on the whole loop, which is ideal after Arches.
08:00 Canyonlands National Park, Island in the Sky
This is the big-view day. The overlooks here don’t ask much from you physically, but the payoff is massive—layer after layer of canyons, mesas, and far-off rivers. It feels less like one single landmark and more like staring across a whole geological world.
12:30 Mesa Arch
If you didn’t do sunrise here, midday is still worth it for the cliff-edge framing and the sheer drop beyond. It’s a short stop with a very high wow factor.
16:30 Dead Horse Point State Park
End the day with another huge Colorado River overlook and softer late-afternoon light. It’s close enough to pair naturally with Island in the Sky without making the day hectic.
Into Monument Valley country
Leave after breakfast rather than before dawn; today is scenic but not punishing, and there’s no prize for turning every day into a race.
08:30 Depart Moab
Leave after breakfast rather than before dawn; today is scenic but not punishing, and there’s no prize for turning every day into a race.
12:30 Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park
By midday the buttes look exactly like the American West you’ve been carrying around in your head for years. The scale is odd at first—everything seems close until you realize those formations are enormous. A scenic drive or guided Navajo tour adds context and gets you deeper into the landscape.
17:00 Mexican Hat
Wind down nearby instead of pushing farther. This part of the trip works best when you let the evening desert quiet settle in.
Monument Valley to Page
Day 8｜Monument Valley to Page (200km, 2.5h drive)
08:00 Monument Valley sunrise
The soft morning light on the mittens and buttes is the whole reason to stay nearby. It’s calmer, cooler, and much more emotional than a quick daytime pass-through.
12:30 Page
Drive south into Page and take the afternoon at a gentler pace. The town itself is functional, but it’s a great launch point for some of the most photogenic stops on the loop.
16:30 Horseshoe Bend
Short walk, huge payoff. Go later in the day when the light softens and the curve of the Colorado River looks deeper and more dramatic.
Lake Powell and on to the South Rim
## Day 9｜Lake Powell and on to the South Rim (215km, 3h drive)
08:30 Glen Canyon Dam Overlook
Start with a quick look over the dam and the tight canyon walls below. It’s a compact stop, but it helps connect the landscape you’ve been driving through with how water shaped and changed it.
10:30 Lake Powell / Wahweap area
Spend the late morning around the blue-water-meets-red-rock scenery. After days of canyons and desert overlooks, the water changes the mood in the best way.
16:30 Grand Canyon South Rim
Arrive by late afternoon, when the sun starts dropping and the colors in the canyon become more layered and readable. First views here can be almost disorienting—the scale is so big your eyes need a minute to make sense of it.
Grand Canyon South Rim day
## Day 10｜Grand Canyon South Rim day (40km, 1h drive)
06:30 Grand Canyon South Rim viewpoints
Sunrise along the rim is the right way to meet the canyon properly. The shadows move, side canyons emerge, and the place feels less like a postcard and more like a giant living landscape. Walk a rim section rather than driving nonstop between viewpoints.
11:30 Desert View Drive
This stretch gives you some of the best changing perspectives on the canyon, and it’s nice to experience the rim as a sequence instead of one single stop.
17:00 Grand Canyon Village
Settle back in for a slower evening, maybe one more rim stroll if the weather is good. No need to force a huge hike unless that’s your personal priority.
Grand Canyon to Petrified Forest
This is one of the longer driving days, so getting rolling in the morning keeps the afternoon comfortable.
08:00 Depart Grand Canyon
This is one of the longer driving days, so getting rolling in the morning keeps the afternoon comfortable.
13:30 Petrified Forest National Park
The landscape here is different again—painted badlands, open desert, and fossilized logs with colors that seem almost too polished to be natural. It doesn’t feel like the canyon parks, which is exactly why it earns its place on the loop.
17:30 Holbrook
Keep the evening simple in town and rest up. You’ve covered a lot of ground by this point, and this is a good practical overnight.
Into the mountains: Sedona via Flagstaff
Day 12｜Into the mountains: Sedona via Flagstaff (300km, 3.5h drive)
Flagstaff
Use Flagstaff as a comfortable mid-route pause—cooler air, mountain feel, and a noticeable shift from high desert to ponderosa country.
Sedona scenic area
Drop into Sedona in the afternoon when the red rock formations start glowing a little warmer. This is a great day for a scenic overlook, a short walk, or just a slower red-rock cruise rather than a punishing hike.
Uptown Sedona / nearby viewpoint
End with an easy evening around town or a sunset-facing overlook. Sedona is one of the nicer places on the loop for simply lingering.
Sedona to Death Valley gateway
Today is the big mileage day of the loop, but it’s the cleanest way to swing back toward Nevada without wasting a whole extra day. Leave early, keep fuel topped up, and treat this mostly as a transit day with scenery changing around you.
08:00 Depart Sedona
Today is the big mileage day of the loop, but it’s the cleanest way to swing back toward Nevada without wasting a whole extra day. Leave early, keep fuel topped up, and treat this mostly as a transit day with scenery changing around you.
13:30 Mojave desert corridor
Break up the drive with a proper stretch, a late lunch, and some time out of the car. You don’t need to make this complicated—today is about arriving with enough energy for one more great landscape tomorrow.
17:30 Pahrump
Stop here rather than pushing into Vegas late. It sets up a much better final park day and keeps the evening easy.
Death Valley and back to Las Vegas
Day 14｜Death Valley and back to Las Vegas (330km, 4.5h drive)
07:30 Death Valley National Park
Start early because this park is all about light and temperature. Pick two or three classics rather than pinballing around: broad salt flats, sculpted badlands, and those giant basin-and-range views that make the place feel both empty and dramatic at once.
12:30 Zabriskie Point / Furnace Creek area
Midday is fine for shorter viewpoint stops and a break in the developed area. Death Valley is better handled in focused bursts than long exposed hikes unless conditions are mild.
17:30 Harry Reid International Airport (LAS)
Drive back into Las Vegas with enough margin to return the car without stress. It’s a neat ending—after two weeks of giant silence and open space, the city suddenly feels extra bright and loud.
- Day 13: 6.5h drive driving — plan rest stops