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Thanks to some highly successful promotion by the Utah Office of Tourism, people across the globe now know that “Mighty 5” refers to national parks in Utah and not a group of superheroes.
Unfortunately, that heightened awareness carries a price. Utah’s five national parks are often so busy that visitors wait hours to enter or are even turned away. If you’ve been stalled in traffic at Arches or Zion, you understand.
On holidays or other times when you know the parks will be jammed with tourists, a good alternative is to visit some of Utah’s spectacular state parks. Many offer breathtaking scenery to rival that of the Mighty 5 but with much smaller crowds.
Here are five state parks worth a visit.
[Kodachrome Basin
The area gained fame from an article in National Geographic magazine in September 1949. It became a state park in 1962. The park features sandstone spires and columns, which are unique in the world. It is also near to Bryce Canyon National Park and to Grosvenor Arch, a spectacular double arch named after a former president of the National Geographic Society.](https://utah.com/kodachrome-basin-state-park)
It is a favorite location for star-gazers.
“The remoteness of the park also presents the opportunity to camp under some of the darkest skies imaginable,” notes atlasoscura.com. “The high altitude, clear desert air and lack of light pollution combine to give incredible views of the night sky.”
Dead Horse Point ================
The scenic overlooks of this park are often compared to views of the Grand Canyon. Just over 30 miles from Moab, it’s a worthy destination when Arches is overly crowded.
The park gets its name from a gruesome legend. “Around the turn of the century the point was used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa top,” explains discovermoab.com. “One time, for some unknown reason, horses were left corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River 2,000 feet below.”
[Snow Canyon
Just outside St. George, this park offers a range of impressive rock formations including southern Utah slick rock, sand dunes and lava tubes. Originally named Dixie State Park when founded in 1962, the named was later changed to honor early Utah leaders Lorenzo and Erastus Snow.](https://utah.com/snow-canyon-state-park)
The park has more than 38 miles of hiking trails, most suited for visitors of any ability.
This park is filled with thousands of unusual mushroom-shaped rock formations called “hoodoos.” Originally named Mushroom Valley, it gained official recognition as a state park in 1964.
The landscape is appropriately described as otherworldly. The movie “Galaxy Quest” was filmed here because of the location’s alien appearance. In fact, not far from the park is the Mars Desert Research Station, established to “better educate researchers, students and the general public about how humans can survive on the Red Planet.”
The park is a favorite destination for trekkers hiking Little Wild Horse (a slot canyon) and other trails.
Wasatch Mountain ================
This 21,592-acre park doesn’t offer much in the way of unusual rock formations or red sandstone. However, it provides spectacular mountain scenery. Even though this park has easy access from Salt Lake and Utah counties, it received fewer than 361,000 visitors in 2017, according to data from the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation.
The park boasts four 18-hole golf courses, camping, hiking, biking, ATV and horseback riding. In winter, skiing, snowmobiling, tubing and snowshoeing are popular activities. During summer, temperatures will be 10 to 15 degrees cooler than the Wasatch Front, so it’s a great place to get relief from the heat.
Of course, there are many other state parks to visit. Antelope Island is great for viewing wildlife. The Great Salt Lake offers amazing views of the lake and beautiful sunsets. Bear Lake is unique with its beautiful beaches and turquoise-blue water. Then there are Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Escalante Petrified Forest, Goosenecks and more. All have features that make them worthy of a trip.
So if you want to see some of Utah's natural beauty but you want to avoid the crowds, skip the Mighty 5 and head for a state park instead.
