AnnaPlank1

Halo!
I'm going to Utah with my family. We're going skiing in february in the holiday.
After we have been skiing, in the north of Utah, we are planning on moving south to explore one or two of the great canyons in Utah. We were thinking Canyonlands, Bryce or Zion...
If you guys could come with some tips for us, that had been great!
We are also hoping to get some tips for hotels close by the canyons...

Regards
AnnPlan

tomfuller

If you stay near Hurricane, you can probably see both Bryce and Zion.
If you want to go to South-Eastern Utah stay in Moab and see the Islands in the Sky section of Canyonlands NP and all of Arches NP.
If a road is not plowed and there is snow on it, don't go there.

utahtea

I've been to Zion and Bryce in February and there was snow even in Zion which is around 4,000 ft elevation compared to Bryce which starts at 8,000 ft and goes to 9,000 ft. For Bryce and Zion I would stay either in Zion at the Lodge or find lodging in Springdale, Utah. I would make a day trip to Bryce from Zion. More than likely if you want to do any of the trails in Bryce you will need snowshoes. Trails in Zion can be iced over and some of them could be closed. Most of the Riverwalk was closed when we were there in Feb. one year.

I been to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks many times but never in February. I've seen pictures and these places get snow in the winter. My DS and DIL were in Arches in late November and last part of the trail to Delicate Arch was already covered with ice. If you plan to visit these two spots then Moab will be your best place to look for lodging. We camp so I don't have any suggestions for lodging.

Utahtea

emalloy

If it is not snowing, the roads into any of the parks should be fine. You could see all of the major sites in the parks with very short walks from the pull offs.

I would guess that there would be snow on the trails in Bryce, as there was three times we were there in April, but Zion has always been dry, even once in February, but it does depend on how much snow the winter has had.

The snow in Moab dries quite quickly, one April we had flurries that dried within minutes of falling. You should be aware that they call it slick rock for a reason, it doesn't have to have snow on it to be slick.

When we went to Arches in February, we stayed in the park and the winter rates were much better than the summer. In Moab we've stayed at Cali Cochita (nice B&B with great breakfast) and also at a couple of chain motels and also at the River Terrace Inn in Green River (about an hour west with a great breakfast).

emalloy

This post makes the whole page go into zoom print mode when I click on the title, but not when I hit submit. weird!

Shanti

We went to southern Utah last February. As emalloy posted, lodging rates go down a lot in winter. Another advantage is that that you don't have to deal with the summer crowds. And the parks are even more beautiful with snow.

We went to Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, and Arches. All of them had snow. Bryce had the most which is typical - it had a lot of snow and we decided not to hike there since my husband has a bad knee.

You can buy shoe attachments at the national park gift stores - I forget what they're called - that are cleats that attach to your shoe. Inexpensive and they make hiking so much easier as some of the hikes involved snow and ice. For example, that narrow ledge on the Arches NP hike just before you get to Delicate Arch was solid ice.

The only disadvantage that I can think of for traveling at that time of year is that some places are either closed or being remodeled since it's the slow season. We didn't have a huge choice of restaurants in Moab, for example, since quite a few were closed for the season.

Otherwise it is a great time of year. I'd love to go back there for another winter trip.