Utah is the American West at its finest. The sheer number of national parks, monuments, and one-of-a-kind sights make Utah a must for any family itching to scratch the great parks of the West off their bucket list. Whether you are into hiking, biking, off-roading, stargazing, fishing, boating, exploring ancient cultures, rock climbing, or relaxing days by the pool with the family, Utah offers a little something for everybody.

Why Renting an RV in Utah Is the Way to Go

The lands that encompass Utah are known for being vast and broad, but they’re far from empty. But it does mean a lot of driving to see all of the natural and cultural wonder Utah has to offer—what better way to do that than in your very own rented RV? We all know deserts have hot days and cold nights, but when you’re camping beside towering buttes in an RV, your shelter and comfort are wherever your travels take you. Check out our list of top destinations below to start charting your perfect RV road trip through Utah.

10 Breathtaking Places to See in Utah in Your Rental RV

The vast deserts of Utah are more than sand and cacti. the land was once covered by an ancient sea, then white sand beaches, and later towering rock mountains formed by volcanic pressure. Today it is host to the Colorado River that runs through a landscape defined by jaw-dropping stone monuments, prehistoric ruins, coniferous forests, and more adventure than anyone RV trip can capture.

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Zion National Park

Zion National Park is one of America’s great parks, built upon a foundation of over 12,000 years of human history. The unique geography of the area—a veritable oasis in an otherwise harsh Utah desert—has led many different cultures to call Zion home, eventually culminating in a settlement of Mormons in the 1860s. Today, Zion National Park is defined by its breathtaking stone topography, rushing river, and sheer size—the park’s shuttle system is an absolute must to get around and see everything Zion has to offer.

Camping at Zion National Park is a very popular way to stay and get to know Zion. The park offers three on-site campsites spread over an approximately one-hour drive (it’s really that big!), two of which accept reservations. There are several other campgrounds located in Zion Canyon and the areas surrounding the park, each offering a slightly different experience and many with modern shower facilities and comfort stations. Whatever your ideal camping experience is, you can find it in and around Zion National Park.

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Arches National Park

Arches National Park in Utah offers some of the most remarkable geological formations anywhere in the United States. Depending on which part of the park you explore on a hike, you’ll find something completely different. Devil’s Garden winds under several natural stone arches carved into the cliffs. A trip to Delicate Arch, perhaps the most recognizable stone arch in the world, takes visitors through the historic Wolfe Ranch and its engaging historical interpretative exhibits. For a great look of the whole park, hike up to Balanced Rock and take in the sight of the many stone windows below.

Arches National Park has a great visitor center with information for visitors and is also home to a single campground. Devils Garden Campground has 51 sites, all of which welcome RVs—but none have hookups of any kind. The campsites book up fast, especially during the busy season between March and October, so it’s important to reserve a campsite many months in advance to guarantee your spot.

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Canyonlands National Park

It might be easier to think of Canyonlands National Park not as one park, but as four distinct yet connected parks, each with its own flavor and personality. The Colorado River and many of its tributaries wind through the park offering one of these “districts” where you can pull a boat into the desert and still enjoy a day on the water. The long work of those waterways created the canyons and cliffs that define the other three districts, including the Island in the Sky, the Maze, and the Needles. Canyonlands features hundreds of miles of trails to take hikers, mountain bikers, horseback riders, and ATV enthusiasts on the adventure of a lifetime. Or, if you prefer to explore off the ground, the many sheer rock walls of Canyonlands offer world-class rock climbing.

The remote, primitive desert landscape that Canyonlands calls home makes for some incredible stargazing—the perfect nighttime activity for campers on a vacation to the park. At the park’s two campgrounds—Island in the Sky and the Needles—there are a total of 36 RV-friendly campsites. As is often the case in desert destinations like Canyonlands, spaces are limited and do not feature hookups, so plan ahead to grab a spot and rough it under the starry sky.

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Bryce Canyon National Park

Nowhere in the world will you find a larger collection of “hoodoo” formations (irregular columns of rock like giant stalagmites reaching for the sky) than Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. From four vantage points spread out across miles of hiking trails, visitors to Bryce Canyon can expect breathtaking views of a landscape that could just as well belong on another planet altogether. Separated into several different “bowls” carved into a massive plateau, the park, and its many trails, offer forested hiking and incredible desert sights. To make that extraterrestrial experience complete, come out for a full moon hike under the stars with a ranger to guide you.

Between the North and Sunset Campgrounds located within the park, there is a total of 99 RV-friendly campsites up for grabs. There are no hookups, but each campsite has a camp store, seasonally available potable water, on-site laundry facilities, and other amenities that will make your Bryce Canyon National Park camping trip creature-comfort friendly.

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Capitol Reef National Park

Looking at Capitol Reef National Park today, it’s hard to imagine that it once was home to rushing rivers, swamplands, and even shallow oceans. But there, where geologic activity has created a wrinkle in the earth itself, fossil evidence and rock formations exist that point to an area once teeming with marine life and flowing water. As different peoples have settled the land over the millennia, it has become a storied place with evidence of human activity around each corner—including historic orchards that appear just beyond deep stone ravines like a mirage.

Today, visitors to Capitol Reef enjoy hiking the scenic trails, horseback riding, fishing in the park’s streams, and climbing the incredible rock formations (with a permit). The park’s Fruita Campground is great for the RV crowd with its 71 developed campsites complete with a picnic table and either a firepit or above-ground grill. Capitol Reef also offers two, free undeveloped campsites—perfect for a night out of the RV under the stars.

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Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Spanning a whopping one-million-acre swath of deserts, pine forests, and river valleys, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is home to some of the most untouched nature you’ll find anywhere in the United States. Its sheer size made it one of the last areas in the continental United States to be fully mapped and a visit anywhere in the park makes it clear why. From the grand stone staircases themselves to the rugged desert plateaus of Kaiparowits, to the Escalante River Canyons, there’s something for everybody at this sprawling park.

Escalante Cabins & RV Park is located near the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument visitor center and many nearby restaurants and retail outlets. With 27 RV sites featuring full hookups, it’s a rare desert campground that gives the RV crowd a place to plug in and cool off in the desert heat. Canyons of Escalante RV Park is another great option for anybody heading out for a week full of adventure by RV.

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Monument Valley

When you picture the American West, there’s a good chance the first image to pop into your head is of a wide desert and three massive stone structures stretched upwards under an open sky. Those rocks—one called Merrick Butte and the other two aptly known as the Mitten Buttes—are all that’s left of the ancient Rock Mountains. And, they’re what give the famous Monument Valley Tribal Park its name. Here, visitors can buy tickets for guided tours from local Navajo experts who maintain the land their ancestors have called home for centuries. Hop in a Jeep and cruise the wide-open spaces surrounded by breathtaking buttes and mesas.

The visitor center offers panoramic views of the most famous buttes in the park, as well as a seasonally open restaurant offering authentic Navajo cuisine alongside American classics. As you drive out to a nearby RV park, make sure to plan time to stop at the many roadside stands operated by Navajo merchants, craftsmen and women, and chefs.

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Natural Bridges National Monument

In time immemorial, eastern Utah was mostly underwater. At the edge of the ancient sea were white sand beaches which, under the pressure of wind and water for millions of years, stratified into beautifully layered sandstone. When the sea receded, it left behind running rapids like the Colorado River that carved its way through these sandstone mesas and plateaus to create three peculiar stone bridges. Today, those three bridges stand as a testament to the wet history of a very dry desert at Natural Bridges National Monument.

Natural Bridges offers fantastic hiking, with overlooks offering views of the bridges from above and trails winding beneath the stone arches. It’s also a place of many firsts—it was the first National Monument in Utah, and also the first International Dark Sky Park in the world. That’s reason enough to make your trip to Natural Bridges an overnighter. But, be sure to snag your RV’s campsite early; there are only 13 primitive sites in the park and they’re all first come, first served. Learn more about Natural Bridges National Monument.

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Hovenweep National Monument

Hovenweep National Monument, straddling the Utah-Colorado border, is home to six prehistoric villages that collectively once housed more than 2,500 ancestral Puebloans. The amazing craftsmanship of these people is on full display at the ruins of each of these sites. The most representative of Puebloan ingenuity is undoubtedly Hovenweep Castle at the Square Tower Group–the base camp for anyone setting out on an adventure through Hovenweep’s historical sites.

There’s great hiking to be had in and around the stone structures at each village, which can be toured one at a time when traveling between them in your RV. And while the campground near the monument’s visitor center was designed largely for tent camping, several of its 31 sites can fit RVs 35 feet or shorter. The shaded picnic tables offer great relief from the sun. All campsites are first-come, first-served.

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Dead Horse Point State Park

Legend says the peninsula of rock called Dead Horse Point was favored by cowboys in the Old West because of its narrow stone bridge to the greater mesa that defines the landscape of the area. They’d run the horses down the narrow stretch of rock to the prominence that overlooked the spectacular valleys and canyons left by the Colorado River, where they could collect the horses they wanted with ease and free the rest—or, once, leave the rest trapped without drinking water. Today, the views offered visitors at Dead Horse Point State Park are rivaled only by the Grand Canyon and are similar in size and scope. Stand 2,000 feet above the raging river for miles-long views of beautiful red sandstone, scant desert vegetation, and even snow at the tops of cliffs in the wintertime. The park’s Kayenta Campground and Wingate Campground offer a combined 41 RV campsites complete with electrical hookups, some also with water.

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Campgrounds and RV Parks in Utah

Everywhere you go in Utah, there’s sure to be a cozy and comfortable RV park or resort nearby. As you plan your Utah RV trip, look out for great RV campgrounds you can use as a home base or as a night’s stop along the way to your next adventure.

Iron Springs Adventure Resort in Cedar City, Utah is a great destination because of its central location between many of Utah’s national parks. Stop in for an RV site with full hookups, check out the country store, and enjoy the mountain bike and off-road trails located on-site.

WillowWind RV Park in Hurricane, Utah makes for a great place to call home while you explore Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. Enjoy free WI-FI parkwide and convenient access to entertainment, dining, shopping, and great ATV trails nearby.

Canyonlands Campground in Moab, Utah puts your RV right in the middle of the natural splendor on display at Canyonlands State Park and Arches National Park. The property has quality hiking trails and a very inviting swimming pool under the towering gaze of the nearby red sandstone cliffs.

Check out our Campground Guide to Utah and list of campgrounds in Utah compiled by Good Sam.

Things to Know About Renting an RV in Utah

Things to Note About Camping in Utah

Utah is a desert state. Most of the top outdoor destinations in the state are deep into the desert where it’s not common for campsites to offer electric hookups and even less common to offer water hookups. Many campgrounds in and around the state’s parks only have potable water seasonally and are very strict on the ways guests can use the water they have access to; for example, in some places, it’s against the rules to wash your RV.

Make sure to do extensive research not only into the available hookups and water sources at your chosen destinations but also into the climate when you’re planning to camp. An RV is a great way to stay warm when it’s cool and stay cool when the temperatures climb to more than 100º, as long as you’ve planned ahead. Especially when you are renting an RV for a trip, take the time before you leave to understand how the vents, fans, and onboard heaters work so you can rest in comfort wherever you end up for the night.

Dry Camping or Boondocking in Utah

Boondocking, also known as dry camping or dispersed camping, means pulling up your RV in an undeveloped or public area to camp for free. Experienced RV owners make it a point to research boondocking laws and popular spots before heading out for any trip, so they know they’ve always got a place to make camp for the night. Fortunately, Utah has an abundance of boondocking opportunities. The RV community recommends checking out Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument with its remote country free camping, Goosenecks State Park outside of Goosenecks State Park, and the public lands surrounding Moab that are maintained by the Bureau of Land Management.