Hiking the American West: A National Parks Itinerary from Australia & New Zealand

An American West national parks itinerary is the rare long-haul trip where the driving is a highlight rather than a chore: red-rock desert unspooling between Zion, Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Arches and Canyonlands, with Las Vegas holding the door open at either end. For Australians and New Zealanders it is also a trip that rewards planning far more than spontaneity. The parks themselves are easy — the permits, the timed-entry systems and above all the in-park lodges are not, and they are settled months before you fly.

This guide maps the classic loop in driving order, makes the case for travelling in May–June or September–October, and covers the practical layer — hire cars, permits, lodge lead times — that turns a screensaver into a booked trip.

The itinerary at a glance

The loop runs clockwise from Las Vegas and hands you a different landscape every two or three days. Fourteen days is the comfortable version; here is how they fall.

When to go: May–June or September–October

Start with when not to go. July and August are the hottest and busiest months on this loop: canyon-floor temperatures in Arches and Canyonlands sit well above 40°C, the summer monsoon builds afternoon storms that can flash-flood slot canyons with no warning, and the northern-hemisphere school holidays fill every shuttle queue and car park. If those are the only months you have, the trip still works — start hikes at first light and treat the middle of the day as driving time — but if you can choose, choose the shoulders.

May and June are the green end of the year. Zion’s waterfalls are still running, the cottonwoods are fresh, and the high country smells of new snow-melt — which is also the caveat, because high spring runoff can keep the Narrows closed into May, depending on snowpack and river levels, and mornings at Bryce Canyon, which sits above 2,400 metres, can still be frosty. By June, virtually the entire loop is normally open.

September and October are the connoisseur’s window. The river is warm enough to wade, the crowds begin easing after the Labour Day holiday in early September, and by mid-October the cottonwood canyons turn gold. The trade-off sits at the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, which winds down from mid-October — plan a South Rim visit if you are travelling late.

Both windows also happen to be shoulder season on trans-Pacific flights from Australia and New Zealand, so the aircraft are emptier and the fare pressure gentler than in the June–July and December peaks.

How long to allow

Twelve to fourteen days covers the full loop without turning the trip into a driving exam, and that is the version we would plan for most travellers. With eight days, cut the eastern half and do Las Vegas, Zion, Bryce and the Grand Canyon properly rather than all seven parks badly. With sixteen or more, slip Capitol Reef in between Bryce and Moab — the quietest of Utah’s five parks and the one that feels most like the West of fifty years ago. The mistake to resist is compressing the full loop into less than ten days: the distances are honest, and this is a trip where the pull-overs matter as much as the trailheads.

The parks, in driving order

Zion. Two and a half hours from Las Vegas and the busiest park on the itinerary. The main canyon is shuttle-only for most of the year, which is a blessing once you accept it — base yourself in Springdale, walk to the shuttle, and get the first one of the morning at least once. Angels Landing now requires a permit (more below); The Narrows, waded upstream through the Virgin River, needs no permit and is for many people the best half-day of the whole trip.

Bryce Canyon. Two hours on, and a complete change of register — an amphitheatre of orange hoodoos best seen at sunrise when the rock lights from within. The Queen’s Garden–Navajo Loop combination is the essential walk: down among the spires, back up through the switchbacks. Pack a warm layer whatever the month; the rim sits higher than any point in Australia or New Zealand shy of Aoraki.

Grand Canyon. The rim decision shapes your day count. The South Rim is open year-round, holds most of the services and viewpoints, and is reached from Bryce via Page — worth a stop for Horseshoe Bend and, with a Navajo-guided tour booked well ahead, Antelope Canyon. The North Rim is quieter and closer as the crow flies, but closes from mid-October to mid-May. Whichever rim, walk a stretch of the Rim Trail at dawn and drop a short way down South Kaibab to feel the scale change.

Monument Valley. Not a national park at all but a Navajo Tribal Park, and the emotional centre of the drive. The 17-mile scenic drive is usually suitable for standard cars in dry conditions, although conditions can change after rain; a Navajo-guided tour gets you into the restricted backcountry and adds the context the buttes deserve. Stay close enough to see the Mittens at sunrise.

Arches. The first of the two Moab parks, and the one with the deadline: Arches has operated a timed-entry reservation system during the busiest months in recent years; check the current requirements when you plan the trip, as the National Park Service reviews the program regularly. Delicate Arch at the end of the day is the signature walk — five kilometres round trip, no shade, carry more water than seems reasonable.

Canyonlands. Forty minutes from town, a fraction of Arches’ crowds, and the biggest landscape of the loop. The Island in the Sky district is the practical day visit: Mesa Arch at sunrise, Grand View Point for a canyon system that out-scales even the Grand Canyon’s first impression. The more remote districts reward extra time, and some backcountry roads and overnight trips require permits or high-clearance four-wheel drives — most visitors admire them from the rim and drive back to Moab for dinner.

Permits, timed entry and the lodge problem

Three systems catch travellers who plan late. Angels Landing is decided by lottery — a seasonal draw months ahead and a day-before draw for the rest. Arches’ timed entry applies through the warm months and opens in blocks ahead of the season. Antelope Canyon is accessible only with a Navajo-guided tour, and the good time slots go early. None of these is hard to navigate from Australia or New Zealand; all of them are hard to navigate from the car park.

The lodges are the sharper constraint. Inventory inside the parks is tiny, and many of the historic park lodges release rooms around thirteen months ahead — the best of them are spoken for within weeks. Gateway towns such as Springdale, Moab and Page have depth, but the walk-to-the-shuttle end of town sells through five to six months ahead for both shoulder windows. In practice: May–June 2027 in-park rooms are open for booking now, and September–October 2026 is last-call territory. Book the beds before the flights — it is the beds that sell out.

Hiring a car from Australia or New Zealand

A full Australian or New Zealand licence is accepted throughout the region, automatics are the default, and the desert is about the most forgiving place on Earth to learn to drive on the right — long straight roads, light traffic, generous shoulders. Book unlimited mileage (this itinerary earns it), and consider a one-way drop in Salt Lake City instead of closing the loop, which trades the final day’s backtrack for an easy onward connection. A standard car handles everything in this guide; an SUV buys comfort, not access. Two habits matter more than the vehicle: fuel up whenever the tank drops past half between Page and Moab, and download offline maps before you leave town, because mobile coverage becomes patchy inside many of the parks. Finally, buy the annual America the Beautiful pass at your first park gate — one pass covers every national park entrance on the loop.

Where the money goes

We deliberately do not quote figures — they date fast and they depend on your dates — but the shape of the spend is consistent. The trans-Pacific flights, the car and the accommodation carry most of the weight, and within accommodation the in-park lodges cost a clear premium over the gateway towns: our view is that the premium is worth paying once, at the Grand Canyon, where waking on the rim changes what the visit is. The guided experiences — Antelope Canyon, a Monument Valley backcountry tour — are modest lines that repay booking early rather than expensively late. And the two shoulder windows soften every line at once, which is the quiet financial argument for May–June and September–October over the school-holiday peak.

Ready to swap the screensaver for the real thing? Pack Ya Bags has curated American West national-parks tours for Australian and New Zealand travellers — self-drive and small-group — and can shape any of them around your dates and your hiking appetite. Contact them at info@packyabags.com.