Looking to spend a week on the open roads of Southern Utah? Southern Utah is unique in that much of it seems as raw, unspoiled and unexplored as it did hundreds of years ago. It’s easy to put yourself in the shoes of the area’s first inhabitants and imagine their excitement and awe at the same views that stretch before you.

From the start, you’ll be transported to a new world with massive expanses of Technicolor cliffs, brilliant-hued hoodoos and wide-open spaces around Bryce Canyon National Park. After dark, you’ll be treated to a stellar night sky — the Milky Way streaking across it so brightly that it seems you could walk the stars like a trail.

• Bryce Canyon National Park
• Kanab
• Monument Valley
• Natural Bridges
• Canyonlands National Park
• Moab
• Arches National Park
• Goblin Valley State Park
• Capitol Reef National Park

Around Moab you’ll find the stomping grounds of John Wesley Powell and a museum dedicated to him and his three-month river trip down the Green and Colorado rivers. You can meander the scenic Potash Road with its dinosaur tracks and several panels of petroglyphs. Or hike to Cave Springs Cowboy Camp, still blackened from the fires of cowboys keeping warm.

Heading west, you can live like the pioneers who settled this once-barren area at Bluff Fort. Or imagine what life was like farming in desert country at the well-preserved Gifford Homestead. Explore an ancient Ancestral Pueblo village or take a Jeep tour through the majestic Navajo lands of Monument Valley. Explore the ruins of an ancient Fremont Indian village rich with rock art sites and well-preserved artifacts.

Follow the route of pioneer explorers as you drive Hole-in-the-Rock Road. Visit Cove Fort, which was built 150 years ago as a safe stop for travelers. Wander around historic downtown Panguitch and discover vintage cowboy mementos to take home with you.

Summit to impossibly high — even heavenly — perches, where you’ll get a vertiginous view into the heart of Zion Canyon National Park. Then, from the depths of a gorge, gape upwards at the sheer scale of the narrow walls that surround you as you wade through the river that carved them.

This trail offers a long and steep climb from the floor of Zion Canyon to the rimrock that soars high above it. Observation Point itself is perched high above Zion Canyon and is the most accessible of the rimrock overlooks that line the canyon wall. This hike is 8 miles round-trip.

This trail offers a long and steep climb from the floor of Zion Canyon to the rimrock that soars high above it. Observation Point itself is perched high above Zion Canyon and is the most accessible of the rimrock overlooks that line the canyon wall. This hike is 8 miles round-trip.

Ride horseback through stone spires, hike to stone arches, or hop around stone goblins seemingly frozen in time. Revel in the majestic view of Delicate Arch, one of the most famous geologic features in the world. Test your mettle with slickrock mountain biking. Gape at the towering stone sentinels of Monument Valley that have long defined the world’s image of the American West.

Nowhere else will you find such varied desert terrain in such a concentrated area. You’ll get a huge taste of Utah’s inspiring beauty and outdoor adventure.

OTHER PLACES TO VISIT IN UTAH

https://www.visitutah.com/plan-your-trip

• Great Salt Lake
• Capitol Reef National Park
• Natural History Museum of Utah
• Cedar Breaks National Monument
• Grand Staircase, Escalante National Monument

RV CAMPGROUNDS IN UTAH:

http://www.rvparkreviews.com/regions/utah