I’ve been to Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce, and Zion, and I would recommend them in this order:

1. Bryce Canyon: I think it’s the most unique. Stunning canyon. Not a formation here and there, but it all IS formations. Beautiful colouring on the spikes from white to dark orange, graded. Wonderful to hike around in. Recommend at least one full day.

2. Zion: Not the main part of Zion where most people go, which is also cool, but the East side, which is really amazing and very unique. There’s these what I call “pudding rocks” there that look like a bunch of poured pudding and all sorts of great cool things to experience when hiking. Recommend for the East side at least 3 days. All of Zion, at least a week.

3. Canyonlands: Makes the Grand Canyon seem rather average by comparison. I found it much more awe inspiring than the Grand Canyon. Such deep canyons, so high up, with the Green river down below…you can dangle your feet off a the lip of a thousand foot truly sheer vertical cliff. You can get an awesome feeling here in just half a day, but if you want to really hike around and stuff, of course much longer. A couple days.

4. Arches: Last doesn’t mean anything bad, certainly. Arches is facinating. You can easily do this in half a day, or a leasurely full day.