Visiting Kodachrome Basin State Park

On my recent long weekend trip in Utah, one of the main things I wanted to do was visit a state park I’d never been to before. I had two on my list. One of them was Kodachrome Basin State Park and it quickly became a favorite.

Chimney Rock

Once we got into the park and paid the entrance fee, we drove over past Bryce View Campground to Chimney Rock. You drive out a dirt road into what feels a bit like the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden there’s just a giant rock formation coming out of the ground. There’s area you can park there and then walk over on another dirt trail toward larger rock walls. In total round trip is about .65 miles on flat ground. The walk was so peaceful and you had beautiful views of the landscape.

Scenic Drive

From there, we drove the spur road back toward the visitor center, but made a right to go further into the park rather than a left. We drove slowly and enjoyed the views in the park. What I appreciated most was that there were very few people there on a Sunday afternoon with beautiful weather. We saw just a few other cars which made it easy to just pull off the road and take in the views while we drove. This drive reminded me a bit of the scenery in Garden of the Gods park mixed a bit with Badlands and Arches National Park. As you continued further along the road into the park, the views kept changing and you got to see new rock formations.

We pulled over at the end past Basin Campground and meandered for a short walk along some trails to look at the various formations. While there, we picked our next hiking spot to check out.

Angel’s Palace Trail

We decided on Angel’s Palace for our next trail. We had also considered the Grand Parade Trail, but based on photos we had seen, we thought this was going to be more up our alley. What we hiked on the trail was about 1.5 miles and had about 200 feet elevation gain.

You start out walking through a wash and then get to a section of rock carved out of the wall for a path which basically is the 200 foot elevation all at once. You go up this narrow trail and then are on top of the rock formations instead of at the bottom like you started. The trail is a loop and winds through and over the rock formations as you navigate the mile or so up top.

We walked out to some of the overlooks and you could see the campground, the group site, as well as some other buildings and the Grand Parade Trail from above. We took our time navigating and just soaked in the views.

This trail reminded me a lot of Goblin Valley State Park with the rock formations and coloring. That is still one of my favorite parks to have visited, and so getting a chance to visit something similar in another part of Utah was such a blast. I thought this hike was such a fun little adventure

Visitor Center

On our way out, we stopped at the Visitor Center for a snack and a drink before heading back to our lodge. It was a surprisingly bigger center and gift shop than I realized and carried various gifts like clothing and books and post cards. Outside of the center, they also had these hammock type chairs you could swing in (or nap in) as well as a mini rock climbing wall, firepit, and ladder golf. I also noticed they had a disc golf course in the park too which has some incredible views.

Overall, I absolutely loved this park. While we were only there for a few hours, if I lived in Utah or anywhere closed I’d be booking myself a campsite here and just rest and relax for a weekend.

It’s also in “close” proximity (meaning road trip proximity) to quite a few places so if you’re planning on spending some time out this way, check out some of the other worthwhile stops!