With neighbors like Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands national parks, who needs to book a packaged outdoor adventure in some faraway locale?

Southern Nevadans need only to drive three hours to reach the starting point of a weeklong exploration of Utah’s Mighty Five national parks.

Friends from Northern Nevada joined us for just such an escape. For some time, we had tempted them with pretty pictures and tales of adventure set in Utah’s geologic splendor.

By the end of our 1,200-mile road trip, the parks and their iconic red rock had surpassed expectations. As an added perk, the journey included plenty of hiking and electric-assisted pedaling for a daily dose of invigorating exercise.

The awe was endless: Zion’s towering cliffs. Bryce Canyon’s high-elevation collection of hoodoos, fins and windows. Capitol Reef’s nearly 100-mile, multihued warp in Earth’s crust. Arches’ dense assembly of natural stone arches. Canyonlands’ colossal beauty.

Ancient sandstone is nature’s artistic medium in these parts, and each park makes unique contributions that wow visitors.

Winter is the quietest time to visit the Mighty Five, so our timing in early March lessened crowd concerns while increasing the threats of falling snow and seasonally closed restaurants. April through October are the busiest months.

The morning after our arrival in Springdale, we warmed our hands with mugs of coffee while catching the sun’s first rays lighting up Zion rock. An early Saturday start in the canyon was critical, since the plan was to avoid crowds as much as possible at one of America’s busiest national parks (attracting nearly 5 million visitors annually).

The day’s agenda included riding e-bikes ($80-$100 per person at Zion Cycles) on the Pa’rus Trail and up Zion Canyon to the last stop on the park’s scenic drive, Temple of Sinawava. We also strolled along the Riverside Walk to glimpse the start of the in-the-river path called the Narrows.

The walls of this gorge are a thousand feet tall and just 20 to 30 feet apart in spots. Hiking the Narrows, one of the most popular spots in Zion, involves wading upstream in the Virgin River. You can go as far as Big Spring — a strenuous, 10-mile round trip — without a wilderness permit.

After the Riverside Walk, we hiked to a higher-ground perspective at the Middle Emerald Pools before pedaling back to the bike shop by 5 p.m.

Travel by park shuttle is the choice for most visitors, since personal cars in the canyon are banned for the most part. But biking along the 7-mile Zion Scenic Canyon Road gives visitors more control over their itineraries along with a sense of freedom that comes from pedaling.

Giant cottonwoods line much of the road and adjacent Virgin River as canyon walls tower up to 1,500 feet along a route carved by water. Shuttle stops provide access to popular trails and bike racks. We locked up our bikes for the easy Riverside Walk and later for the moderately challenging Middle Emerald Pools, both 2.2-mile round trips. We totaled about 18 miles of electric-assisted pedaling.

On Sunday morning, we caught the free town shuttle early to get back to Zion’s entrance and onto the moderate 3.3-mile, out-and-back Watchman trail, which begins close to the visitor center. Stunning views combine with the possibility of spotting bighorn sheep from the trail.

By noon, we were packed up and driving through the Zion-Mount Carmel tunnel toward the east entrance of Zion, eventually heading for Bryce Canyon National Park.

Lodging (two nights): The hotel-rich town of Springdale neighbors Zion and provides mostly costly options. You are paying for proximity and the convenience of a hotel parking spot that’s near a town shuttle stop for free rides to and from the park’s entrance.

Dining: Friday dinner en route at Wood Ash Rye in St. George; in Springdale: breakfast, Deep Creek Coffee Company; to-go deli sandwiches, Sol Foods; Saturday dinner, Spotted Dog (reservation recommended).

The short Mossy Cave trail, about 5 miles past Bryce Canyon’s main entrance, is where our hoodooing began in the dwindling daylight of Sunday. Hoodoos are the signature spire-like rock formations that crowd the amphitheaters of Bryce, home to the world’s largest collection of hoodoos.

Bryce, which is more of an eroding plateau than a canyon, marks the top step of what’s referred to geologically as the Grand Staircase, a series of sedimentary layers stepping down from an elevation of 9,100 feet at Rainbow Point in Bryce to 2,500 feet in the Grand Canyon.

Mossy Cave trail, with its early March snow and icicles, was a preview of the expansive beauty and chilly conditions that would make up our Monday, a full day dedicated to Bryce Canyon.

Once inside the park, a must-stop is Bryce Point, with its over-the-edge, spectacular views of Bryce Amphitheater, a bowl-shaped area jammed with mostly terracotta-hued fins, windows, hoodoos, bridges and grottos. The park’s Rim Trail extends 5½ miles and connects viewpoints from Bryce Point to Fairyland Point. The trail, with some parts muddy and others icy in winter, is justifiably popular among visitors, no matter how short or long a walk is taken. Every step along the rim helps bring into focus new details below the rim.

In addition to spending time on the Rim and Queen’s Garden trails, we hiked in snowshoes to reach Paria View, a quieter area of the park with the company of pine trees, mountain chickadees and red crossbills. The roads to Paria View and Fairyland Point are closed to cars in winter, providing opportunities for snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.

In warmer months, several moderate and challenging paths lead hikers into the whimsical hoodoo environment under the rim. Far fewer hikers are on those trails in winter because of ice patches and weather-related risks.

Lodging (two nights): Few options are available near park entrance; visitors for the past century have booked rooms at the reasonably priced Ruby’s Inn (Best Western).

Dining: Breakfast, hotel; lunch, self-made sandwiches from pre-purchased supplies; dinner, The Pizza Place in nearby town of Tropic (upscale option during warmer months, Stone Hearth Grille)

Capitol Reef National Park

Capitol Reef is the least popular among the Mighty Five, but quiet can be colorful, bold, powerful and captivating.

After following Utah Route 24 into the park, we had constant views of towering and mesmerizing rock in the reds, beiges, grays, purples, greens, browns and yellows contributing to Capitol Reef’s Waterpocket Fold. It’s the longest exposed monocline in North America. Stopping for every pretty picture of what’s a wrinkle in Earth’s crust would have taken up most of the day, so instead we headed directly to the moderately challenging Hickman Bridge Trail (1.8 miles round trip).

From the trail, hikers can see rock formations that resemble capitol domes, get a sense of the erosive powers of water in the desert and rest under the 133-foot-long Hickman Bridge. In rock talk, natural bridges are left behind after flowing water erodes rock. Visitors can follow a boardwalk to see protected petroglyph panels left by some of the area’s first settlers.

A short distance by car from the Hickman Bridge trailhead, fruit trees blossom each spring in the park’s Historic District, where apples, apricots and other fruits have been harvested since the late 1800s. Visitors can walk through some of those Fruita orchards and purchase products and treats at the Gifford House store.

Near the orchards is the start of Capitol Reef’s official paved 8-mile scenic drive, which runs adjacent to more of the multi-hued Waterpocket Fold. The drive leads to a parking lot for the moderately challenging Capitol Gorge Trail (2 miles round trip), which leads up into boulders and slick rock areas where erosion has left behind pockets or tanks that collect water during rains.

Lodging (one night): Several options are available in Torrey, including Red Sands Hotel and Capitol Reef Resort (both found to be reasonably priced, comfortable and clean).

Dining: Breakfast, Pioneer Kitchen; lunch, restock your supplies for self-made lunches or find to-go deli options; dinner, Broken Spur Steakhouse in Torrey; Hell’s Backbone Grill in Boulder (38 miles away; reservation recommended).

We got on the road early with our sights set on standing under the arch made familiar by so many Utah license plates. That’s Delicate Arch, and there’s a challenging trail that leads hikers directly to the real iconic thing in Arches National Park.

The drive from Torrey to Arches took about 2½ hours through scenic canyon country that at times appeared otherworldly. The Delicate Arch trail is extremely popular, so a good strategy is to arrive early or later in the day.

At 52 feet tall and 32 feet wide, the arch is impressive and elegant, framing the distant La Sal mountains. The trail (3.2 miles round trip) is steep in several parts, exposed to the sun most of the way and at the end provides a dramatic reveal of the arch and its precarious surroundings.

After the hike, we checked in with the Three Gossips sandstone formation in the Courthouse Towers area of the park for the scoop on what not to miss. We then made several other quick stops on our way out of the park for the day. The plan was to return Friday to explore more of Arches after spending Thursday at Canyonlands.

Moab is the hub for lodging and dining while exploring Arches and Canyonlands. After a night’s rest, we were ready to visit Canyonlands, about a 45-minute drive from town.

Much like with Bryce Canyon, visitors spend a lot of their time looking down at Canyonlands. Only the views are vastly different, with Canyonlands being more rugged with darker hues. For millions of years, water has been carving the colossal beauty of Canyonlands National Park.

Our Thursday itinerary included an easy 3.4-mile out-and-back hike along a mesa dotted with juniper and pinyon to Murphy Point, with panoramic views that included twists in the Green River and sunlight playfully shifting over Candlestick Tower. Another trail well worth taking all the way to the end is Grand View Point (1.8 miles round trip). That trail follows the canyon edge, offering big-sky and vast-canyon views.

Other quick stops with short hike options in Canyonlands were Upheaval Dome, which looks like a colorful multi-layered crater where rocks in the center have been pushed up, and Mesa Arch, an often-photographed natural observation window revealing graceful sandstone formations below.

On our Friday return to Arches National Park, the priority was a hike in the rain out to Landscape Arch, the longest arch in North America, stretching more than 300 feet over a forested part of the Devils Garden area. In its slimmest spot, Landscape Arch is only 6 feet in diameter. On the morning’s 2½-mile out-and-back hike, which included side paths to Tunnel and Pine Tree arches, several other arches came into view because Arches National Park has one of the world’s densest collections of natural stone arches (more than 2,000).

Much of the rest of our daylight hours were spent scurrying around Double Arch, Turret Arch and North and South Windows in the Windows section of the park. The area gets crowded, but there’s a quieter path that goes along the back side of the North and South Windows.

As we exited Arches National Park, the clouds were lifting off the La Sal mountains, revealing fresh snow, and the shifting sunlight left visitors with an even grander impression of the landscape.

Saturday was reserved for the seven-hour drive back to Las Vegas and conversations about a Mighty Five week well spent.

Arches and Canyonlands lodging (three nights): Moab has plenty of options, everything from popular hotel chains to Red Cliffs Lodge on the bank of the Colorado River ($350 per night), about 17 miles east of Moab on Utah Route 128.

Dining: Breakfast, many options including Sweet Cravings Bakery, where to-go lunch can be ordered and made while you eat breakfast; lunch, to-go deli sandwiches and lunch supplies available at grocery stores or cafes; dinner, Sunset Grill (reservations recommended), Antica Forma, and Moab Brewery.

Mighty Five tips

Purchase an annual America the Beautiful pass beforehand ($80).

Get a permit, if desired, to hike Angels Landing in Zion.

Do your National Park Service research ahead of time to highlight priorities for each park.

Research hiking options in advance.

Pack enough nonperishable snacks and water to last a week (strategize about keeping sandwich supplies in a cooler because there are likely to be times when no other lunch options will be available).

Importantly, be aware of weather conditions; flash flooding is a deadly threat in the desert.