UTAH?

With the new Rpod on order, we are planning the first major trip.  The trip objective is to see/experience as much of Utah as we can in two months.  The starting point will be Traverse City, Michigan.  The end of the trip will be our winter home in Gulf Shores, Alabama.  Since we have never experienced Utah, looking for personal experiences that add value to our trip and planning process.  We will hit all the major National Parks...Arches, Canyonlands, Captial Reef, Bryce, and Zion.  We are thinking we will hang out around the Salt Lake City area for a week to do some exploring.  My hope is to make reservations in the National Parks campgrounds as soon as permitted.   This trip is a little scary as the Rpod requires us to downsize from the 5th wheel but then again lets us stay at many of the National Parks campgrounds. Yes, winter will end and we will soon be on the road again.

At the southern edge of Salt Lake there is a small state park + boat marina which has 4-5 sites available for camping.  Electric and water hookups, with a dump station, no shade.  We stopped in for a swim and when we saw the sites we stayed for the night and basically had the place to ourselves once the main gate closed.  Not sure I would stay there again but it was a neat experience for one night.

We went on a 30 day trip out west pretty much ending in Utah then headed east to home.
One thing I found out west- many NPS/USFS campgrounds are full in August and into the first week of September and then they close for the season!
Need to plan way ahead and make reservations while you can, we often couldn't stay where we wanted when we wanted if looking for last minute options. 
The big aggravation with that is they often require reservations to be made 3-4 days in advance of your stay, which makes it hard to wander around at will.  IOW if you decide to head out on an urge and grab a site for the next night you often can't- too late to reserve one and full if you don't.
Canyonlands and Arches were booked solid late August into September- and if these gas prices hold I expect it will be even worse in 2015.   I could have saved well over $1000 on our 10,000 mile trip if prices were what they are now..

As a native Utahan, let mw offer a few suggestions. Utah has some great state parks that have hookups and shower facilities. Look at Kodachrome state park by Bryce National Park(do not miss highway 12 on your way there). There a 2 reservoirs in the area of Zion that both have state parks, Quail Creek and Sand Hollow and or Snow Canyon in the St. George area. Green River State Park on I 70 is not too far from Moab and even has a golf course. There are also many camp grounds in the National Forests have offer water and pit toilets, but are usually very scenic and not too crowded during the week. In the SLC area. I would recommend staying in the National Forest canyons very close to SLC. Spruces campground in Big cottonwood canyon or Tanner Flat campground in Little Cottonwood canyon which is just below Snowbird Ski Resort. Both of these areas are within 30 minutes of downtown SLC, no hookups, but flush toilets, tables and water. Granite Flat is another Forest Service campground that is closer to the Provo area, and not far from SLC. Wasatch Mountain State park in Midway is also a very beautiful and scenic area fairly close to Park City ski area. Most of these areas should be open through September and the Southern Utah locations open a bit later Get on the net and start Googling and you should find plenty to see and do.

Goblin State park is in a beautiful area, with lots of hiking. You can also stay outside the park on BLM land