BEST OF UTAH 2021: Utah Hikes in Utah National Parks plus

 Snow Canyon State Park is a 7,400-acre scenic park quietly tucked amid lava flows and soaring sandstone cliffs in a strikingly colorful and fragile desert environment. Majestic views and the subtle interplay of light, shadow, and color dancing across canyon walls evoke strong emotional responses from visitors. 

 There are two ways to explore The Subway (the Left Fork of North Creek). Permits are required regardless of the direction of travel. Both trips involve extensive route finding. Visitors are encouraged to obtain a detailed route description and travel with someone that has successfully completed the Subway in the past. The Subway is a day-use area only. 

 The trail starts at the West Rim trailhead from near Lava Point and traverses across the high alpine elevation with sweeping views out into the Wildcat Canyon area for the first 6.5 miles as you drop into Potato Hollow. Next the trail climbs out of Potato Hollow before it splits into the Telephone Canyon Trail and the West Rim Trail. The West Rim Trail follows along the rim with views of Phantom Valley and the canyons to the south. The Telephone Canyon Trail provides a shortcut between Potato Hollow and Cabin Spring or a possible loop for hikers entering and exiting the same trailhead. At Cabin Spring the trail begins a steep drop in elevation and descends 2,500 feet over 4.7 miles ending at the Grotto Picnic Area. 

 The trail starts at East Entrance Trailhead and climbs up 1,000 feet onto the rim with views into Jolley Gulch and the east side slickrock areas. The first stretch of trail offers sweeping views of the slickrock areas on the east side before walking through the high ponderosa forest. After you traverse the rim, the views of the Echo Canyon basin open up as you near the East Rim. After hiking over the rim of the canyon you sharply descend 2,300 feet down to the floor of Zion Canyon ending at Weeping Rock, passing through Echo Canyon and down the Observation Point Trail. This trail is best in the late spring and fall. 

 The Narrows is the narrowest section of Zion Canyon. This gorge, with walls a thousand feet tall and the river sometimes just twenty to thirty feet wide, is one of the most popular areas in Zion National Park. You can see The Narrows by hiking along the paved, wheelchair accessible Riverside Walk for one mile from the Temple of Sinawava. If you wish to see more, you will be walking in the Virgin River. This can involve wading upstream for just a few minutes or it can be an all day hike. 

 Bryce Canyon is not a single canyon, but a series of natural amphitheaters or bowls, carved into the edge of a high plateau. The most famous of these is the Bryce Amphitheater, which is filled with irregularly eroded spires of rocks called hoodoos. Perhaps every visitor to the park will spend at least some time marveling at its four main viewpoints, all found within the first few miles of the park: Bryce Point, Inspiration Point, Sunset Point, and Sunrise Point. 

 Located in south-central Utah in the heart of red rock country, Capitol Reef National Park is a hidden treasure filled with cliffs, canyons, domes, and bridges in the Waterpocket Fold, a geologic monocline (a wrinkle on the earth) extending almost 100 miles. 

 Hit the trails inside Capitol Reef National Park and walk in the footsteps of history’s most famous outlaws.  The trails through the majestic Grand Wash and the spur trail to Cassidy Arch lead to some pretty unforgettable scenery as you explore the colorful canyon country.  Combining the two trails makes for a 7.5-mile roundtrip hike and hits on some of Capitol Reef’s amazing highlights. 

 Visit Arches to discover a landscape of contrasting colors, land forms and textures unlike any other in the world. The park has over 2,000 natural stone arches, in addition to hundreds of soaring pinnacles, massive fins and giant balanced rocks. This red-rock wonderland will amaze you with its formations, refresh you with its trails, and inspire you with its sunsets 

 From the prominence of Dead Horse Point, 2,000 feet above a gooseneck in the Colorado River, an ever-changing landscape unfurls. Immense vertical cliffs meet with canyons carved by ice, water, and wind creating a visual masterpiece. Plants and animals surviving on the edge of existence face many challenges of extreme conditions within this high desert environment. Stories of ancient hunters, resting along the cliff tops while knapping chert in preparation for the next hunt, and cowboys of the late 1800s, chasing wild mustangs onto Dead Horse Point, using the narrow neck to block off the natural corral. 

 Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon in the American Southwest, on Navajo land east of Page, Arizona. It includes two separate, scenic slot canyon sections, referred to as Upper Antelope Canyon, and Lower Antelope Canyon.