Utah 2023

Miles hiked: 71
National parks: 4
State Parks: 2
Other public lands: 2
Pies eaten: 4 each

My Why:

Where to start? The canyon country of southern Utah pulled at my heart yet again. I’m sure it will never stop. I’ve been to most of these places before, places I keep going back to because I adore them. This time was different, because my husband came along for the adventure as well so he could also experience the magic that I feel every time I’m there.

While I adore the mountains and forests around Mt. Rainier, my home turf, there is something so different about the slickrock, huge blue skies, and canyons of southern Utah, perhaps because of the sharp contrast to the forests and mountains I’m used to. I’m completely enchanted by it.

Interestingly, hiking in this terrain means my body moves differently than on the trails I’m used to in the PNW. It’s more of a full body movement, sometimes with hands required, an assortment of body shapes, different balance, a variety of foot placements. Having spent years studying yoga, anatomy, and functional movement, for some reason canyon hiking feels more comprehensive, more points connecting to the Earth. (See my recommended resources here on how our bodies and minds are designed to move through the world).

CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK – NEEDLES DISTRICT

The Needles District of Canyonlands National Park is perhaps my favorite place to hike in the world. It’s possible to cover 10+ miles here and not see another human being, which is my kind of hiking and what I strive for. I love the feeling of solitude in wild areas, the disconnect from modern technology and reconnecting to this beautiful piece of rock we all live on.

Chesler Park / The Joint – 10.2 miles

I’m an early riser for hiking, to beat both crowds and afternoon heat. On our first day here due to timing, we hiked to Chesler Park and The Joint beginning at noon, which meant hiking 10.2 miles over sun-baked slickrock. I struggled, even though I stayed well hydrated.

It’s a 3 mile hike with a bit of scrambling just to get to the beginning of Chesler Park, well worth it.

After scrambling up the last bit of rocky trail to the opening of Chesler Park, I’m able to take a full deep breath and know I’ve arrived in an extraordinary place.

Another easy 2 miles of walking counter-clockwise at the base of beautiful spires, fins, and rock formations leads to The Joint. I loved standing at the unassuming little crack in the rock and telling my husband to go ahead and climb down into it. The Joint is made up of natural fractures in the rock, forming sometimes perfect walls leading to the opposite end. A small section before opening back up reminds me of the Subway at Zion, without water.

After enjoying the nature-made air conditioning inside The Joint and eating an afternoon snack, we headed back the way we came in, with me feeling much better on the return trip.

Short video of The Joint can be found HERE.

Peekaboo Trail – 7.9 miles

Another stunning hike in the Needles District. We started with some early morning shadow shenanigans, just because we could.

Last year I went a bit further than my comfort zone while solo on this trail. This time, deciding to stop before the sketchy part that made me feel dizzy and shot my heart rate up too high was a good choice, and still equally beautiful.

This trail is a series of flat open meadows, rock scrambling, climbing up and then down, a ladder, and a lot of walking along beautiful ledges with incredible views. This would be impossible to follow without dozens and dozens of cairns leading the way. One of my Utah hiking guidebooks calls this one of the most creatively made trails in the NPS. There are several places where creativity and using your imagination are required to figure out where the trail goes.

We found a ledge with a bit of shade looking down into a beautiful gorge, kicked off the shoes, and had a quiet and peaceful lunch. I took a peek at the section that scared me so much last year, and verified that nope… I was crazy to do it!

Cave Spring Trail – 0.9 miles

This is a short hike and easy scramble, it would be perfect for someone to get the feel of climbing around on slickrock without committing to a long hike. The series of alcoves, some with seep springs at the back, were used as shelter over hundreds, if not thousands of years. We were able to see far away to Grand View Point in the Island in the Sky District, where we would be in several days.

Needles Campground Loop – 2.1 miles

I don’t know if this trail has an official name. “Campground Loop” doesn’t sound very exciting, but this is a really beautiful place to explore! This is a gorgeous trail that winds up and over rock formations separating campground loops A and B inside of the Needles District. A bit of scrambling, creativity, and imagination is involved. Again, cairns lead the way.

We both love to read, luckily on this hike we had lunch and books in our backpacks. At one point weather looked like a downpour so we found an alcove to hunker down under, and even though the weather cleared we ended up spending a long time here snacking, reading in companionable silence, and just taking it all in. Another good “beginner scrambling 101” trail.

Slickrock Trail – 2.8 miles

Another good entry-level trail for anyone who wants amazing views of the Needles District, the Island in the Sky District, and practicing walking on uneven rock. Wide open skies again, can’t get enough of them!

Needles Outpost Campground – 1.0 mile

Wide open views? This place has that in spades. Needles Outpost is privately owned, just a mile or so from the Needles Visitor Center. While it’s a primitive campground with no power or water, there is a bath house with showers, which is a treat after 10-mile hikes in the sun! It’s possible to scramble up the rocks behind the campground, if one feels so inclined, to take in the expansive views of the Needles District.

MOAB: Corona and Bowtie Arches – 2.6 miles

We spent 2 days in a hotel in busy Moab – definitely a shock to the system after being off-grid and isolated in the Needles District for 4 days. But, we enjoyed beers and burgers at Moab Brewery, browsing the wonderful bookstore “Back of Beyond, ” and doing laundry.

Another fun and short trail is along Hwy 279 to Bowtie and Corona Arches. More slickrock, and a steep but short section with posts and cables/chains to help. On our way back to the parking area, someone pointed out a small herd of bighorn sheep to us, which we would not have seen on our own because they are so well camouflaged to this area.

Dead Horse Point State Park

I usually camp here for a few days, as a central base for the Moab and Canyonlands Island in the Sky area, but it’s becoming impossible to get a campsite, they are gone within seconds of going online. On this trip, we did a quick stop to the Point to look down over the Colorado River 2000 feet below. Hiking is well worth time spent here.

CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK – ISLAND IN THE SKY DISTRICT

A return to a few old friends and a new challenge.

Grand View Point Overlook – 2.0 miles

Some places are worth waking up before dawn. We had an early morning walk out to Grand View Point to look down on the Needles District where we had been several days prior. Across the distance I swear I could see a little glimmer of the piece of my heart that I leave there every time I visit! Another place to spend time sitting in stillness and quiet, taking it all in. Fortunately we started early enough to avoid people until the return to the parking area.

Upheaval Dome – 1.2 miles

Such a quirky thing to see! There are 2 viewpoints, both offering wonderful views down into a truly bizarre sight. Many people turn around at the first viewpoint, which means of course that I like to continue onto the second! Personally, I like the meteorite theory on how this was formed.

Aztec Butte – 1.7 miles

“Difficult climb to the top of Aztec Butte traverses steep slopes, uneven terrain, drop-offs, and ledges up to 3 feet high. Some scrambling on hands and knees may be required.” Yep, to all of the above. This was one of the more challenging scrambles of this entire trip. The last section to get to the top of the butte took some careful foot and handholds, and we saw several people choose to turn around. While we never felt unsafe, it was definitely a place to slow down and take extra care.

Again, lunch on top looking across the vast sky. We seemed to have a tradition of finding beautiful lunch spots on this trip, this being one of them. A short spur trail on the way back to the car leads to 2 ancient granaries.

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

While I couldn’t come close to getting a campground reservation at Dead Horse Point or Bryce Canyon, we were fortunate to get a campsite at Devil’s Garden Campground inside of Arches National Park. To put it bluntly, Arches National Park is a complete zoo with crowds. By camping inside the park, we were able to hike earlier and not have to make the morning drive in from Moab.

Delicate Arch

I’ve never actually hiked out to Delicate Arch, partly because I don’t relish the thought of hundreds of people milling around and not being able to get a decent photo without humans. But the viewpoint is a nice little stop.

Devil’s Garden Loop – Landscape, Partition, and Double O Arches and Dark Angel Tower – 6.7 miles

The Devil’s Garden loop at the end of the road inside of Arches NP is one of the overcrowded areas that cause me to go into crowd anxiety. Thus… we left our hotel in Moab at 5 a.m. and started hiking this trail by headlamp before dawn. We watched dawn light brighten up Landscape Arch (where many people turn around).

From there it’s a scramble up a rock fin to turn left to the spur to Partition Arch, one of my favorite places to watch the sun crest the horizon. The wind was fierce coming through Partition, so we didn’t linger very long here.

On to Double O Arch, which is an interesting walk that partly spans the top of a fin, looking down onto even more sci-fi-looking scenery. At Double O the real views are from the opposite side, so one can climb through the smaller lower arch and scramble up a bit of rock to a beautiful viewpoint. Time for morning tea/coffee and a snack.

Because we still had energy and got such an early start, we decided to press on to Dark Angel Tower, which is an easy meander not far from Double O. There are many such towers at Arches, but this one stands out because of being solitary.

Back to the car, fighting crowds much of the way going in the opposite direction. There is definitely something to be said for a 4:30 a.m. wake-up call!!

Double Arch – 0.7 miles

Not to be confused with Double O Arch. Double Arch is in the same parking area as the North and South Windows and Turret Arch. People were circling in the parking lot like vultures by the time we got here mid-day, but luckily we found a spot.

It’s a short walk out to the base of Double Arch, and from there we chose to scramble up underneath the arches. In a way it’s distorting being underneath, constantly swiveling the head and camera to try to figure out a good vantage point. It’s a bit like an Escher drawing!

We noticed that people who were on the short trail and those who stopped at the base were talking loudly and were very animated, but those who scrambled up inside were a lot more silent and tranquil. Some kind of magic at work here? Possibly, it sure feels like it.

Fiery Furnace – 4.2 miles

This was the highlight of our time at Arches. This hike is by permit only, and unfortunately permits are only available 7 days in advance, exactly when we were off grid at Needles. Thanks to our wonderful daughter for getting permits for us!

Early morning start again to avoid crowds, with a beautiful sunrise to light up our morning.

We had a self-guided permit (there are also ranger-led permits), which seemed a bit daunting when looking at the area from afar and realizing what we would be going into. It ended up being the best choice for us, we spend several hours exploring and loving every minute of it on our own timing.

Fiery Furnace is basically a horseshoe shape that wanders through a large area of rock fins and narrow canyons, with may dead-end side canyons for exploring. Rangers encouraged us to go beyond the “Dead End Ahead” signs and we certainly did, making sure to only walk on rock or in the washes.

There are small arrows posted here and there (small as in 2-3 inches long), easy to miss, and we ended up having to backtrack to re-find our way on several occasions. That’s part of the fun of the Fiery Furnace!

Again, a lot of full-body movement and scrambling here, which I love to do. It took us 3 tries to find Surprise Arch near the end of the trail, with a lot of exploring and gorgeous rock formations as we were finding our way.

I highly recommend this to anyone visiting Arches NP: ranger-led if it feels intimidating or self-guided for the more adventurous.

Of note… how unlikely is it that someone who was on my tour at Mesa Verde last year recognized me in the middle of the Fiery Furnace?!?! It is definitely a small world.

A bit of the Fiery Furnace can be seen in THIS video.

GOBLIN VALLEY STATE PARK

1.0 mile

Mars? The Moon? A set from Lord of the Rings? Goblin Valley seems like all of the above.

We stayed at Goblin Valley campground for one night, mainly for the quick access to Little Wildhorse Canyon we had planned for the following morning. We had a lovely sunset stroll through the goblins watching the sky shift through many different colors as the sun went down.

Unfortunately I had a bad slip and fall earlier that day, landing hard on one knee, so I was slow and unsteady and couldn’t go far. Still… well worth a visit to this strange place that seems like it’s in the middle of nowhere.

LITTLE WILDHORSE AND BELL CANYONS

8.9 miles

Little Wildhorse is a wonderful non-technical slot canyon that I’ve been through several times, and I love it! It’s possible to go out and then turn back, or connect it with Bell Canyon by a 2.5 mile walk along the jeep road behind the 2 canyons. It can be done in either direction. There are often areas of standing water, last year I was in water up to my thighs in a few sections. This time it was dry.

When we started out early in the morning there were only a few small fluffy clouds in the blue sky. Winding our way through Little Wildhorse takes time. Too many incredible rocks formations to look at to do this quickly.

By the time we came out on the back side of it, clouds were building and turning dark. We were at the midway point of the hike, and decided to go as quickly as possible to Bell Canyon to get back to the car, since Little Wildhorse is significantly narrower and is definitely not a place to be during rain and potential flash floods.

Along the 2.5 mile open road, the clouds off to our side became downright black and we had a thunder and lightning show. Fortunately when we entered Bell Canyon, we veered away from the storm and back toward sunlight.

Such an enjoyable way to spend our morning! My knee was grouchy from the fall the day before, but nothing that a couple of ibuprofen couldn’t fix.

A not-so-short video of Little Wildhorse Canyon is HERE.

CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK

Another one of my favorites, partly because it’s not as crowded as the big 3 of Zion, Arches, and Bryce. But I’ve noticed over the past several years that as those are getting more and more like Disneyland, more people are at Capitol Reef NP.

Staying at Fruita Campground inside the park is lovely, partly because of the large shade trees and partly because of the close proximity to Gifford House, with delicious fresh pies daily! I do believe we ate more pie in 4 days that we normally would in an entire year, but we made up for it with all the miles we hiked!

Grand Wash > Cassidy Arch > Fryingpan Trail > Cohab Canyon > Pie at Gifford House – 8.6 miles

We reconnected with S. who we had met inside of the Firey Furnace a few days before (still trying to believe the coincidence of that!), and were able to car shuttle to connect all these trails that normally would need to be an out and back. We began at Hwy 24 and walked down Grand Wash to the Cassidy Arch trailhead.

From here we began the 1000-foot climb up to a beautiful viewpoint across a canyon to the arch and down into Grand Wash. The trail skirts ledges to get to the top of Cassidy Arch. This arch is unique in that it can be viewed from across the canyon, but also from above looking down into and through it, and is also easy to walk across. By the time we got to the arch my knee was getting worse, so I took ibuprofen for a mid-morning snack.

From the arch, we backtracked a bit to a trail junction, right going back down the same way to Grand Wash car park, or left to the Fryingpan Trail. Very few people were on Fryingpan (my kind of trail) with wide open views and amazing rock formations all around. The trail stays high and then goes down to a wash (knee screaming by this point), before climbing back up to the east entrance to Cohab Canyon.

Cohab is a lovely walk through an easy canyon, and at the west end it opens up to fantastic views down to Fruita Campground, Gifford House, the historic district as well as far-away red cliffs that form part of Waterpocket Fold for several miles.

I granny-one-stepped down from the top of Cohab Canyon (with some whispered swearing along the way), straight to more ibuprofen chased by a mixed berry pie at Gifford House.

Though not the longest trail of the trip, at this point I felt I might have a hairline patella fracture and iced the knee on and off for the rest of the afternoon. Great hike, very bad knee.

Capitol Gorge Road and Trail – 1.5 miles

Because of my extremely gimpy status, we decided to drive the Scenic Drive and through Capitol Gorge that evening, with a short level walk at the end. Scenic Drive is up close and personal to the amazing cliffs that make up this part of the Waterpocket Fold. Capitol Gorge is a short but phenomenal dirt road through a gorge, a bit reminiscent of the Zion Narrows, but on a road instead of in a river. Earlier in the day it has been closed due to impending rain, but was opened later that afternoon. Perfect timing.

I wanted to hike up to the Golden Throne, but there was no way that would be possible with my knee feeling the way it was. Instead we strolled along the level Capitol Gorge Trail to the Mormon Register, where many settlers carved their names into the cliff walls over a century ago. Driving back to Fruita Campground at dusk was a good way to end the day (still stuffed from the pie!).

A video of the drive through Capitol Gorge can be found HERE.

Chimney Rock Trail – 2.6 miles

The next morning my knee status was still not good, so we opted for a short hike to Chimney Rock. I ended up bailing just over a mile into the hike and slowly gimping my way back to the car while my husband finished the full loop. Bad knee, and we still had Bryce on the itinerary!

Side Note: Utah Highway 12

Highway 12 from Torrey to Bryce Canyon and Red Canyon is so scenic, it’s well worth allowing plenty of time to stop and ooh-aaaah along the way.

BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK

2.2 miles of gimpy walking

We stayed at an RV park near the entrance to Bryce Canyon, because it’s nearly impossible to get a campground reservation within the park itself. Not my idea of a nice camping experience, but OK for one night.

Because my knee was still all kinds of no-good, F. hiked the Fairyland Loop while I ambled slowly along the rim trail, desperately wishing I was down in the hoodoos with him. There are crazy-beautiful views from the rim, so I let those views fill up my happy-meter as much as possible.

On our last morning we woke up at dawn to walk the rim again. Because Bryce Canyon faces east, the early morning light shines on the hoodoos, lighting them up like a Christmas tree. We slowly wandered the rim trail, soaking up the morning sunshine, and saying our goodbyes to Utah canyon country.

Red Canyon / Dixie National Forest – 0.9 miles

Time to head home. On our way north we drove through Red Canyon, which is a place worthy of time as well. Just outside of Bryce Canyon, its trails wander through hoodoos, spires, and canyons. F. hike the Pink Ledges trail while I slowly walked near the visitor center.

Until the next time, because there is something enchanting about southern Utah that keeps calling me back over and over again, and I’m certain there will be a next time…

Good News: No knee fracture, but a severe bone contusion of the patella.

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