Photo by Brent R. Mittelstaedt
Keep those hiking boots/shoes on and skip over to nearby Bryce Canyon National Park for a change of scenery. Mossy Cave Trail is appropriate for almost everyone. This flat desert hike ends in a little waterfall and cave. Fairyland Loop Trail descends into the famous hoodoos that winds for a mile and a half below the rim. Connect with the Navajo Loop Trail for another hike a little more than a mile in length. The walls close in at one point and take you past Thor’s Hammer, a large hoodoo that towers above you.
Red Canyon offers wilderness trails throughout the Dixie National Forest that meander through forests and pull out to vast wilderness overlooks.
Grand Canyon National Park also offers excellent day hikes as well as numerous opportunities to stretch your legs in backcountry overnight hikes. Head down to the Vermillion Cliffs area to get away from the crowds in equally spectacular scenery. But check out the backcountry within Grand Staircase Escalante to experience the area’s most primitive landscape.
Nearby St. George, UT, lie the little-known Pine Valley Mountains that offers hikers 60-miles of trails through alpine scenery and the chance to scramble up Signal Peak (Pick up a hiking guide at the Pine Valley Ranger office in St. George, 289 E. Riverside Dr.; 435-652-1300.)
