Though just up the road from Grand View Point in Canyonlands National Park’s Island in the Sky District, the White Rim Overlook Trail receives far fewer visitors. The hike, an easy and quick jaunt out to the southeast tip of the “Island” plateau, offers unobstructed vistas to the north, south, and east—some of the best …
Continue reading White Rim Overlook Trail (Canyonlands National Park, UT)
Grand View Point, one of the finest overlooks in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park, is situated at the end of the principal drive through the park’s iconic Island in the Sky District. Visitors in search of a rather casual stroll can venture even farther, hiking from Grand View Point to the very southern tip of the …
Continue reading Grand View Point Trail (Canyonlands National Park, UT)
Moab, Utah—the now iconic hangout for hikers, bikers, climbers, and alas, jeep enthusiasts—is situated amid a sea of slickrock and flanked by the Colorado River, the blissful sculptor of many of the American Southwest’s grandest canyons. While millions flock to Moab’s Arches or Canyonlands National Parks each year, lesser-known Highway 279 follows one of the …
Boasting an aperture of 140 ft. by 105 ft., Corona Arch is one of Utah’s largest—and most spectacular—natural arches. Yet its location, tucked away amidst BLM land, keeps the place relatively unspoiled, in contrast with the swarming crowds of nearby Arches National Park. Corona is situated amidst a seemingly endless sea of slickrock of the …
Continue reading Corona Arch Trail, including Bowtie Arch and Pinto Arch (Moab area, UT)
If you’ve made it to Capitol Reef National Park in central Utah, you’ve already reached one of the American West’s most isolated destinations. Wayne County, in which much of Capitol Reef is located, has not a single stoplight, and any delays encountered on the road are more often than not of the bovine kind. Most …
Continue reading Notom-Bullfrog Road and Burr Trail to Bullfrog Marina
After spending four months as a seasonal interpretive volunteer at Capitol Reef National Park, I have completed a whopping 46 blog posts for Live and Let Hike about Capitol Reef, including 42 detailed descriptions of the park’s trails and routes. Alas, despite wishful thinking, your average visitor to Capitol Reef is not likely to research …
Continue reading Top 10 Hikes in Capitol Reef National Park’s “Frontcountry”
The mostly level and shady Capitol Gorge Trail continues up the narrow canyon where the scenic Capitol Gorge Road ends. A geological cousin of nearby Grand Wash, Capitol Gorge also played a central role in the area’s human history. For nearly 80 years, despite its extreme narrows, the canyon was the only reliable transit point …
Continue reading Capitol Gorge Trail, including the Tanks (Capitol Reef National Park, UT)
Some places have great stories, and popular hiking destination Cohab Canyon in Utah’s Capitol Reef National Park is exactly one of those places. For the Mormon faith’s remaining polygamists in Utah, the late 1800s were a trying time: the state had just consented to the Edmunds Act, which bans the practice. Federal law enforcement officials …
Continue reading Cohab Canyon Trail (Capitol Reef National Park, UT)
In many ways, Capitol Reef National Park is Utah’s best-kept secret. Despite its central location—roughly halfway between tourist behemoths Arches National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park—Capitol Reef packs as great as a punch as its more popular neighbors with far smaller crowds. Even the park’s most travelled areas—the Highway 24 corridor and Scenic Drive—offer …
Less than a half-hour drive from the heart of Denver, Colorado, Mount Galbraith is a hikers-only park comprising 1,969 acres of sweeping hillsides, deep ravines, conifer forest, and, of course, the summit of the 7,260-foot peak. The 4.2-mile hike described here—including a loop around the mountain—is a popular destination for trail runners and dog walkers. …
Continue reading Mount Galbraith Loop via Cedar Gulch Trail (Mount Galbraith Park, CO)
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