Snow Canyon State Park near St. George, Utah is a great place for outdoor-minded people. It has paved trails, hiking trails, and many rugged areas to explore. It also has some very interesting slickrock scrambling opportunities. We were lucky enough to be guided by a local hiker (Susan) up an unlikely route onto the flanks of Red Mountain. The word … Continue reading…
When snows blanket the hills, we can still hike. In fact, it is a good time to explore new areas, especially rarely-visited hills, grasslands, and open-forested slopes. With low winter light and frequent cloud cover, slow progress in the snow, and limited access to viewpoints, we can reset our objectives. An interesting choice is to hunt out dead standing trees … Continue reading…
Our favorite (official) hiking trail in Zion National Park is the West Rim Trail. We have not chosen to do it from the top down (one way) yet, but it is on our list. We went from the bottom up to the rim, then did a loop on top of the mesa and back down, about 15 miles of hiking … Continue reading…
Update – There is a more recent KBRA map for these trails. Please check their website and signs. Note – this site is a blog and therefore older articles and their information becomes dated over time. The old roads and newer single tracks on the north slopes of Coal Hill and Ironmask Hills have been hiked and biked for a … Continue reading…
The trail to the top of Sugarloaf Hill is a good one for shoulder season. We usually wait and do the hike on a bit of snow in December. The route starts off the Sugarloaf Ranch Road as a double track. We stay right at the first junctions and are soon hiking past a frozen pond, then on a slope … Continue reading…
Some trails should be done in shoulder season. In late fall, the high country gets blanketed in snow, but the hills just above the City can still be hiked until the snows cover the City, then melt enough to ice up. Then, in early spring, open hillsides get more sunlight and wind circulation, melting the snows, and drying more quickly. … Continue reading…
When fog fills the valley, some of our hills stand above the mists and we can hike out in the sunshine. Dufferin Ridge is a good choice on a cool Winter Solstice Day. We started in the fog, then climbed to the top of the hills near the fenced-in towers, then followed the single track west. We were luck to … Continue reading…
The Many Pools route is not a designated trail in Zion National Park, but it is an interesting route that is easy to follow. The start is at a pullout on the East Zion Road about 0.8 miles east of the small tunnel. Walk along the road and look for an informal trail dropping into the drainage/wash on the north … Continue reading…
Designated (user-pay) snowshoe trails usually have no issue with competing users (snowmobiles, ATV’s, 4WD trucks, etc.) because they are usually signed and on private property. But these trails can be over-stomped in if there is no fresh snow. When we follow snowed-in double tracks, some of these may have been driven on, especially in early (hunting) season. Once the snows … Continue reading…
With the new “official” bike trails in the Pineview-Ironmask Hills area, we have been recently hiking the single (bike) tracks in the off-season. Although we have hiked the old double tracks for about 35 years, Kamloops Mountain Bike Riders have been working on these single tracks and are now installing signs at trail junctions. From the Lac le Jeune Frontage … Continue reading…
In our area, the snows mantle the hills in early December and we shift from hiking to snowshoeing and cross country skiing. For the first snowy hikes of the winter, conditions are good for hiking, but when a small melt occurs, icy trails make hiking difficult. Every few years, we get a warm spell in winter and all the snows … Continue reading…
The route down The Narrows from the top is a 15.4 mile trek in the Virgin River Canyon to Zion Canyon. A backcountry permit is needed to do the route and hikers should expect to take from 8 to 10 hours. At least half of the hike is wading in the river on slippery rocks. An early … Continue reading…
The Barnes Lake Trail system was developed by a horse riders group in the Barnhartvale area, but these are fine hiking trails for all seasons. There are 4 separate trailheads and for this late fall day, we chose to start at the most remote one, the Back Gate. To find the back gate, take the Scuitto Lake Road for 1.1km … Continue reading…
The East Rim Trail in Zion National Park goes through a more remote area of the park away from the main corridor. It can be hiked from the East Gate area over the plateau and down into the main corridor (10 miles) or it can be hiked up and back from the start of the Observation Point Trail (9 miles). … Continue reading…
The trails of the Needles District in Canyonlands National Park can be combined in many ways to create loops. We chose to follow these trails – Lost Canyon > Squaw Canyon > Big Springs Canyon. To get into or out of any of the canyons, hikers have to climb up over slickrock routes, then descend down into the sandy wash. … Continue reading…
Lac du Bois Grasslands Protected Area has 15 712 hectares of grassland and forest. The lower grasslands are more arid with an abundance of sagebrush, but the middle and upper grasslands have a greater proportion of natural grasses and open terrain. Aspens are found in wet spots and open douglas fir forest covers the upper slopes. There are no designated … Continue reading…
