We’ve been blessed to do three world class day hikes on this trip: Druid Arch in Canyonlands (day 2), Fairyland Loop in Bryce (day 7), and today Angels Landing in Zion.

Here’s a description from one of our guidebooks (Grand Circle by Eric Henze):

“Built during the wake of the Great Depression by the CCC, it comprises a series of switchbacks cut into solid rock. The final half mile is along a knife-edged ridge that uses chains and carved footholds to assist you to the final destination. It is strenuous, but the end result is well worth it. You will have climbed from the bottom of the canyon to the top, giving you a view that will most certainly become a life moment. It is a world famous hike.”

All I should add is that Ingrid is less afraid of heights than I am.

Just a 20-min drive from our hotel in St. George is a splendid state park. With extensive hiking trails, its features include petrified sand dunes (the best highlight in our view), lava tubes (we only looked from outside), and a white-rock amphitheater. We spent 5.5 hours there, hiking parts or all of several trails: Jenny’s Canyon, Petrified Dunes, Lava Flow, Butterfly, and Whiterocks.

Some overall lessons are emerging from this trip.

1. For a hiking-centered holiday, two weeks of daily hikes is a good upper bound.

2. Four days is a suitable maximum stay at any single base. (In this case, the four days in Moab and Bryce worked well. We’re overstaying the optimum in St. George.)

3. Utah is great for its density of fabulous sites. Although there is great variety in the details, there is also a higher order level of similarity so that we will be ready to return home at the end of our stay.

I was feeling a bit disappointed in my trip planning to be staying in St. George, close to an hour’s drive from Zion, rather than in Springdale, just outside the park gates. But after our first day in the main section of Zion, the choice seems fine. The drive is scenic and not too traffic-heavy. We paid to park at the first public lot in Springdale, then traveled by the convenient shuttle systems, first to the park entrance and then along the main park road. Not needing to think about parking in the park was liberating! We did several short hikes and walks today: Watchman, Pa’rus, Lower Emerald Pool, and Grotto. The sky was active with spring clouds variably interacting with bright sunshine. Spring is now clearly visible in iridescent new green on the deciduous trees. A most pleasant day, it was.

St. George is the final base for this hiking trip through southern Utah. Today began with a last look at Bryce Canyon from Sunrise Point. (Still below freezing, but sunny and a gentler wind.) Then some light hiking in Red Canyon. Finally a 5- mile hike in the northern portion of Zion National Park, along Taylor Creek. This last hike was out-and-back and included 54 creek crossings (each way), 2 historic cabins, and a terminal dripping grotto. The temperature during this hike was about 40 deg F and light snow turned to a drizzle as we finished. But after yesterday, it seemed almost balmy, since we were warmly dressed and the fierce winds were gone.

The big storm in the middle of the US included southern Utah in its extent. After pleasant highs of about 60 deg F the first few days of our stay, today’s high will barely top the freezing mark. On our outing today, the temperatures ranged from 25 to 31 deg F. Cold air was accentuated with 30 mph winds and light snow. We aimed to drive the first 12 (of 18) miles of the park road (all that was open yesterday) to start today’s visit. At mile 10 we were turned around by a park ranger; the road was being closed at mile 4, because of danger of falling trees. Nevertheless, we had two great walks, about 2 miles along the Rim Trail plus 1.6 miles out and back to the Queen’s Garden. (The latter is so named because of a rock formation that resembles Queen Victoria.)

Especially because much of Bryce Canyon is still snowbound, we spent much of today at this state park about 45-min drive and 2500 feet lower elevation. We hiked an interesting and not difficult 6-mile Panorama Loop, featuring several named and unnamed geologic features. Most famous here are numerous spires that rise out of the sandstone landscape but are of a sturdier rock material.

Again, wow! We are here a bit too early in the season. The scenic road is closed for the final 6 of 18 miles. More to the point, most of the hiking trails are closed until enough snow has melted. Still, one substantial trail is open — the Fairyland Loop (8 mi & 1720 ft) — and we hiked that. Extremely photogenic. The “hoodoos” are close to human scale. Frequent freeze-thaw cycles (elevation about 8000 ft at the rim) wreaks erosive havoc with the richly colored sandstone. Our 5-h hike was a “feast for the eyes” that wasn’t marred by frequent short patches on snow and mud on the trail.

We traveled today from Torrey to Bryce Canyon City. Along the way, we stopped for two hikes in a newish, huge, and rugged National Monument, Grand Staircase Escalante. (It was established during the Clinton administration, in 1996.)

The first hike was to Lower Calf Creek Falls. Spectacular end point of the 3-mile in-and-out trail. The second was rated “easy” — a 3.5-mile round trip “river hike” along the Escalante River to a natural bridge. The rating must apply to low water conditions. When we encountered the third requirement to hike in the river, we gave up.

Still, it was another great day of Utah hiking.

(Oh, and the snow encounter occurred as we crossed a pass at 9600 feet early this morning.)

A shorter-than-usual outing today with two easy walks through deep washes. This National Park is of note for a 100-mile geologic wrinkle presenting cliff walls hundreds of feet high. We walked the Grand Wash Trail (2.2 mi each way) and the Capitol Gorge Trail (1.0 mi each way).

Goodbye to Moab. The drive to Torrey was only about 2.5 h direct, but we took the whole day. We stopped at Arches visitor center to learn about the geology of the area. Then we made a small detour to take a short hike at Goblin Valley State Park. (Photos 2-4.) We ended our day with another nice and short hike to Hickman Bridge in Capitol Reef National Park. (Photos 1 and 5-7.)