The Vagabond Hiker

Hiking, trekking, and climbing the world

Hiking Southwest Utah, Part 2

As my time winds down in Utah and my focus shifts to the numerous overseas trips this summer, I’d like to share some more photos from hiking the past two years in this amazing place. I think they speak more eloquently than words about what draws me to keep returning here. Except for two, all photos were all taken in Washington County, the Southwestern most county in Utah.

BLM-managed lands

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administers one of every ten acres in the United States. The local field office in St. George manages public lands in Washington County in the “Three Corners” area where the Utah, Arizona, and Nevada meet. The southern region of the Great Basin, and the northern part of the Mojave Desert merge here at Utah’s lowest elevation of 2,000 feet above sea level. The field office includes two national conservation areas and 15 wilderness areas, to totaling approximately 630,000 acres of public land located at the convergence of three different ecoregions: the Mojave Desert, Great Basin, and Colorado Plateau.

Dwarf Bearclaw Poppy (Arctomecon humilis) and pollinator, St. George Utah. There exists only a handful of sites of this endangered poppy species
The Vagabond Hiker in a Cole Spring slot canyon, near Gunlock Reservoir northwest of St. George. A hidden gem amongst pinyon-juniper scrub-land.
Early morning vista from the West Cinder Knoll trail, Hurricane Utah, part of the Red Cliffs Reserve
Colorado Four O’clock (Mirabilis multiflora), West Cinder Knoll Trail
Helping with the removal of graffiti on a petroglyph panel, Canaan Mountain Wilderness. This wilderness, adjacent to the southern boundary of Zion National Park, consists of nearly 45,000 acres.
The Vagabond Hiker above the Eagle Crags trail, Canaan Mountain Wilderness
Quail Creek in the Cottonwood Canyon Wilderness. This is a very popular hike/scramble in the area.
A field of Filaree (stork’s-bill), Cottonwood Canyon Wilderness. The snow-covered Pine Valley Mountains provide a backdrop. I spent many days this past spring in Cottonwood Canyon as a Wilderness Steward, picking up litter, making sure signage is in good condition, removing graffiti, etc.
Another view of the Cottonwood Canyon Wilderness, which consists of nearly 12,000 acres.
Likely a Prairie Prickly-pear cactus blooming, Red Cliffs National Conservation Area
The Virgin River, Hurricane. A five minute walk from my most recent AirBnb house, this is the first season I have ever seen such a sustained high flow.
Confluence Park, LaVerkin, with another view of the Virgin River. LaVerkin is the next town to the north of Hurricane. (This and the preceding photo were on locally owned park land).
A slot canyon in Mineral Gulch, east of Zion (Kane County). Autumn light in the slots makes it a great time to hike.
Mineral Gulch in the autumn. One of the other hikers on a hike I led took this fantastic photo.
Snow Canyon State Park and the Pine Valley Mountains, from the Red Mountain Wilderness. The high point of the Pine Valley Mountains, Signal Peak, is about 10,400 ft in elevation.

Snow Canyon State Park

The previous photo provides a good segue to our premier state park in Washington County. Several other state parks center around reservoirs in the county, but Snow Canyon (its name derives from two Mormon pioneers who helped settle the area in the 1860s) is the most popular, and to me by a long way the most spectacular.

Some Outback Hiking Club members on Snow Canyon’s great sandstone.
The Vagabond Hiker on Island in the Sky, Snow Canyon State Park. Note the park road in the extreme lower left. Island is a short but challenging scramble route for which one needs a canyoneering (!) permit.
Climbing the chimney crux, Island in the Sky. I lead about one hike per month with Outback, which has been around for more than 30 years.
Climbing a flake on the Diedre Peak loop, Snow Canyon
Quail Creek State Park Reservoir with Pine Valley Mountains in the background. This reservoir is less than a mile as the crow flies from my AirBnb home in Hurricane. The Pine Valley Mountains rarely have this much snow on the south side, especially in March.

Zion National Park

In a sense, perhaps I saved the best until last! Zion National Park in Washington and Kane Counties, Utah, was the second most popular National Park in 2021, with more than 5 million visitors, a number that has doubled in little more than a decade. It consists of more than 145,000 acres and ranges in elevation from 3670 feet in Coal Pits Wash to 8720 feet on Horse Ranch Mountain. The great majority of visitors stay in the Main Canyon, using a shuttle bus system to explore that spectacular area.

However, Zion is much more than the Main Canyon. All of these photos were taken on hikes I did in other, less frequented (and in some cases rarely visited) areas of the park.

Gregory Butte (left) and Timbertop from Mt. Langston. Kolob Arch, one of the largest in the world, is below and to the right of Gregory Butte. It is difficult to see in this photo as there is no daylight behind it. Mt. Langston with its Ponderosa Pine forest summit dome, is one of the most remote in Zion, and rarely climbed.
A hiker in The Narrows, Zion NP. A friend got a permit and organized a Narrows top-down day hike last spring. High snowfall and the subsequent spring runoff has closed this iconic 15 mile canyon hike this year. (Technically, the lower portion of the Narrows is in the Main Canyon).
View of the East (right side) and West (left side) Temples, Zion. A friend and I scrambled three peaks known as the Triplets last autumn on the East Side of Zion, from where this photo was taken.
A vista South from a high ridge on the East Side. The peaks in the middle are the Triplets.
One of the main attractions of the East Side of Zion is all the sandstone. Our horseshoe hike here took in miles of this fun slick-rock.
Jolley Gulch waterfall. Another East Side hike I did recently, from the East Entrance to the plateau overlooking the main canyon, 18 miles out and back. This waterfall is usually no more than a trickle.
The Big Bend of the Virgin River, viewed from the Cableworks on the plateau one half mile vertically above the Main Canyon. The Cableworks were used last century to lower timber for construction in the park. The renowned Angel’s Landing can be seen directly above the bend, rising about 1/2 way up to the plateau to the west.
Trail Canyon icicles, Cougar Mountain. Cougar Mountain rises from the Southwest Desert sector of Zion, and though very prominent to the East when driving along the southern portion of Kolob Reservoir Road, it is a long, complex hike and climb to the summit, rarely attempted.
Sweet Arch, Cougar Mountain. This diminutive (perhaps 5′ tall) free-standing arch near the summit is sweet indeed.
The Guardian Angels, seen from East Northgate Peak in the Kolob Terrace sector of Zion. North Guardian is closer, with South Guardian appearing from behind it. North Guardian Angel is a relatively short hike from the trailhead, but involves steep slickrock friction climbing. Although probably less than one mile separates these peaks, several hours of intense hiking and scrambling through amazingly complex topography are required to summit the isolated South Guardian Angel. I’ve only managed it once, despite several attempts.
A tufted evening primrose (Oenothera caespitosa), taken on a hike up South Guardian Angel.

And one final photo, from my condo in St. George two years ago. . .

Sunset from my balcony, February 2021 (zoom).

Where to next?

My main summer trekking trips have all been planned. Details of timing can be seen using the Calendar Tab above right. I will be returning to the Lago Garda area of northern Italy for 5 weeks in late May through most of June. The following 3 months I will be based in southeast England, not far from Heathrow Airport. A small AirBnb (what else?) annexe (casita), located within walking distance to both Windsor Great Park and Runnymede (where the Magna Carta was signed a while ago) will provide me some down time between my monthly trekking and culture trips:

July: Armenia and Georgia. Trekking, hiking, and culture will feature equally in these ancient Caucasus countries, formerly part of the Soviet Union, situated between the Black and Caspian Seas.

August: K2 Base-camp trek, Pakistan. Long on my bucket list, fingers crossed the febrile political situation calms down a bit for this epic trek.

September: Tajikistan & Uzbekistan. Two of the ‘stans I have yet to visit. Five days trekking around some amazing lakes in the Fann Mountains (part of the Pamirs) of Tajikistan will be followed by a week touring the ancient silk road cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva in Uzbekistan.

Several shorter (long weekend type) trips this summer, some still in the planning stages, should provide some photos for additional short blog posts.

Enjoy your summer hiking, wherever you may be,

The Vagabond Hiker

Comments

  1. Great photos. Glad I could join you on a few of those adventures. Have a great summer!

  2. Your photos are always stunning! Looks like you had a great time in STG. Never seem to run out of places and things to see! One of these days, I’d love to connect. Enjoy your summer!

    • Thanks, Terri. I’ll be back in STG this autumn and then spending most of 2024 in the US, predominantly in California (desert in winter, Sierras next summer). I too hope we can connect some time.

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