MRand

My business partners and I have a client who loves to hike. Last September, we flew in and out of Vegas and took him on a long weekend (Fri. to Mon.) hiking trip to Zion, including Angel's Landing and the Narrows. This year he wants to take another long weekend hiking trip to another location in Utah. Do you Utah experts have any suggestions?

Dayle

Hi M,

As you may know by now, there is no end to the possibilites! I would recommend 2 areas, Escalante or Moab.

You could fly into SLC and take Salmon Air down to Moab, rent a 4x4 there. Moab has no regular car rentals. Or, rent a car at SLC and drive down, about 4 1/2 - 5 hours.

Or, you could fly into Vegas again and call Slickrockairguides.com to pick you up with a charter flight.

Or, drive to Escalante and do some of the fabulous hikes there. Most of these are for more experienced outdoors people, but they are awesome. Highly recommend the Boulder Mountain Lodge (Hells' Backbone Grill), but it books up early. Sept is peak season.

Write back if you would like more specific hike recommendations.

utahtea

Arches and Canyonlands would be an excellent choice near Moab, Utah.

Capitol Reef or Bryce would be another excellent choice.

Utahtea

christy1

I highly suggest the book "Hiking the Southwest's Canyon Country" by Sandra Hinchman. It should be easy to find on Amazon or at your local outdoors store. It has hikes in all parts of southern Utah, and it'll give you a great idea of what different places in this region offer in terms of scenery and recreation opportunities.

Building on what others above said-all those places have great hiking, but if you're trying to "get away from it all," go with Escalante or the Needles and Horseshoe Canyon units of Canyonlands. If you want to base yourself in a town (with a variety of hotel accomodations and restaurants), stay in Moab and hike in Arches, Canyonlands and the surrounding BLM lands.

justme22

depending on what you like apres hiking, moab will have the most for you. you have many hiking choices as well, not only arches but the northern unit of canyonlands.

I've only spent a little time in the escalante area and hell's backbone is quite a place.

for the southern unit of canyonlands you would stay in montecello but there is not too much there except,nice people (they saved me once with a stuck vehicle) and the best western, that does have a nice indoor pool and hottub for after that long hike.

Moab is just too tempting tho. you can hike, float trip mountain bike.

gwburk

Near the town of Escalante is the 3 mile hike out to Calf Creek falls. Also, the trailhead leading into the Escalante River gorge begins down by the town cemetery. This is a good hike where you can go in the river and/or hike adjacent to it. Towering canyon walls and chances are you will not see another soul. Hike as far as you want and return the same way. One way hike down to highway 12 is 15 miles.