Scenes From Utah Hikes (04-26-16)

After leaving Vegas, we headed to Utah to do some hiking.  Utah is probably my favorite state for hiking, although our first venture out didn’t work out so well.

This trail had  a warning to anyone who is afraid of heights, but I am fond of saying I am not afraid of heights, I am afraid of falling.  This Canal Trail took us along the edges of a canyon above the Virgin River. Unfortunately, the trail (you can see it below Paul, along the CLIFF) was too close to the edge for me, and I had to turn around.

Still, the views were nice.

Just to prove my point, here is me, smiling at the top of a mountain, with a gorgeous view, but no fear of falling. This was the Red Mountain Traverse Trail- about 8 miles long, with varying views along the way.

Paul posed for the same picture.

I love hiking on rock, and this trail offered plenty opportunity for that.














Another view from the same hike.  This was one of my favorite hikes.  The valley we are overlooking is in Snow Canyon State Park, in Utah, near Zion National Park.

We have spent a fair amount of time hiking in Utah, so this trip we were kind of staying away from the places we had been before, and trying something new.







Another day, another hike- this one in Red Cliffs  National Conservation Area.

The weather was all over the place while we were in Utah.  80s one day, followed by 62 degrees the next.  Add differing elevations to that and you never knew what you were gonna get.


I really wanted to check out Kolob Canyon- it’s a more remote part of Zion National Park, and has some great hiking trails.  It also had snow. Fresh snow.

Our plans for hiking being thwarted gave us time to drive 10 miles down a dirt “road” to Toquerville Falls. This is a popular swimming destination, but not until the spring run off slows down!

Nearby Snow Canyon State Park was on my list of places that I wanted to hike, but we ran out of time. We were staying at an Elks Lodge, and thought we’d be able to extend our stay but they had a special meeting going on and we had to leave. 







It was really cool to realize that we were only 4 hours from home, so we can come back whenever we want!




Speaking of home, on the way there, a tire on the truck developed a bubble, and Paul had to put on the spare.  Luckily we caught it before it was a catastrophic failure.
We were planning on replacing all 6 tires before we left Havasu for the summer, so we bumped it up on the priority list, and they have already all been replaced.  We even got the damaged one replaced for free- we love Discount Tire!



We have been home for about a week now, busy buying things (more on that later), planting things and all the usual stuff.