A Scenic Guide to Utah

Utah is a land of extremes. It has everything—deep, narrow slot canyons, elaborate river systems, fertile valleys, deep blue lakes, lonely deserts, and a maze of arches, rock spires, and pinnacles. It lacks only an ocean, but since beaches and saltwater exist at the Great Salt Lake, it nearly has that, too.

My husband, Mike Vining, and I spent five months exploring Utah while I was working on one of my newest guides, Camping Utah. We lived in our 30-foot fifth wheel trailer while we checked out 308 public campgrounds, enjoying outdoor activities along the way. In addition to sightseeing, which is a very easy thing to do in Utah, we looked for wildlife, went snowshoeing, spent time mountain biking, climbed rocks, hiked and backpacked. We also explored Indian ruins and compared our hands to the ancient tracks of dinosaurs.

Utah is a vast place. It is composed of portions of three major natural regions, or physiographic provinces: the Basin and Range Province (also known as the Great Basin), the Middle Rocky Mountains or Rocky Mountain Province, and the Colorado Plateau.

The Basin and Range Province covers about one-third of Utah. In this region of shimmering white salt flats, gray plains and high mountains, rivers terminate not at the sea, but in the Great Salt Lake Desert or the Great Salt Lake.

Utah’s northeastern mountain ranges consist of the Uinta and the Wasatch ranges. The Wasatch is known for its majestic granite peaks, its glacier-carved valleys, and its endless glacial lakes. The Uintas are older and one of the few major Rocky Mountain ranges that stretch in an east-west direction. The highest point, Kings Peak, is also, at 13,528 feet, the highest point in the state.

The Colorado Plateau is a rainbow of colors and unique physical characteristics. Here, uplifted plateaus rise to more than 11,000 feet. Carved by rivers and eroded by wind and water, hundreds of canyons are garnished in yellows, purples, reds, and pinks. The Colorado River snakes through these colorful canyons, as do the Green River and some of its other tributaries.

Favorite Places
After traveling throughout the three regions, we made a list of places we would like to visit again and again. One favorite is the Natural Bridges National Monument, with its wonderful nine-mile loop hike of the bridges. Here also are Indian ruins that you can discover on your own.

When I first traveled to Utah, I visited Bryce Canyon National Park and Kodachrome Basin and those continue to be the places where I want to return again and again. A hike along the Fairyland Loop Trail in Bryce makes my heart soar, and I always ooh and aah as I amble along, fascinated by the scenery. Busy Arches National Park is a magical place, with wonderful trails and arches and good rock climbing too, but the less-crowded Koda-chrome Basin also provide nice trails and scenery and the area has its own arch—Grosvenor Arch—as well.

Although we weren’t impressed with the parking-lot style campground at Goblin State Park, we were amazed by the park’s unique sandstone formations. It is a fantasyland of eroded sandstone formations, some of which look like mushrooms, while others suggest mischievous folklore goblins. A favorite slot canyon hike of ours is less than 10 miles away at the Wild Horse Canyon Trailhead; here, a hike up Wild Horse Canyon and down Bell Canyon makes a great eight-mile loop.

Canyonlands National Park in southeast Utah can be a busy place, but if you visit the west side, you’ll find it less crowded, but equally wonderful. Here, in Horseshoe Canyon a hike leads to some amazing eight-foot high pictographs, a sight you won’t soon forget.

Logan Canyon amazed us as well. Though the drive through the scenic canyon isa mere 60 miles long, it took us three days. Why? Because we kept stopping to climb rocks or hike one of many trails. We just moseyed along, and we constantly talked about going back some day.

Scenic Drives
We also made a list of the most enjoyable sightseeing drives. One of our favorites was the drive from Monticello to Canyonlands via paved Blue Mount-ain/Harts Loop Draw Road, which leads to a point near Newspaper Rock State Park. Driving the road one evening we saw hundreds of deer and turkeys.

We thought Utah Highway 12 offered the best scenery. From Torrey to Escalante, the road passes over a high ridge, with grand views and several 14 percent grades. If you make the drive, be sure to stop at the Calf Creek Campground at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monu-ment. Tucked into a canyon along Calf Creek, the location allows anglers to wet a line, and hikers to enjoy the trail to Lower Calf Falls. It’s an interpretive trail, so with guide in hand you can learn about native vegetation, see amazing pictographs and Indian ruins, and view gorgeous falls that are 126 feet high.

Five months in the Beehive State told us that Utah has an abundance of natural gifts to offer both visitors and those who live there. Fortunately, there are 308 public campgrounds from which to enjoy the wide variety of flora and fauna, wonderful vistas, and a multitude of outdoor activities. Happy camping!

Donna Ikenberry is a travel and outdoor recreation writer who lives in South Fork, Colorado.