Delicate Arch in Arches National Park is the quintessential landmark in the state, adorning license plates and all sorts of travel guides.
The trail you follow to get there is in itself jaw-dropping!
Category Archives: Utah National Parks
Hidden Canyon, Zion National Park
There are many hikes originating in Zion Canyon. From the visitors center you hop on a shuttle bus and ride up stream getting off at the various trail heads. About half way up is the stop for Hidden Canyon, Weeping Rock and Observation Point.
Last April we visited the park and stayed a week, doing many hikes, Hidden Canyon being one of them.
The trail starts with switchbacks, steep switchbacks!
Then the trail clings to the cliff while it swings around to a defile where there is a set of stairs.
Now the trail again hangs on the cliff while it rounds another bend.
The views start to open up of the valley below.
Now the trail plunges into the canyon, the narrow trail is full of amazing rock, fantastically colored and shaped.
On the way back we veered off and up to a high point of the ridge to see the valley below before heading back…
Zion Canyon and Angel’s Landing
Last April I made a week-long sojourn to Zion National Park in Utah. We camped at the Watchman Camp ground.
On the first days hike we rode the shuttle bus up the valley…
and hiked up to Angle’s Landing.
The hike is about 2 miles and 1,600 ft of elevation gain. The hike takes you up a series of switchbacks and then through Echo Canyon.
More steep switchbacks leave you on a plateau where you can catch your breath before the last steep pitch along a knife’s edge to the top…
The view down the valley is breathtaking.
The Watchman provided a sweet backdrop for the stars at night.
Bryce Canyon National Park
In April of this year I spent a week at Zion National Park and on the way back home did a drive-by at Bryce Canyon…here are a few images from that afternoon.
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
Angels Landing, Zion National Park, Utah
The National Park Service has implemented a fleet of tour buses to handle the massive flow of people through Zion Canyon. The system works very well, there are many clean, electric, buses running up and down all day long, stopping at all the key sights and trail heads. Angel’s Landing is one of the key attractions in the valley. Just the trail itself is a wonder of engineering. Rising more than 1,500 feet from the valley floor to a sheer precipice in a scant few miles along a finger of rock the trail affords unsurpassed views…
The Watchman in the Moonlight, Zion National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
Looking out of the Subway, along Left Fork Creek in Zion National Park
Hidden Valley, Zion National Park
Along Zion Valley Road the tourist bus makes many stops. Trailheads lead up to all sorts of fabulous places. One of the stops, “Weeping Rock” has trails leading to Observation Point, Weeping Rock and Hidden Valley.
Climbing up the switchbacks which have been cleverly crafted into the cliff face one reaches a junction and veers right, up into Hidden Canyon.
What a wonderful place to spend an afternoon exploring! A sandy floor hemmed in by wonderfully colored rock walls…Zion is truly a gem, a fantastically diverse park full of surprises. 
This formation is on the underside of a rock overhang…not sure how it got there…
Walls in Hidden Canyon
Grotto full of hikers: Joe, Max and Sveta
Close-up of the upside-down hole…
North Western Images - photos by Andy Porter 