From natural arches, hoodoos, and hanging gardens to balanced rocks and towering mesas, slot canyons and vast chasms, the desert Southwest holds in its dry, searing, lonely open spaces some of America’s most fascinating and inspiring geology.
The writer “Cactus Ed” Abbey no doubt had this region in mind when he said there “are some places so beautiful they can make a grown man break down and weep.” Much of it sits protected within southern Utah’s five national parks: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef.
The good news? Many of the best sights can be reached on day hikes of anywhere from a couple hours to a full day.
The list of the best day hikes in southern Utah’s national parks derives from numerous trips made to each of these parks over the past 25 years. Use this list as your compass to guarantee you will knock off the best hikes in these parks—and you won’t need a quarter-century to do it.
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