Best Hikes near St George Utah

Zion, in my opinion, is among the most beautiful of all the parks in Utah (and that's a pretty high bar). Unfortunately, our timing would have it that certain noteworthy hikes like Angel's Landing were closed due to covid, and others like the narrows were advised against because the waterways were blooming with toxic algae. The silver lining is that these restrictions led us to explore some other less-visited hidden gems of Zion: namely, Kolob Canyon. Kolob intersects Zion's main canyon, and you can hike from one to the other, but we opted for a single night in Kolob. Due to the algae bloom, we had to port in our own water. That meant that on top of our camping gear, we each had to haul two jugs of water all the way to our campsite. As we dipped into the canyon, the red canyon walls grew taller and taller and we found ourselves surrounded by beautiful fall foliage. After we set up camp, we hiked a few miles farther to catch a glimpse of Kolob arch, the sixth-longest natural arch in the world (several of the even longer arches are nearby). We passed only a few other groups of hikers and backpackers, so it felt like we basically had the canyon to ourselves. Next time, we'll probably head for the main canyon, but we were happy to experience something off the beaten path and still truly amazing!

Unrighteously overshadowed by its more famous National Park neighbors is Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Not quite a national park, it's an enormous swath of public land with "national monument" designation littered with slot canyons, river canyons, and beautiful landscapes. We were drawn to this location by pictures of Jacob Hamblin Arch in Coyote Gulch. To get there, we drove a couple of hours down a bumpy washboard dirt road to a sandy washout where the trail starts. We began hiking down the washout, following cow tracks to keep from getting lost. Gradually, the landscape shifted and we found ourselves deeper and deeper in the canyon, with red and gray walls, a sandy floor, and a shallow stream bed with a trickle of water.

By the time we rounded a corner and set eyes on Jacob Hamblin Arch, we were already immersed in unbelievably high canyon walls that made us feel small. But the arch was something else. It towered over us and left us in awe. With few other campers in the canyon, we decided to make camp on the front side of the arch, the part with the best view. Later that night, though, we regretted our choice of location. When the winds picked up around 2am, they swept heaps of sand under our rainfly, through the mesh walls of our tent, and all over us and our gear. Sleepily, we picked up our tent and moved it behind a grove of trees that protected us from the wind and sand.

While Coyote Gulch and Jacob Hamblin Arch were the highlight of our trip to Grand Staircase, the slot canyons were a close second. We hiked a series of two slot canyons called Peekaboo Gulch and Spooky Gulch. The canyons were so narrow in parts that we had to turn sideways to squeeze ourselves through. It was quite an adventure!