While hypothermia is usually associated with colder climes, it’s a real risk here too, often due to the water in narrow canyons. Hypothermia occurs when the body cools to a dangerously low temperature. To prevent it, don’t wear cotton clothing, and eat high-energy foods. Stop hiking if you observe uncontrollable shivering, poor coordination, fatigue, confusion, or slurred speech in any member of your party. Replace wet clothing with dry insulating layers, and plan to return to the trailhead or seek help.
Know where your sources of water are. For many of the hikes in this book, there is no water at the trailhead or on the trail, so plan ahead and fill your bottles at the visitor center or wherever reliable water supplies are found. Plan on drinking 1 gallon of water a day (or 1.5 gallons in the summer) while hiking.
You must always be mindful of trail conditions that can change over time and due to weather. Some of the easiest and most popular trails in Utah’s national parks have been the site of fatalities due to extreme weather conditions (Zion’s Riverside Walk is a notable example).
For all but the shortest hikes, bring along a lightweight backpack with plenty of water and something to snack on. Lack of adequate drinking water can sometimes be a critical issue on any of the hikes located in the arid desert climate of southern Utah.
It’s best to avoid some of these unshaded hikes anytime the sun is high in the sky during the warmer months of the year. Walking will not be enjoyable at those times anyway.
Your backpack is a good receptacle for extra clothing as well. Because the high elevations and desert climate can experience wide swings in day and night temperatures, layering your attire is a good idea. In winter, take along two or more middleweight outer garments rather than relying on a single heavy or bulky jacket to keep you comfortable at all times.
Raingear, however, finds only occasional use in southern Utah. Usually, hikers have fair warning when a rainstorm is brewing—it’s unusual for good weather to turn stormy within a short period of time. But always check the weather forecast.
Flash floods are rare, but they are still a risk that needs to be taken into account. Flash floods occur when rainfall, often miles away, falls onto slickrock or other nonabsorbent surfaces over a large drainage area and funnels into washes and channels. As channels constrict, the force of the floodwaters increases dramatically and carries debris and rocks. You can’t outrun or swim in a flash flood. Avoid narrow canyons in rainstorms, and seek high ground.
You can take a mobile phone with you, but on most of these hikes you will not have cell service. Thus, as with all hiking, it’s wise to let someone know where you are headed and when you expect to return.
Hikers on the more remote trails described in this book might want to bring along a flashlight (if there’s any chance of being caught on the trail after dark); a map; a GPS unit, for fun as well as navigation; a whistle (for signaling); and a first-aid kit.
Rattlesnakes occasionally appear on the trails featured in this book. Typically, these creatures are as interested in avoiding contact with you as you are with them. But watch carefully where you put your feet, and especially your hands, during the warmer months, as you never want to startle a rattler. Most encounters between rattlesnakes and hikers occur in April and May, when snakes are out and about after a long hibernation period.
Western diamondback rattlesnake
Insects are not as serious a problem in Utah’s desert climate as they are in some other wilderness areas. But during the spring and summer, sand flies, deer flies, and midges can be occasional annoyances in some sandy washes and streambeds, so pack some insect repellent as a precaution. Tarantulas, scorpions, and black widow spiders are also present, but being bitten by one is a rare occurrence. For hikers, your best protection from being bitten is to stay on the trail and to keep your hands away from rocks or ledges where these creatures might be lurking.
Mountain lion encounters are extremely rare in Utah’s national parks. Do, however, keep in mind that you must never run from any predatory animal, as this could trigger its chase instinct. Make yourself look large. Do not act fearful. Do anything you can to convince the animal that you are not its prey.
REDUCING YOUR IMPACT IN THE DESERT
Considering the significance of national parks to our nation’s heritage, it’s particularly important that you familiarize yourself with the Leave No Trace principles as you plan your visit to Utah’s national parks. Visit lnt.org for more information. Follow the philosophy of “pack it in; pack it out.” Here are a few additional pointers:
Follow park regulations. Do not collect rocks, plants, or artifacts.
Check the weather forecast, and plan your hike accordingly. Be prepared for emergencies.
Deposit solid human waste in a hole 4–6 inches deep, at least 200 feet away from water, camps, and trails.
Do not approach or feed wildlife.
Yield to others on the trail. Step to the downhill side of the trail when encountering horses.
Additionally, in many parts of Utah’s national parks, you’ll encounter biological soil crusts, which are an important part of the desert ecosystem. They prevent soil erosion, absorb and hold water, and provide nutrients to plants. But one footstep can destroy hundreds of years of growth. Please help protect these fragile crusts by learning to recognize them (you’ll be instructed in the park’s visitor information and on interpretive signage) and by walking on designated trails, bare rock, or streambeds.
Exciting experiences and vistas await, so now it’s time to lace up your boots and hit the trail.
Canyon Overlook Trail in Zion National Park (see Hike 40)
ARCHES NATIONAL PARK
Park Overview
Arches National Park showcases the highest concentration of natural stone arches in the world—more than 2,400 of them. Along with the arches, you’re treated to an amazing landscape of balanced rocks, soaring red-rock cliffs, monumental towers, and stately sandstone fins. It’s inspiring scenery, with routes that are accessible to hikers of all ages and skill levels.
The arches and varied landforms spawn from an underground salt bed deposited 300 million years ago, when a sea flowed into the region and then evaporated. Subsequently, residue from floods, winds, and the ocean covered the salt bed and became compressed as rock, up to a mile thick in some places. Under this heavy rock layer, the salt bed shifted, liquefied, and buckled, causing domes to form and vertical cracks to appear in what we now see as fins.
Before being designated as a national monument in 1929 and a national park in 1971, the area had been inhabited for nearly 10,000 years, most recently by Fremont Indians and ancestral Puebloans, followed by Paiute and Ute tribes, Spanish missionaries, and Mormon pioneers.
JUST ONE DAY?
Arches is a compact park, ideally suited for visitors who want to take in the natural spectacle on short walks and hikes. Starting at the visitor center, continue into the park on what may be the most dramatic entrance to any national park in America as you ascend a road cut through sandstone to the Park Avenue Viewpoint. Continue on to Balanced Rock for a quick leg-stretcher, and then travel into the Windows section for a walk to the North and South Windows before heading up to