Week-long backcountry trip in Utah or southwest, Late May or Early June

Hi, first time posting! I hope this is the right forum -- please let me know if it should be somewhere else.


A friend and I have to be in Salt Lake in Mid or early June and we are hoping to do a week-long backcountry hiking trip beforehand. We can fly in to Las Vegas or SLC, so the trip could potentially be in either Northern Utah or in Southern Utah, the Grand Canyon, or anywhere else that is moderately accessible from Vegas.

What we are looking for is somewhere remote and beautiful, where we can go for a week and see very few people, preferably none, but also where:

a) there will be water to drink in May or June, and
(b) no technical skills or gear are required -- nowhere that requires an ice axe, for instance, and technical canyoneering is probably out. I'd rather not bring a rope & harnesses on a week-long hike but could do a canyon hike with short, easy rappels if it was really awesome and worth the weight & pack space.

So, this is a pretty vague question!! But I don't know that much about Utah or the Southwest, having only passed through a few times, and don't really know how to go about finding something remote there. Mountains and desert canyons both sound awesome when you live in Toronto, Ontario, so I don't really have a strong preference, though it seems from my limited research that May is a little early for non-technical hiking in the Uintas.

Thanks for your help! Much obliged!

In late May, the highest elevations in Utah will be buried in snow, while the lowest elevations are often very hot. I'd really recommend something like Dark Canyon that time of year. The Escalante Canyons (at least the ones with water) tend to be nice as well, but along the river biting flies become a problem. This usually isn't bad if you wear long pants. Death Hollow would be a good one, but watch for poison ivy.

Check into loops involving the Escalante River. Starting from anywhere along its length, from the 12 bridge down to the mouth of Coyote Gulch. Side trips up canyons as you go.

Or maybe down Coyote Gulch starting at Hurricane Wash, then up the Escalante at Steven's Arch, then overland back to Hurricane.

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Originally Posted by Scott P

In late May, the highest elevations in Utah will be buried in snow, while the lowest elevations are often very hot. I'd really recommend something like Dark Canyon that time of year. The Escalante Canyons (at least the ones with water) tend to be nice as well, but along the river biting flies become a problem. This usually isn't bad if you wear long pants. Death Hollow would be a good one, but watch for poison ivy.

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Awesome, thanks Scott. Will Dark Canyon also have tons of biting flies? What are flies like down there -- do you mean big visible flies (like horseflies & deer flies) or tiny swarming flies (what we call blackflies up here)?

Am ordering osme books to get mroe of a handle on where these places are -- will get back when I have more specific questions. Thanks!

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Originally Posted by dougr

Check into loops involving the Escalante River. Starting from anywhere along its length, from the 12 bridge down to the mouth of Coyote Gulch. Side trips up canyons as you go.

Or maybe down Coyote Gulch starting at Hurricane Wash, then up the Escalante at Steven's Arch, then overland back to Hurricane.

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OK, I will check these out -- will "Hiking Grand Staircase-Escalante" be a good place to learn more (http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0762760613/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&cre ativeASIN=0762760613&linkCode=as2&tag=backcountryp o-20&linkId=MOTEX3LLKCUWELAA)? Or do you have other suggestions for resources?

thanks again everyone!

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will "Hiking Grand Staircase-Escalante"

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It's OK, but the hikes in the book are mostly day hikes and the book misses a lot of the best stuff. It's still an OK book.

This book is better though if you want the Escalante specifically:

http://www.amazon.com/Canyoneering-L...canyoneering+3

If the link doesn't work, the book is Canyoneering 3 by Steve Allen.

It might be worth getting both books since the Falcon one also covers some hikes outside the Escalante region, but if you only get one, Canyoneering 3 is best.

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Will Dark Canyon also have tons of biting flies?

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No, at least the lower 1/2 won't. Maybe there would be some in the upper end, but that part of the canyon isn't as good anyway.

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What are flies like down there -- do you mean big visible flies (like horseflies & deer flies) or tiny swarming flies (what we call blackflies up here)?

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Both. Places like the Escalante River have lots of horse and deer flies from about mid May to Mid July. There are also smaller gnats that bite. They aren't a problem in narrow canyons, but only in the river bottoms, such as along the Escalante River itself (there are many loops in the Escalante region where you can mostly avoid them. Wearing long pants mostly eliminate the bites from deer and horseflies since they tend to go for bare legs. The gnats like to get into your hair and bite.