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By Root 735 0

time, Arches National Park, 142 miles northeast, captures a snapshot. Almost all of the rock you see here is entrada sandstone, a muddy-to-orangish-red stone laid down during the Jurassic period. The namesake arches formed when salt pockets raised up the earth and water erosion tore it down. Freeze-and-thaw continues to slough off rock, creating arches (which will all eventually collapse). Book ahead for a Fiery Furnace guided hike, so you can explore the maze of spectacularly narrow fissures and giant fins that are the first step in arch formation.

The king of all named park features is Delicate Arch. You’ve seen this one: it’s the unofficial state symbol and is pictured on just about every piece of Utah tourist literature ever printed. The 3-mile round-trip trail to it ascends slickrock, culminating in a wall-hugging ledge. If you’ve filled up on the homemade scones and jam for breakfast at the lovely Sunflower Hill B&B where you’re staying, you may not need it. But you could bring a picnic lunch, ditch the crowds by passing beneath the arch and drop down to enjoy it on the other side several yards away.

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DETOUR

A Salvador Dali–like rock fantasy, a field of giant stone mushrooms or an acid trip the creator went on? You decide what the stadium-like valley of stunted hoodoos resembles. We think the 3654-acre Goblin Valley State Park (www.stateparks.utah.gov), 58 miles northeast of Capitol Reef, looks like a big playground. Follow the trail down from the overlooks, then you’re allowed to climb down, around, even over, the evocative ‘goblins’ (2ft- to 20ft-tall rock formations). Detour west off Hwy 24 along a signed, paved road 12 miles to the entrance.

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Your sizable base town, Moab, 5 miles south of the park, is a good place for stocking up on everything. It’s also ideally located to reach several other parks as day trips. In the morning you’re off to see one of the Canyonlands National Park sections, but first stop on the way in to Dead Horse Point State Park, where the views pack a wallop. Peer down 2000ft to the Colorado River and 100 miles across a mesmerizing stair-step red-rock landscape. (You might remember this epic vista from the final scene in Thelma & Louise.) Legend has it that cowboys blockaded the mesa to corral wild horses, and that they forgot to release them upon leaving. The stranded equines died within view of the unreachable water below, hence the name.

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JUMP OFF A CLIFF

Hiking into a slot canyon so slender you have to turn sideways and rappelling down a cliff face (or climbing up one) are just a few of the adventures available in southern Utah. Unless you’re an expert, you’ll need a guide. Outfitters are found in pretty much every town adjacent to a park. In Springdale, contact Zion Adventure Company (www.zionadventures.com), in Escalante, Excursions of Escalante (www.excursions-escalante.com), and in Moab, the Moab Adventure Center (www.moabadventurecenter.com).

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Ten miles further on (30 northwest of Moab) lies Canyonlands National Park – Islands in the Sky District. Think of this as the overview section of Canyonlands, a RVer’s special, with paved drives and easy-access lookouts. Here vast serpentine canyons tipped with white cliffs loom high over the Colorado and Green Rivers, their waters 1000ft below the rim at Islands in the Sky.

For the more adventurous, Canyonlands National Park – Needles District, 75 miles south of Moab, is where you can hike down in and among the skyward-jutting spindles and spires, blue-hued mesas and majestic buttes. Trek the awesome 11-mile Chesler Park Loop through desert grasslands, past towering red-and-white-striped pinnacles and between deep and narrow fractures (some only 2ft across). Elevation changes are mild, but the distance makes it a moderate-to-difficult day hike. Don’t forget to stop on the way back to Moab to see the hundreds of petroglyphs at the Newspaper Rock Recreation Site. Note that the impressive panel of horse and human etchings photographs better in the late-afternoon sidelight.

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