You pass so close to towering red rock canyons in southern Utah that you expect to hear scraping or see sparks as you glide by. They loom so dramatically over you that you stare without blinking. And if you’re on board the train Rocky Mountaineer, you have glass domed and sided coaches to take it all in, all of the majestic landscape on the Rockies to Red Rocks journey between Moab, Utah and Denver.
Beyond the 'Mighty 5': finding adventure in northern Utah
21.07.2023 - 08:07 / roughguides.com / Bryce Canyon
Splash. Chocolatey water surges up and over the windshield of our ATV. My guide, Dallin, peers at me through mud-splattered sunglasses. When he sees I’m laughing, he thrusts down the pedal and hurtles towards the next puddle. Gravel grinds beneath the wheels, and water crashes into the vehicle once more.
We’ve been racing through Wasatch Mountain State Park for about thirty minutes. Snow-glazed peaks rise from the valley below, flickering in and out of view as we snake between fir and spruce trees. As the trees dissolve, a sheer drop makes itself known. I dig my muddied fingernails further into my seat.
“Don’t worry – I’ve never turned one of these things over…” Dallin assures me, taking his eyes off the dirt track once more. I nod, appeased, and go back to drinking in the view.
This place, with its greener-than-green hills and fir-tree-coated mountains, appears almost Alpine at first glance. But a whirl of rust-coloured dust reminds me I’m in Utah.
Here, in Heber Valley, northern Utah, every turn defies my preconceptions of the state: as a place of only red rocks and ruggedness. Here, so the locals say, ‘Swiss meets West’. But despite the area’s crisp beauty, an hour has passed and we’ve yet to see another soul.
Tourists tend to rocket through this swathe of the state – or forget it altogether – heading north instead to Yellowstone, or south to Utah’s ‘Mighty 5’ national parks. And while large chunks of northern Utah remain under the radar, visitor numbers down south are taking a toll.
National Parks countrywide are sighing under the weight of ever more visitors – and Utah is no exception.
According to the National Park Service’s Jim Ireland, recreational visits to Utah’s 13 National Park units (including the ‘Mighty 5’: Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Zion and Capitol Reef) increased by more than 67 percent between 2013 and 2017.
Zion logged a record 4,491,125 visitors in 2017, making it the third most visited national park in the United States that year.
While large chunks of northern Utah remain under the radar, visitor numbers down south are taking a toll.
The reason for this, Ireland tells me later, is twofold. It’s to do with tourists’ fascination with the southwest, and the marketing surrounding the ‘Mighty 5’ – but also the fact that, population-wise, Utah is a fast-growing state. Locals residents, as well as tourists, spend ample time in these parks.
Utah
“Noise, dust, less visible wildlife, lines, crowds – collectively it degrades the very reason most people come to parks in the first place,” Ireland laments – but it’s something the organisation is working hard to manage.
“Zion, Arches and other Utah parks are in middle of significant planning efforts to address congestion and crowding,” he says.
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