Since the mid-1980s, I have tried to come south twice a year and see the most beautiful place in the world. I belonged to a medical practice that mandated 9 weeks of holidays per year. The Canadian hiking/climbing season is short – late June to September and our shoulder seasons are the best in the southwest USA. Winter is over, it isn’t hot yet, there are few bugs before June and the wildflowers peak in May. Late September through November are the prime fall months.
My most common companion was Ross, a Mr Smurf look-alike. We would leave home in southern BC and drive continuously arriving on a Friday night – Moab, Escalente, Page or Kanab were the larger towns where we stocked up on groceries. Both avid photographers, we were up well before dawn setting up for our morning shoot. We hiked a lot. Repeat for 13 days, drive home in 24 hours, go to work.
I had two sea kayaks and Rosco and I had three great boating adventures on Lake Powell, the Escalente, and the Green River.
On the trip south, I visited many natural areas in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. Trips were made to New Mexico, southern Arizona and southern California.
If the weather was bad in southern Utah, we would head west, walk the Vegas Strip for 4 hours and explore Death Valley, the White Mountains, and Yosemite
SOUTHWEST USA
Resources and A List of Hikes
COLORADO PLATEAU
This area is the uplift through which the Colorado River flows. It covers the SW corner of Colorado, NW New Mexico, South Utah and North Arizona. 300 canyons enter the Colorado River giving an almost endless variety of natural adventures, mainly hiking, kayaking and rafting.
The Anasazi (1000-1350 AD) left the area after a prolonged drought traveling through Chaco Canyon to be the forerunners of the Pueblos in New Mexico. They left an astonishing number of ruins and petroglyphs.
National Parks
Escalente Grand Staircase NM
Cedar Mesa
Paria
Coyote Buttes
Lake Powell