OUTDOORS
WATER SPORTS With images of stone arches and high desert vistas, it’s hard
to imagine all the opportunities visitors have to get out on the water. Yet Utah has thousands of surface-acres of boating waters – Lake Powell alone has more shoreline than the US Pacific Coast. Water recreation in Utah is as good as it gets – whether it’s the luxury of house boating, the thrill of rafting, the exhilaration of kayaking or just plain fishing, Utah is a place to get your oar, paddle or line wet.
Hovenweep National Monument UTAH STATE PARKS
When visiting Utah, it pays to take a step outside the beaten path to see one of Utah’s unique 43 State Parks. The sights and surroundings range from the serene turquoise waters of Bear Lake State Park, which supplies some of the best fishing in the state, to the red canyon views of Dead Horse Point State Park, which sits 2,000 feet
(610m) above the Colorado River. The
Edge of the Cedars State Park offers visitors a glimpse into an ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) village, which was likely occupied from AD1050 to AD1200. Or you can explore the sandy beaches of the Great Salt Lake at the Antelope Island State Park, where the bison and bighorn sheep roam free.
CANYONEERING The climate and geology of Utah
NIGHT SKY Utah encompasses 84,904 square miles of outstanding
natural beauty, yet has only 2.7 million people. Our night skies are famously dark, giving keen amateur and professional astronomers a wondrous view of the universe. The National Park Service found the skies in Natural Bridges National Monument area to be darker than anywhere else in North America. In 2010, it was designated the world’s first International Dark Sky Park. Bryce Canyon National Park has similarly spectacular star-filled panoramas and both provide ranger-led, night-sky programmes in the summer.
combine to make an extraordinary landscape of sweeping slickrock and wonderful canyons. Exploring these marvels of nature – called canyoneering – ranges from civilised strolls through terrain suitable for small children to technical explorations requiring ropes and wetsuits. Utah presents everything from lush, deep canyons in Zion National Park and dry, barren slots in the San Rafael Swell to sculpted canyons in the Grand Staircase Escalante-National Monument.
Canyoneering
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Westwatch Canyon (Moab)
Coral Pink Sand Dunes
UOT
Jacob W. Frank, Four Corners School Western River Adventures
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