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Edward Abbey was an important environmentalist and advocate for the wild places in the state of Utah. He spent several of his formative years working in the national parks of our state and saw firsthand its beauty. In his writing, in books like the Monkey Wrench Gang and Desert Solitaire, he spoke of the need to protect Utah's wildlands and places. His teachings and radical influence have sparked movements that long outlived him and helped protect some of the wild spaces of Utah over the years. In the world of environmental writing and thinking, he is as influential as Henry David Thoreau and John Muir. He passed away in 1989 at the age of 62. His Spirit lives on in all those Utahns who work to protect our natural spaces from economic development and the encroachment of industry.

It's been described as mysterious, majestic, weird, wonderful, and downright "Martian." Goblin Valley State Park is a Utah favorite for a reason—and now, it's growing. In a historic ceremony hosted on Friday, June 17, 2022, the Bureau of Land Management conveyed over 6,300 acres of federal public land to the Utah Division of State Parks, which will be used to expand Goblin Valley State Park.

The official Utah Travel Guide, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

It's been described as mysterious, majestic, weird, wonderful, and downright "Martian." Goblin Valley State Park is a Utah favorite for a reason—and now, it's growing. In a historic ceremony hosted on Friday, June 17, 2022, the Bureau of Land Management conveyed over 6,300 acres of federal public land to the Utah Division of State Parks, which will be used to expand Goblin Valley State Park.

The official Utah Travel Guide, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

Whether you’re looking for easy entry into the world of dark skies (aka astrotourism), want to discover a new or different spot, or you want to go off the beaten path, Utah offers the most options for your stargazing adventure.

The official Utah Travel Guide, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

Whether you’re looking for easy entry into the world of dark skies (aka astrotourism), want to discover a new or different spot, or you want to go off the beaten path, Utah offers the most options for your stargazing adventure.

The official Utah Travel Guide, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

The purpose of this report is to provide a high-level review of the trends that define outdoor recreation within Utah. We do this by distilling data from a variety of sources, focusing on 'key metrics' that can be tracked over time, serving as a finger on the pulse on the health of outdoor recreation within Utah. Data on outdoor recreation participation and its benefits and impacts varies considerably across the state depending upon the managing agency collecting the data. This report focuses on statewide data available for outdoor recreation opportunities provided on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Forest Service, and Utah State Parks. We highlight data unique to administrative units (e.g., national parks or forests) where applicable. The report focuses on four sets of key metrics: 1) Participation; 2) Economics; 3) Infrastructure; and 4) Gateway and Natural Amenity Region (GNAR) communities.

Official wilderness guide for visiting Zion National Park.

The official Utah Travel Guide in German, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

The official Utah Travel Guide in Chinese, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

A high-level review of the trends that define outdoor recreation in the state.

The purpose of this report is to provide a high-level review of the trends that define outdoor recreation within Utah. We do this by distilling data from a variety of sources, focusing on 'key metrics' that can be tracked over time, serving as a finger on the pulse on the health of outdoor recreation within Utah. Data on outdoor recreation participation and its benefits and impacts varies considerably across the state depending upon the managing agency collecting the data. This report focuses on statewide data available for outdoor recreation opportunities provided on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Forest Service, and Utah State Parks. We highlight data unique to administrative units (e.g., national parks or forests) where applicable. The report focuses on four sets of key metrics: 1) Participation; 2) Economics; 3) Infrastructure; and 4) Gateway and Natural Amenity Region (GNAR) communities.

Official wilderness guide for visiting Zion National Park.

The official Utah Travel Guide in German, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

The official Utah Travel Guide in Chinese, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

Sight and sounds of everyday lives of those living in San Juan County. Utah's Canyon Country.

Exploring is an innate part of being human. We invite you to come explore Utah’s Canyon Country through your senses of touch, sound, breathe, sight; all year long. Take your time, and Make It Monumental.

Exploring is an innate part of being human. We invite you to come explore Utah’s Canyon Country through your senses of touch, sound, breathe, sight; all year long. Take your time, and Make It Monumental.

Social media has been increasingly to to understand visitors to parks and protected areas. Park managers have started to tap into this data to better understand things about their visitors. So they're looking at questions such as how much visitation is there to the park, where within the park do visitors go or what times a year do people visit.

The official Utah Travel Guide in Japanese, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

Hiring a guide to explore Utah's canyons allows travelers to experience the wilderness in a safe and fun way. It's important to visit these places with respect and be mindful of how you travel the area–knowing what hazards to be aware of. Christopher Hagedorn has been exploring Robbers Roost for years and can give visitors the proper preparation for a life-changing, off the beaten path adventure.

Hiring a guide to explore Utah's canyons allows travelers to experience the wilderness in a safe and fun way. It's important to visit these places with respect and be mindful of how you travel the area–knowing what hazards to be aware of. Christopher Hagedorn has been exploring Robbers Roost for years and can give visitors the proper preparation for a life-changing, off the beaten path adventure.

It's said that Southern Utah offers the highest concentration of slot canyons in the world. Well-prepared visitors can hike right into some of them, but the best experience is with a guide. In the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Nick Smith of Detours Adventures shows how to safely and respectfully visit these stunning but fragile landscapes.

The official Utah Travel Guide for travelers from Australia and New Zealand, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

The official Utah Travel Guide for British travelers, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

The official Utah Travel Guide in Dutch, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

The official Utah Travel Guide in Japanese, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

The official Utah Travel Guide in French, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

When traveling to Robbers Roost in South Central Utah, you experience the protection of solitude. The vast red rock wilderness carved by wind, water, and time has left a primitive maze of canyons that offer unique opportunities for visitors to disconnect with modern-day hustle and reconnect with nature. Local guide Christopher Hagedorn believes a visit here is very therapeutic, and that each of us who visit this area has a different way of transcending beyond ourselves.

When traveling to Robbers Roost in South Central Utah, you experience the protection of solitude. The vast red rock wilderness carved by wind, water, and time has left a primitive maze of canyons that offer unique opportunities for visitors to disconnect with modern-day hustle and reconnect with nature. Local guide Christopher Hagedorn believes a visit here is very therapeutic, and that each of us who visit this area has a different way of transcending beyond ourselves.

The 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, Article 8(j) in particular, requires its parties to “respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of Indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles.” In Finland, these requirements are, to some extent, fulfilled through application of the Akwé: Kon Voluntary Guidelines, a protocol developed by the CBD for cultural, environmental, and social impact assessment to be applied in regions inhabited or used by Indigenous peoples. However, although the Akwé: Kon Guidelines have been in use for several years, studies addressing their practical application are scarce. We set out to examine the use of the Akwé: Kon Guidelines, inclusion of traditional and local knowledge (TLK), as well as the related improvements and challenges in land use planning in the Municipality of Eanodat in Finnish Sápmi. We conducted key-informant interviews with local Sámi experts and local land use planning officials and examined recent land use and management plans for wilderness and conservation areas. Regarding the incorporation of TLK into land use planning, officials identified practical challenges, such as a mismatch between the oral narrative nature of TLK and the planning systems currently in use, and pointed to a need to make TLK more spatially explicit. The concerns of the Sámi were deeply tied to the survival of their culture and traditional livelihoods, reindeer herding in particular. The Sámi informants were unanimous about the need to amend the Reindeer Husbandry Act (848/1990), to better recognize the traditional Sámi ways of herding and knowledge embedded in it. Having strengthened the opportunities of the Sámi to participate in management planning, application of the Akwé: Kon Guidelines is a much welcome development. However, because of the voluntary nature of the Guidelines, their power may be limited in the current situation, where Sámi herders’ rights are not settled in national legis

The official Utah Travel Guide for British travelers, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

The official Utah Travel Guide for travelers from Australia and New Zealand, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

The official Utah Travel Guide in French, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

The official Utah Travel Guide in Dutch, which is filled with Utah information for those who want to visit The Mighty 5® national parks, ski resorts, the urban Wasatch Front, and all the scenic drives and towns in between.

When traveling to Robbers Roost in South Central Utah, you experience the protection of solitude. The vast red rock wilderness carved by wind, water, and time has left a primitive maze of canyons that offer unique opportunities for visitors to disconnect with modern-day hustle and reconnect with nature. Local guide Christopher Hagedorn believes a visit here is very therapeutic, and that each of us who visit this area has a different way of transcending beyond ourselves.

Hiring a guide to explore Utah's canyons allows travelers to experience the wilderness in a safe and fun way. It's important to visit these places with respect and be mindful of how you travel the area–knowing what hazards to be aware of. Christopher Hagedorn has been exploring Robbers Roost for years and can give visitors the proper preparation for a life-changing, off the beaten path adventure.

Hiring a guide to explore Utah's canyons allows travelers to experience the wilderness in a safe and fun way. It's important to visit these places with respect and be mindful of how you travel the area–knowing what hazards to be aware of. Christopher Hagedorn has been exploring Robbers Roost for years and can give visitors the proper preparation for a life-changing, off the beaten path adventure.

It's said that Southern Utah offers the highest concentration of slot canyons in the world. Well-prepared visitors can hike right into some of them, but the best experience is with a guide. In the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Nick Smith of Detours Adventures shows how to safely and respectfully visit these stunning but fragile landscapes.

When traveling to Robbers Roost in South Central Utah, you experience the protection of solitude. The vast red rock wilderness carved by wind, water, and time has left a primitive maze of canyons that offer unique opportunities for visitors to disconnect with modern-day hustle and reconnect with nature. Local guide Christopher Hagedorn believes a visit here is very therapeutic, and that each of us who visit this area has a different way of transcending beyond ourselves.

The Dark Canyon Wilderness is a unique forested pocket tucked into the heart of southeast Utah's wild canyon country. The Dark Canyon Wilderness, designated by Congress in 1984, is a spectacular and remote desert canyon wilderness covering over 47,000 acres in the Manti-La Sal National Forest. The only designated Wilderness in southeastern Utah, the greater area of the Dark Canyon complex is rich in biological, geological, archaeological, and historical significance, and is also one of the most colorful canyon systems on the Colorado Plateau. Dark Canyon begins on Elk Ridge at an elevation of 8,800 feet then cuts through Cedar Mesa sandstone formations dramatically framed amidst a forest of ponderosa pine on its 5,000-foot descent to the Colorado River. Steep, sculpted and terraced sandstone walls shade the canyon in morning and late afternoon -- hence the name. Dark Canyon was the ancestral home of Puebloan peoples for 5,000 years. Ancestral Puebloan structures and rock art are tucked among the cliffs. (Please leave these treasures undisturbed for others to experience.) WARNING: Water is scarce -- check with Forest Service offices for current availability. Forest Service video by Charity Parks.

The Dark Canyon Wilderness is a unique forested pocket tucked into the heart of southeast Utah's wild canyon country. The Dark Canyon Wilderness, designated by Congress in 1984, is a spectacular and remote desert canyon wilderness covering over 47,000 acres in the Manti-La Sal National Forest. The only designated Wilderness in southeastern Utah, the greater area of the Dark Canyon complex is rich in biological, geological, archaeological, and historical significance, and is also one of the most colorful canyon systems on the Colorado Plateau. Dark Canyon begins on Elk Ridge at an elevation of 8,800 feet then cuts through Cedar Mesa sandstone formations dramatically framed amidst a forest of ponderosa pine on its 5,000-foot descent to the Colorado River. Steep, sculpted and terraced sandstone walls shade the canyon in morning and late afternoon -- hence the name. Dark Canyon was the ancestral home of Puebloan peoples for 5,000 years. Ancestral Puebloan structures and rock art are tucked among the cliffs. (Please leave these treasures undisturbed for others to experience.) WARNING: Water is scarce -- check with Forest Service offices for current availability. Forest Service video by Charity Parks.

The 2017 Utah travel guide is your tool for discovering the land, the seasons, the heritage, the culture and the adventure you'll find throughout this amazing state.

A wilderness volunteer group does trail maintenance on a scenic hiking trail that winds through Dark Canyon, Horse Pasture Trail, Utah. The volunteer group backpacked between 4-5 miles into the wilderness, set up camp for the week, and then hiked to the work project each day. The Dark Canyon Wilderness is a unique forested pocket tucked into the heart of southeast Utah's wild canyon country.

The Elk Ridge area on Monticello Ranger District of the Manti-La Sal National Forest. The high aspen and pine covered mesas known as Elk Ridge, this area consists of a high relatively narrow mesa that is dissected by tortuous canyons cut deeply in the surrounding Cedar Mesa sandstone, which provided ideal locations for groups of Native Americans to live , farm and hunt.

This amazing tracksite features over 200 different tracks representing seven different species. In this video, BLM paleontologist ReBecca Hunt-Foster explains how to find more information on dinosaur sites, and Natalie shares how to "Respect and Protect" these resources.