4 day+ Trips

Hello, My name is Chris, This is my first post here on this site after looking around for a little while. I was hoping someone might have a few suggestions for my next trip.

Here in about a week my brother and I will be doing the Trans-Zion Trek from top to bottom, 5 days and 4 nights. I did everything except the east rim by myself last may and I just had to come back, this place was heaven. I love every minute of it.

So now im looking for someplace new. The things I like about Zion was the temperature. For the most part, it didnt dip below 55 at night. I dont get to buy a new sleeping bag until spring, so im stuck using the green bag out of the military issue sleep system. Im not a cold weather person anyway.

Ideally 4-6 days would be great leaning more towards the longer hikes. Nothing that feels like im on a stair stepper, lol. It gets old. And probably nothing with lots of heavy forest. I did some of White Mountains the year before and it was nothing but leaves in your face and endless steps.

I'm considering the grand canyon, although not sure where yet, and maybe Canyonlands, but i'm not sure if hike would be long enough. What I liked about Zion was that I had to carry my stuff and it was a fairly long distance, at least for me. I try to stay away from civilization as much as possible on these trips. I really prefer the distance traveled rather then a small distances. I need to feel like I actually went somewhere.

I am also thinking about doing Centennial Trail but prolly not til fall when it gets warmer.

I dont have a ton of expeience, I have a small amout of Ruck hiking in the military and I did one trip to Mt. McKinley (was suppose to be Washington), in the White Mountains, and we did another no name trail a year later, both of those were 1 night two days with me carrying nothing but military issued gear and ruck and my brother borrowing from his girlfriends sister lol.

Since then I've accumulated a ton of new gear, all good quality stuff, I spared no expense. With that I did that partial Trans-Zion Trek last May. And will be doing the whole trek here in about a week.

So..with all that being said. Anyone have any suggestions that might fill my criteria?

If you are going to do Zion area I would recommend doing the Barracks. Its a canyon on the east fork of the Zion river. Other than that I would ditch Zion for much better stuff close by like The Grand Staircase area. Doing a trip from Hw 12 down to Coyote Gulch along the Escalante river. There are a ton of side canyons to hike Like Choprock Canyon, Harris Walsh, Neon Canyon and tons of slot canyons. IMO it blows Zion away. Also near by is Buckskin Gulch, The Paria, Grand Gulch. Look up stuff for Grand Staircase and Cedar Mesa Area. Everything Zion has but very few people and very very remote and a whole lot prettier.

The best part of Canyonlands is The Maze and the Needles. Also Blue John canyon which is technically not in the Canyonlands but close by. Its where ol' boy chopped his arm off.

You need to be on top of your game with your map reading skills for a lot of those areas because of all the canyons

Are you looking for something in the Zion area? What geographic area are you most interested in?

If you are looking at a wide area, I would highly recommend Yosemite. Many different routes that would fit your criteria, amazing scenery, lots of remote locations while still being supported by NPS infrastructure, and many many trailheads and bailout points to look into. Especially if you focus on the stuff east of Yosemite Valley (Vogelsaang, Merced, Tuoulumne Meadows, etc.)

I was looking into yosemite but i didnt get very far. It seemed like the weather was questionable and it got very cold at night. I dont have any real cold weather gear yet. I would really love to do part of the John Muir, I just dont know if i can bring myself to hike in such a cold climate.

I really enjoyed Zion, and as todd mentioned there are many other places in that area. Im still looking for actual trails though, while I do have a little training in LanNav, I do quite poorly with terrian association and distance gauging. I would not venture out to unknown areas without doing a few trips with someone that can teach me properly.

You should look at should look at the Sawtooth wilderness in Idaho. There are some great loops there. 20 miles or less. https://thebigoutside.com/ask-me-what-are-the-best-hikes-in-idahos-sawtooths/.

The weather won't get any better than it is in late August in Yosemite...

"Cold weather gear," in most cases, is just a case of adding another insulation layer or two (plus warm hat and gloves) to what you already have. Since you live in Iowa, you undoubtedly already have what you need in your closet! You can greatly increase the warmth of a sleeping bag by wearing warm clothing inside.

Look for local classes in map-and-compass navigation to get started on that important skill. You may be able to find orienteering groups in your neighborhood, which will combine the skills you need with fun for the whole family.

We hiked Yosemite in July of last year, and the weather was perfect. It got up in the high 70s/low 80s during the day and was 40-50 degrees at night (perfect sleeping weather!). I'm personally not a fan of camping when it's too warm at night, and anything warmer than 55 degrees makes me sweat inside my sleeping bag. I slept in shorts and a tshirt inside my bag during the Yosemite trip and was extremely comfortable.

This is a beautiful multi day trip of one of the canyons of the Escalante not far from Zion. Personally my favorite. Death hollow http://www.perpetualweekend.com/2012/10/box-death-canyon-wilderness-backpacking/

As you guys mention, Im from Iowa. And part of living here is that its pretty much flat and featureless. I have already looked for classes around here and even if there were they wouldnt be able to assist me with the training i need.

Your right I do have a lot of cold weather gear, its all work related since I work outside. Its very heavy. My pack is already 45lbs with full water. A new sleeping back will help that a lot, and I get use to carrying less clothing.

That Escalante trip looked cool, I'll have to look into that one. I was gonna do the Barracks in may, but I chickened out since the water was so cold and I read that the exit can be hard to find, non of the rangers even heard of the trail lol.

The temps in Yosemite are extremely reasonable, whereabouts was that hike? how long was it? Personally, John Muir is my long term goal, its just gonna take some working up to it.

Coming from the equally flat terrain of Central Illinois, I would throw out a caution about transitioning from hiking on flat ground to hiking on sloped ground. I walk a lot, but on two occasions, when I took off up and down slope, I had a lot of trouble with my feet. From what I know now, I think that it was achilles tendinitis. This happened once in the smokies, when I walked up to Low Gap and back, a distance of about five miles and couldn't walk for three days. The other time was in Canyonlands. Same thing, but not as intense. I didn't realize what was happening until the damage was done. I still don't know how to prevent this, but I think that the most important thing is to take it easy going up or down hill until you feel comfortable with your feet.

The route we took in Yosemite was Rafferty Creek to Merced Lake to Sunrise Lake to Cloud's Rest to Tenaya Lake. I believe it was around 42 miles total. There are many variations of that route, that's the one we chose because that was the permit we could get. The elevation change will be the toughest thing for you, so just plan accordingly.