Published November 2, 2026 08:44AM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
I just wanted one<\/i> picture of my son without a sea of people in the background. We were hiking The Narrows in Zion National Park, a bucket-list adventure that has you wading for miles through knee-deep water in the belly of a canyon. It\u2019s awesome. It\u2019s also crowded. And getting a photo to commemorate the adventure without a bunch of strangers in it was proving to be difficult.<\/p>\n
Crowds are simply a fact of life when it comes to visiting Zion, which has skyrocketed in popularity over the last 20 years, doubling its visitation rates from 2.5 million in 2005 to almost five million in 2025. That\u2019s a lot of people to squeeze into Zion\u2019s 146,597 acres, so you\u2019re going to have company on your hike.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, there\u2019s an alternative nearby. Red Cliffs National Conservation Area is less than an hour west of Zion National Park with a desert landscape that\u2019s just as stunning but only attracts a fraction of the crowds.<\/p>\n Red Cliffs National Conservation Area<\/a> is about 45,000 acres, which is less than a third of the size of Zion. But the smaller size is a bonus here. Since you won\u2019t have to navigate mandatory shuttles or shift your plans to avoid crowds, the compact size of the park allows you to knock out a variety of adventures in a short amount of time. And there is an amazing variety of adventures inside Red Cliffs, which is packed with sandstone cliffs, slot canyons, and miles of slickrock, all of which are traversed by more than 100 miles of developed trails. The area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, so don\u2019t expect visitor centers or rangers on hand. This is a raw desert landscape that\u2019s set aside for you to explore on your own.<\/p>\n Once you get inside the conservation area, keep your eyes out for some unique wildlife, most notably Gila monsters and a rare species of desert tortoise. I spent two days exploring Red Cliffs with my son during a recent trip to southern Utah, and it made me want to go back for more.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a first-timer\u2019s guide to exploring Red Cliffs National Conservation Area.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re only going to do one trail in Red Cliffs, this is it. And I\u2019m using the word \u201ctrail\u201d loosely here. Sometimes called the Red Cliffs Nature Trail, Red Reef<\/a> does in fact start out as a mild walk through a picnic area, but quickly gets interesting as it delivers you into the heart of a slot canyon. The three-mile out-and-back is more of a choose-your-own-adventure as you move across the sandy desert floor into a slickrock canyon that gets increasingly narrow as you move deeper into its belly. There\u2019s some light scrambling involved, with one fixed rope that you\u2019ll need to use to get around a small waterfall. And be prepared to get wet; there are a few pockets of deep water in the narrowest channels that were up to my chest. You can turn around if it gets too deep, though.<\/p>\n The rock outcroppings just outside of the canyon are also fun to scramble and explore after you\u2019ve navigated to the end of the canyon. It\u2019s an ideal slot canyon experience for first-time canyoners, and you\u2019ll probably have it all to yourself once you climb past that first waterfall.<\/p>\n Moab is known as ground zero for slickrock, but the town doesn\u2019t hold a monopoly on the grippy rock surface. This 7.5-mile loop <\/a>is mostly slickrock with the occasional singletrack connector. The loop has steep climbs, the occasional sandy wash, and plenty of long-range views of the surrounding sandstone cliffs. Keep an eye out for prehistoric dinosaur tracks\u2014along Dino Cliffs Trail you\u2019ll find 17 well-preserved tracks left by meat-eating theropods during the Jurassic period.<\/p>\n Snow Canyon State Park is its own pocket destination with 7,400 acres of cliffs, petrified dunes and black lava rock, located within the larger Red Cliffs Desert Reserve. The majority of the trails are short, making the park the perfect one-day adventure. You\u2019re going to want to hit the Petrified Sand Dunes Trail<\/a>, which traverses rolling humps of hardened sandstone. It\u2019s a 1.2-mile out-and-back, but you can spend some time exploring this wild beach of petrified sand.<\/p>\n Just be sure you leave yourself enough time to explore the Lava Flow Trail,<\/a> a one-mile out-and-back that traverses a black lava flow that cuts through the center of the park. You\u2019ll get views of the surrounding tan cliffs as you hike, but the real joy of this trail is ducking into the three lava tubes, a couple of which you can scramble into and spend some time poking around beneath the surface of the desert floor (bring a headlamp).<\/p>\n Red Cliffs even has an arch. It\u2019s not a particularly large arch\u2014just 10 feet wide and eight feet tall\u2014but it\u2019s tucked into a beautiful expanse of sandstone outcroppings hovering above the Virgin River. Combine a series of trails<\/a> from the Sand Cove trailhead for a 2.2-mile out-and-back that traverses sandy singletrack, slickrock, and a steep sand dune to reach the arch. There\u2019s also a side trail that leads down to the Virgin River if you want to take a dip. Like most trails in Red Cliffs, it\u2019s as much fun to explore the rock formations surrounding the path as it is to hike to the destination.<\/p>\n Red Cliffs has portions of two federally designated Wilderness areas within its borders. The standout of the two is Red Mountain Wilderness, an 18,700-acre slice of desert that sits just north of Snow Canyon State Park. The Red Mountain Trail <\/a>is a 12.8-mile out-and-back that traverses the wilderness with a trailhead that\u2019s just off of Highway 18. No need to hike the full trail though; knock out the first 2.3 miles and you\u2019ll climb from a sandy desert with sagebrush and pinyon pines into the sandstone outcroppings where Red Mountain Overlook delivers an amazing view of Snow Canyon and the St. George valley below.<\/p>\n Red Cliffs has two campgrounds, the developed Red Cliffs Campground<\/a>, which has 11 sites with shade structures that will put you within walking distance of the Red Reef Trail ($15 per night, reservations available six months in advance) and the tougher-to-reach Sand Cove Campground, a primitive, backcountry group campground with room for 20 people that\u2019s only accessible by 4WD vehicle (free, but permit<\/a> required).<\/p>\n If you camp at Sand Cove, you\u2019ll have immediate access to the one-mile out-and-back\u00a0Anasazi Valley Trail (or Tempi\u2019po\u2019op Trail), which leads to well-preserved ruins of the Puebloans that once called this area home.<\/p>\n Entrance Fee:<\/b> $5 daily fee per car<\/p>\n Beer:<\/b> The town of St. George is just 15 minutes away so post-adventure beers and food are readily available. Silver Reef Brewing Co.<\/a>\u00a0is known for its barrel-aged beers, which might not be what you\u2019re looking for after a day in the desert, but they have great lagers too, as well as a kitchen pumping out pizzas and wings.<\/p>\n Best Season:<\/b> Fall through spring for mild temperatures.<\/p>\n Graham Averill is Outside magazine\u2019s national parks columnist. He doesn\u2019t mind a crowd, but understands the value of standing in the middle of the desert all alone.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\nHike Red Reef Trail<\/h2>\n
Mountain Bike the Church Rock and Dino Cliffs Loop<\/h2>\n
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Hike Snow Canyon<\/h2>\n
Hike to Babylon Arch<\/h2>\n
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Get Way Out<\/h2>\n
Pitch a Tent<\/h2>\n
Logistics<\/h2>\n