Color Country

Color Country fills the southwestern corner of Utah, the high-desert and red-rock country between the Mojave to the west and the Colorado Plateau to the east. The landscape stacks dramatically — sandstone cliffs, slot canyons, and pinyon-juniper forest at lower elevations giving way to ponderosa and bristlecone pine on the high plateaus above 8,000 feet. Washington, Iron, Kane, Garfield, Beaver, and Piute counties cover the region, with St. George, Cedar City, and Kanab as the main hubs. Smaller anchors include Springdale (the gateway to Zion), Tropic, Bryce Canyon City, Boulder, Escalante, and Hurricane. Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Cedar Breaks National Monument, Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, and Snow Canyon State Park hold most of the public-land scenery. Trips here are park-driven and physically demanding. Zion handles the highest visitation and the most strenuous hiking; Bryce holds the most distinctive geology; the Grand Staircase rewards serious backcountry travelers willing to cover ground in four-wheel-drive. Most multi-park itineraries run six or seven days; tighter trips pick one park and stay nearby.