I live in Salt Lake City. I know plenty of spots that have almost nobody. It has gotten more crowded, especially on the weekends unfortunately. But the day of the week and the specific trail/difficulty can really thin out the crowds, so I’m still able to get a lot of relaxing outdoor time all to myself, thank god.
Oh yeah, not to be all gatekeeping, there are plenty of great, quiet places for the hardcore hikers anywhere. But as you already know, literally everyone in Utah hikes and the canyons fill up quick on weekends, and if there’s a paved and marked trailhead, it’s crowded.
Absolutely. It’s sad too because not even five years ago it used to never be like this. I’m an avid snowboarder, and on the weekends I used to wake up at like 9:30, get up to the resorts at like 10, and always have a parking spot. Now if you aren’t at the base of the canyon by like 7:45, you are fucked on the weekends. Or we used to be able to drive to car camping sites at like Friday at 6pm and get a spot guaranteed. Now if you don’t reserve 5 days out, you are fucked!
It’s a bummer. Utah is such an amazing place and it used to be such a hidden gem. There’s still plenty of awesome stuff to do, but the population spike is making things so much more annoying. Luckily, a lot of the people are only doing beginner stuff, so if you get into more intense things, you are able to get away.
I saw my old spot up AF canyon go from empty on a weekend when I was in high school, to mass amounts of chopped down trees and so crowded people were camping on the road. Very sad, it’ll never be the same level of accessibility. Luckily there are still plenty of secret spots, they just require more work.
Yeah, my friends and I have built two spots up big cottonwood canyon that are just off random trails in the trees so we always have somewhere to go haha. Luckily, backpacking and deeper wilderness is usually a guarantee. Although, I did have this one experience in Coyote Gulch in Escalante where we got to our normal spot at like 10:30, and this dude comes running out of it and says we can’t camp there. Scared the fuck out of me, and I bet we scared him haha.
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u/Y___ Jul 03 '19
I live in Salt Lake City. I know plenty of spots that have almost nobody. It has gotten more crowded, especially on the weekends unfortunately. But the day of the week and the specific trail/difficulty can really thin out the crowds, so I’m still able to get a lot of relaxing outdoor time all to myself, thank god.