ST. GEORGE — Utah offers numerous waterfall adventures, and an author is releasing an information guidebook naming the best hikes in June.

“Hiking Waterfalls Utah: A Guide to the State’s Best Waterfall Hikes” by Stewart M. Green combines stunning photography with facts and locations. It’s user-friendly for all experience levels.

Green has written books for FalconGuides since 1985 and spends many hours researching in the field. He also takes his role as an author seriously.

“I’ve written a lot of books for Falcon and we talk about our responsibilities as guidebook authors not to overcrowd areas,” Green said. “So some of the criteria I use to select some of the waterfalls I put in the book: is there adequate parking at the trailhead so people don’t have to go across private property and are there actually trails to the waterfall because we don’t want to send people off traipsing across the country and damaging the environment, animal habitats and ecosystems.”

Green added that the hikes in the book have trails leading to them. While this eliminates some good waterfalls in Utah, he felt sending people to places without trails wasn’t responsible.

The book notes that waterfalls are some of the most coveted hiking destinations in every state. Still, Utah’s diverse terrain makes for spectacular water attractions. Throughout Utah, waterfalls tumble down high mountain peaks, rush through desert slot canyons and plunge off cliffs.

Green said his guide covers everything readers need to tackle Utah’s 45 best waterfall hikes. He originally had chosen 60 waterfalls but condensed the list down to 45. The publication includes custom maps, concise trail descriptions, turn-by-turn trail directions, and detailed information on trailhead access and area amenities.

Green visits Utah often from his home base in Colorado where he grew up hiking.

“The thing is about Utah, there’s a lot of waterfalls, but most of them aren’t named. And a lot of them people don’t know about unless you’re a local,” Green said. “I was able to pick out hikes appropriate for a wide range of abilities from easy, easy hikes to more difficult ones. There are no really difficult, challenging, long hikes in the book, though.”

The challenge of including some of the Southern Utah waterfalls is that due to the desert country, many of the waterfalls are seasonal. Green said that some of these waterfalls only run in the spring when the snow melts in the higher elevations or after heavy thunderstorms in the summer. He said Zion National Park and Gunlock Falls are examples of that.

“Most of the waterfalls there in Southern Utah that are easily accessible can dry up in the summer when it gets hot,” Green said. “That was another criterion I used: is the waterfall seasonal, or is it fed by a perennial stream? So, at least you have some flow most of the year.”

One of Green’s favorite waterfall hikes in the summer is Hidden Haven Falls by Parowan, north of Cedar City. He said it’s on some state wildlife land and a short hike to get to, but flows are low in the summer.

Another waterfall hike he recommends is Camp Creek Falls, just south of Kanaraville. Green said it’s in the northwest corner of Zion National Park and easy to get to from Interstate 15.

“That waterfall is about 80 feet high and plunges off a cliff edge,” Green said. “It dries up sometimes in the summer. The first time I went there a few years back, it was dry. Last summer, it was running even in August; there was water flowing in it, and it’s easy to get to.”

Green reminds hikers to wear sneakers or low-heeled hiking shoes when attempting to hike waterfalls. He prefers sandals in case of wading in or crossing a creek.

“There is one hike east of Moab up Professor Creek to Professor Creek Falls, which is a gorgeous little waterfall in a slot canyon. And you probably crossed the creek 50 times,” Green said.

In “Hiking Waterfalls Utah: A Guide to the State’s Best Waterfall Hikes,” Green also recommends taking a GPS unit on hikes. He has waypoints for all the critical junctions, the trailhead and the waterfall. He said one can plug in the waypoints into a GPS unit to stay on course and find the waterfall.

However, Green cautioned hikers to pack a map and compass because sometimes a GPS unit runs out of power, and one may not have extra batteries.

“Map reading is one of the things every hiker who’s serious needs to learn how to use a map and compass because while GPS’s are fabulous modern tools that we use, they do have technological problems sometimes like loss of battery power. So that’s important, and sometimes I carry one of those spot transceivers,” Green said.

Green noted that a GPS transceiver can give your loved ones peace of mind by letting them know where you are and helping them locate you in an emergency.

“If you had an accident or got trapped by a flash flood or whatever might happen, then that’s an important thing to carry these days and they work really good,” he said.

One danger in Southern Utah is the summer flash flooding risk. For example, Green noted that part of Sulphur Creek Narrows and Capital Reef National Park is a slot canyon for quite a ways.

Green recommends if in a national park, go to the visitor center and ask what the weather forecast is. He said it’s wise always to have a strategy if hiking in slot canyons: know where you can exit or get to higher ground above the canyon floor.

In the guidebook, Green also covers waterfalls in Northern Utah in the Wasatch Range.

“You have high mountains that get pounded with snow in the winter, feet and feet of snow, and all that melts through the summer. So the waterfalls are really kicking by June; it’s major waterfall season up in the Wasatch,” Green said.

Some of his favorite Northern Utah waterfall hikes include the backside of Mount Timbinagus near Provo, which can flow into late summer and Davis Creek which is south of Ogden.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2024, all rights reserved.