Early November 3-4 day trip suggestions!

I live in the Bay Area and have done lots of trips in the late October/early November timeframe.

That's an optimal time to be in Grand Canyon. I can't recall how early the permits become available – 4 months in advance? 6? – but you'd want to snag them immediately. A downside is that flights to Flagstaff can be expensive; and it's a very long drive from the Bay Area. An alternative is to fly to Vegas (cheap), rent a car there (also cheap) and drive for several more hours.

For a shorter drive (from Vegas), SW Utah would be my recommendation. Zion is about 3-3.5 hours from Vegas if I remember correctly. Lots of good backpacking there. Drive a little further east, deeper into southern Utah, and the sky's the limit…For a good 3-4 day trip I'd probably target the Escalante River area. Buy a guidebook, pick a trek.

As you know, distances are really vast out here. With limited time you'll probably be happier with a decision to pick something relatively close to Vegas so that you can hike more, drive less.

Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, etc. also worth looking into. But they tend to be more expensive cities to fly to. And, with Las Vegas, you still would have to drive 2-5 hours from those cities to get to the best hiking anyway.

– Elizabeth

Thanks so much for the suggestions Elizabeth! Time to do some reading :)

Grand Canyon is great in early Nov. The north rim is closer to Vegas and an overall more enjoyable experience. It's possible road access could get snowed out in early Nov, but not likely. Grand Canyon backpacks off the North and South Kaibab are tough, and could be a poor fit depending on fitness levels.

Flying into SLC and driving down to Canyonlands or the Escalante is also a good possibility.

If you do look at Zion, the 47-mile Trans Zion hike. I did it two years ago. The linked guide makes it 4 nights, 5 days. I did it in 2 nights, 3 days because I like long days, and I skipped Angel’s Landing because I’m afraid of heights. A lot of varied scenery. You just either need two cars or to pay for a shuttle. I used these guys.

I did an overnight in Coyote Gulch outside Escalante this last spring, but if you do some research, there’s way to make it longer. The one thing about hikes out of Escalante is that the town itself isn’t much of a place, not like Kanab outside Zion or Moab. But that probably doesn’t matter much if it’s just a stopover.

Just be aware that if you like to drink, bring your own, because Utah has pretty restrictive alcohol sales laws. Licquor stores are few and far between, and beer can legally only be 4.2% ABV, at least for anything I found it a grocery store.