Saddle up: Riding Utah's Red Rock Canyon trails

PANGUITCH, Garfield County — Zeus flipped his long, black mane like a million-dollar model and pranced for all he was worth. I smiled as I watched the other horses in our party dance down the dirt road leading to the Thunder Mountain Trail and call to each other.

"This is why we ride horses in the mountains," I thought to myself, "to be in a place too breathtaking to describe, with animals we can only communicate with through body language."

Riding a horse requires listening with all of your mind and heart. Trust, time, love and joy are the cornerstones of this relationship, and any attempt to cheat or cut corners will only undermine your own relationship and experience. I am relatively new to horse ownership, but I have discovered very quickly the lure of riding a horse in the mountains. No two rides are ever the same, even when you travel the same path. Every day it changes — new animals, new sounds and, my personal favorite, new smells — bless riders who venture into the mountains from the Wasatch Front to southern Utah.

That's why, despite my novice status aboard a horse that's much smarter than myself, I agreed to help Deseret News photographer Tom Smart with his desire to feature Utah's Red Canyon trails and campgrounds for our readers.

"Red Canyon is Utah's best-kept secret," said Rusty Rich, a 26-year-old native of the area whose family runs the Bryce Canyon Pines Motel and Red Canyon Trail Rides. (Brycecanyonmotel.com and redcanyontrailrides.com)

Red Canyon is located in the Dixie National Forest along Scenic Byway 12. It's about nine miles from Bryce Canyon and looks an awful lot like Bryce. In fact, Red Canyon is like a mini-Bryce nestled in the Dixie National Forest. This combination makes for some spectacular scenes.

Imagine wildflowers, three or four different types and colors, growing on a red rock ledge. A few hundred yards later, you're surrounded by Ponderosa pines, junipers and Douglas fir. Overhead is a clear, blue sky marred only by birds that draw your attention away from the trail up into the vastness of the beauty that surrounds you for hundreds of miles.

As we rode along the trails — of which there are about 50 miles for horses, mountain bikers and hikers — that dipped and climbed through Red Canyons' hills and cliffs, I had a hard time not repeating myself.

"Look at that!" I exclaimed, pointing out whatever it was that had pulled my attention to it this time. "Isn't that amazing!"

In some places, words really do fail a person.