Top 5 day hikes in Utah, one from each of the Mighty 5

The hike opens with a mile of paved sidewalk, the Riverside Walk, and then that sidewalk ends at a set of steps down into the Virgin River. From there the river is the trail. The Park Service says at least 60 percent of the day is spent wading, walking and sometimes swimming.

The walls close in as you go, up to 1,000 feet tall with the river sometimes only 20 to 30 feet wide between them. There's no summit and no turnaround you have to reach. An hour upstream and back is a real outing. NPS puts the whole thing at anywhere from one to eight hours.

Going as far as Big Spring makes it an all-day hike, and you don't need a permit below that point. The park's bottom-up page calls that 9.4 miles out and back; its main Narrows page rounds the same trip to ten. Either way it is the full day, not the half.

Water temperature is what actually decides your day. NPS gives 56 to 68°F in summer, 41 to 53°F in spring and fall, and 38 to 45°F in winter. That's why neoprene socks and bibs start showing up on the shuttle in October, and why the park calls hypothermia the number one killer of outdoor recreationists, even in summer.

Wear closed-toe shoes and carry a stick. The park says flatly that sandals, crocs and bare feet aren't appropriate here, and the streambed is round cobbles you can't see through moving water.

Capitol Reef is the park people skip, and what they're skipping is the Waterpocket Fold, which NPS calls a nearly 100-mile warp in the earth's crust. What that looks like on the ground: pale domes of sandstone sitting on top of red cliffs, running out of sight in both directions.

Cassidy Arch is the best short day out in the park. NPS lists it at 1.7 miles each way with 670 feet of elevation change and rates it strenuous. On a hike that short, strenuous means steep. The trail leaves the floor of Grand Wash, climbs the canyon wall and comes out on the slickrock bench above it.

It's worth the drive because the trail finishes on top of the arch instead of underneath it. There's no railing and no fence. If exposure isn't your thing, the approach along the bench gives you most of the view without the last few yards.

Getting to the trailhead means driving Grand Wash Road, a dirt spur off the paved Scenic Drive. NPS says the spur roads take any passenger vehicle and RVs up to 23 feet, weather permitting. In a wash, weather permitting means what it sounds like it means.

If you want a bigger day here instead, Navajo Knobs is 4.7 miles each way with 1,620 feet of climb and a 360-degree view at the end of it.

The Needles is the district of Canyonlands most people drive past. The Green and Colorado split the park into separate districts and no road inside it crosses them, so each one is reached on its own road from outside. The park's routing here is US 191 south 40 miles from Moab, or 14 miles north of Monticello, then UT 211 west for roughly 35 miles.

What the drive buys you is over 60 miles of interconnecting trail, plus one very odd mile in the middle of it. The Joint Trail threads a set of vertical fractures in the sandstone, corridors a few feet wide with the sky a bright line a long way overhead, and it comes out into a grassy park ringed by the banded spires the district is named for.

The full loop through Chesler Park with the Joint Trail is 10.7 miles. NPS calls that five to seven hours and rates it strenuous. A lot of it is slickrock with cairns instead of a cut tread, so carry a map. The park's warning about GPS is aimed at the drive in, where it says units frequently lead people astray.

There's no water anywhere on the route. Canyonlands' guidance is up to a gallon per person for a long trail in these parks, and on a warm day you'll drink it.