Jeff Alt has some hiking-with-kids credentials: He walked a 50-mile path in Ireland with his wife, young daughter and extended family, and took his son on his first hike at age 8 weeks.

The Cincinnati-based hiking expert, who has also walked the 2,160-mile Appalachian Trail and the 218-mile John Muir trail, has a new book coming out called “Get Your Kids Hiking! How to Start Them Young and Keep it Fun.”

Here is some of his advice:

• Make hiking a routine your kids will look forward to, starting as young as you feel comfortable with baby carriers.

• P...

Two women were airlifted off Mount Timpanogos on Monday — not for injuries or exposure, but for apparent alcohol poisoning.

They were part of a group of four hikers, ages 21 to 23, who had been drinking and decided about a half-mile from Aspen Grove they were too impaired to make their way down to the trailhead, said Utah County sheriff’s deputy Doug Willis. The group called 911 about 8 p.m., summoning an ambulance and a search and rescue crew.

When rescuers found them, one of the women began to drift in and out of consciousness; a helicopter was deployed to fly her to a hospital. While medics were readying th...

I've been spending long days in the sun this spring working on The Utah Bucket List project. Being comfortable on a 75-mile mountain bike ride on the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park and canyoneering in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument made a huge difference in my experience. A big part of that was due to the Sunshade shirt from Patagonia. The long-sleeved and tall-collared shirt kept me covered and cool despite pedaling a mountain bike in 90-degree weather. Lightweight fabrics can sometimes be irritating next to the skin, particularly on the shoulders when you are carrying a backpack or CamelBak. That was not the case with the sunshade shirt. With more hot weather...

It was another great weather weekend in Utah, and that sent people to the hiking trails.

Check out some of these tweets and photos from the hiking trails. Tag us with your own photos on our Facebook page or on Twitter: @UtahHikes

— Nate Carlisle

...

You’re dumped into the Utah backcountry with nothing. Could you survive?

If the answer is no (admit it) Weber State University and Weber Pathways might be able to help.

Botany experts are hosting a science hike Saturday designed to teach people a variety of uses for Utah native plants, including tools and food.

The hike will be at 9 a.m. at Beus Trail.

The hiking series, titled Yikes! Science Hikes!, was first launched three years ago. It started as a handful of hikes led by four geoscience students to 13 excursions led by both students and profess...

Directions • This hike has it all: River, waterfall, swimming hole and even petroglyphs.

The trailhead is located on the south end of the town of Moab. To get there from southbound U.S. Route 191 (also Moab’s Main Street), turn left on 300 South, then right on 400 East. Turn left onto east Mill Creek Drive. Follow the road as it winds out of town, then turn left on East Powerhouse Lane. There’s a parking lot near the trailhead, which can get crowded on nice days.

Prepare to get wet on this hike, and wear a swimming suit to take full advantage of the swimming hole at the end. The hike starts on...

In Utah and from coast to coast, trail users turned out Saturday to celebrate National Trails Day.

Some helped repair or build trails. Others just put the foot to the ground and hiked.

Here are some of the tweets with photos from National Trails Day. The next time you hit the trail, tag us on Twitter at @UtahHikes or on our Facebook page.

— Nate Carlisle

...

Saturday is National Trails Day, and cities, counties, federal agencies, and hiking and trail users are holding events across Utah.

Most events include trail building or maintenance. (You thought Mother Nature excavated the sagebrush and lined a flattened path with railroad ties?) The American Hiking Society has a list of events. Click here to find something near you.

I also found listings for events in...

• Sandy

• Park City

• Weber County

Are you helping? How about just hiking? Either way, co...

Getting there • Turn east off Wasatch Drive to Prospector Drive (7535 South). Take an immediate right and head south. Turn left at Timberline Drive (7780 South) and there will be a few dedicated parking spots on the right side of the road. From there, a dirt road leads past a water tank to the trailhead.

Directions • After a shrub oak-lined stroll and an opportunity early into the hike for rock climbing a granite wall, you’ll reach a tree that’s perfectly arched to form a doorway, where a more rigorous adventure begins. The unforgettable curiosity is portal to a lush world of ferns and forest,...

Utah’s 2013 Memorial Day weekend had great weather.

Hikers, including skier Ted Ligety, took advantage of it and the long weekend. Here is what they tweeted from the trail.

Did you hiking during the weekend? Copy us in a tweet at @UtahHikes or find more photos on our Facebook page.

— Nate Carlilse

...

Directions • Adams Canyon is a fairly steep, strenuous hike with an awesome waterfall payoff about 30 minutes from Salt Lake City.

To get there, take Interstate 15 north to Highway 89 (exit 324). Take a right on 1200 North, which is a stop sign just north of Oak Hills Drive, then a right again for the frontage road.

Follow it to the dirt parking area. Entrance to the hike is a labeled opening in a chain-link fence.

The path starts out steep and sandy, then drops down into the canyon and runs parallel to the north fork of Holmes Creek, where the trail is cooler ...

There’s never a bad time to visit and hike in Moab, but May is especially good there.

It’s warm but not too hot. All the restaurants and shops are open, but tourists haven’t crowded the town yet, and you can find a lot of tranquility on the trails.

So here’s nine great hikes in and around Moab. We’re omitting trails in the national parks, but you can click here to find some trails in Arches or Canyonlands national park.

• Faux Falls: This hike is good in the spring when water should be pouring down the falls. At just 2 miles, it’s good for small c...

Most of the weekend was rainy in the northern half of Utah, but some hikers braved the trails.

Meanwhile, southern Utah hikers apparently found sunshine beaming on the red rocks.

Here are tweets from the trails for the weekend of May 17-19, 2013. Remember to tag us in your hiking tweets or follow us on Twitter.

Twitter: @UtahHikes

...

Spooky Gulch is a short but intensely narrow slot canyon in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It is great area for hikers of all ages, but you may want to stay out of the narrows if you are claustrophobic or of sizable girth. Watch for snakes.

Getting There • The hike is near Hole in the Rock Road, which is well-signed just southeast of Escalante on State Road 12. Check at the Grand Staircase-Escalante Visitors Center to check road conditions before departing.

Travel 26 miles south-southeast on the Hole in the Rock Road. At 26 miles, you will take Dry Fork Road northeast. It curves le...

Moms and other hikers took to the Utah trails this weekend.

Here are some tweets from Utah hiking trails. Remember to tag @UtahHikes on your trail tweets or like us on Facebook.

Twitter: @UtahHikes

Facebook: http://on.fb.me/11TSHuf

...

It’s not always easy to find a spring hike in the Salt Lake Valley, when plenty of the best stuff is still snowy and the weather isn’t exactly cooperative.

But as soon as the first hints of spring arrive, I want to be outside enjoying the weather — more than ever after a long winter.

So what’s a spring hiker to do?

One option is Tooele County, which has a great new website — tooelecountytrails.com.

I hiked a beautiful trail called Oquirrh Wave, which nary a snow sighting even in March.

And spring is a perfect time to ch...

Directions • From downtown Salt Lake City or Interstate 80, take 500 South/Foothill Boulevard toward the University of Utah then turn north onto Mario Capecchi Drive. Then turn right onto South Campus Drive then another right onto Fort Douglas Boulevard. Turn left onto Pollock Road then another left onto Connor Road. Follow that road to the right and pass Red Butte Garden’s amphitheater. Soon you will reach a parking area in front of a gate.

Download GPS data by clicking here. www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/2215604 The trail offers some of the scenery of Red Butte Gardens and a panorama of the Salt...

Creed guitarist Eric Friedman was among the Utah hikers who tweeted a photo of themselves from the trail this weekend.

Here are some other tweets from Utah hiking trails.

Twitter: @UtahHikes

Facebook: http://on.fb.me/11TSHuf

...

Directions • From Salt Lake City, take Interstate 15 north to the Parrish Lane exit in Centerville. Turn right at the ramp, and follow Parrish Lane (400 North) as it crosses 700 East and winds up the canyon. There is a parking lot at the trailhead. Take the trail heading north for a wide, sandy path with some moderate climbs.

This is a section of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, and the path is wide and sandy. It dips down and passes over Parrish Creek, then back up again to traverse the grassy, sage-covered foothills.

The hike offers beautiful views of the city below and the Great Salt Lake in the distanc...

Photographer Jonathan Bailey has been hiking the San Rafael Swell in central Utah. Just don’t ask him to be more precise.

Bailey has been photographing pictographs and petroglyphs on what locals call “The Swell.” Some of the rock art has been vandalized over the decades. Bailey is protective of the sites and doesn’t want to share their locations with anyone.

But he did agree to share some of his photographs with the Hiking Utah blog. The work particularly highlights the Barrier Canyon Style of rock art found on the San Rafael Swell.

Not much is understood about the meaning of th...