A travel guide and blog site called "Why This Place" published a new analysis that ranked Utah ninth in the country for Hiking with Connecticut claiming the top spot.
Massachusetts claimed the second spot and Hawaii nabbed the third.
There are thousands of miles of hiking throughout Utah, from multi-day backpacking trails and even out and back loops that offer breathtaking views, so how exactly did the Beehive state rank so low?
The researchers gave each of the 50 states a score out of 100 in order to create their hiking index.
According to the website’s researchers, the factors analyzed within the index included:
- The number of hiking trails and waterfalls relative to state area.
- The percentage of each state covered by national and state parks.
- The average yearly temperature and rainfall.
“Utah ranked as the ninth-best state overall for hiking, with a score of 61.22 out of 100,” the site noted. “The state offers 87 hiking trails per 1,000 square miles and 1.86% state and national park coverage. The landlocked state has one waterfall per 1,000 miles and the third-lowest annual rainfall, at an average of 13.5 inches.”
