Grab a paddle and get hiking

Forgotten Canyon in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is the only non-trail to make Trails.com’s list of 20 Top Trails of 2003. But the scenic flat-water route fed by drought-stricken Lake Powell is becoming just that -- more trail than water. “Normally when the lake is up, it’s about a four- to five-mile paddle in,” says ranger Max King, district interpreter for the recreation area, who says the lake is 100 feet below its normal water level. “Right now it’s probably a three- to 3 1/2-mile paddle and another mile of walking.” A must-see on this route in the Utah section of the recreation area: Defiance House, an Anasazi dwelling built around 1200. Paddler-hikers, who number about 250 daily during the May-to-September high season, also can explore about five more miles up the canyon on foot.

Forgotten Canyon, which shares the list with megastars Half Dome in Yosemite and a slice of the Appalachian Trail, is 26 miles from the lake’s Bullfrog Marina; for more information on the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, go to www.nps.gov/glca. Trails.com, which has released the first of what is planned as an annual top trails list, made the rankings based on how many online visits each page receives, how many reviews are posted and how many times trail descriptions are downloaded. To view the list of 20 trails, go to www.trails.com/toptrails.