A cicada killer indeed. It is a solitary wasp, meaning it doesn't defend it's nest like yellowjackets and hornets do. This means they won't attack you, and as ccabal said, it is quite harmless unless you physically harm it or get tangled up with it somehow. I'll tell ya though, I got some serious goosebumps the first time one of those things flew in front of my face, because I had no clue what it was. Joe

I don't think it's a bee I've seen, it's not a honey bee, some sort of native bee or wasp/hornet a couple more picture might help.

Sounds very much like a type of mud dauber wasp. If so, their hovering and ground skimming behavior is when they are hunting for spiders and caterpillars to cache away for their eggs to eat when the eggs hatch.

To see them active and identify them, they need to be active during that time of year and it should be relatively sunny and warm out. As it's winter as I write this, if you have a way to remove the tubes, you can open one up and examine the cocoons - sometimes you can tell by the shape and the composition of the mud dividers. You can take tiny scissors too and open up a cold cocoon. The occupant will be hibernating so may only move a little bit, but certainly won't scramble around and fly as long as it stays cold. If you can get access to any of that, try googling "solitary bee identification". Everyone talks about a handful of osmia species, but there really are hundreds of native bees that nest like that. The Utah Bee Lab in Logan may be able to help identify them from photos.