Some of the Places We Have Been So Far on This Trip Part 2

Some of the Places We Have Been So Far on This Trip Part 2

We’ve passed through centrally located Kanab a few times while crisscrossing the same couple of square inches on the map of Southeast Utah. 

Here of some highlights of the area, not as well known as the National Parks. 

Red Hollow Slot Canyon, Orderville

This place is still under the public radar and a little hard to find, so we had this short slot canyon almost to ourselves.

Belly of Dragon, Mt Carmel Junction

This tunnel was excavated as a culvert under Route 89 in the 1950’s and the soft sandstone was eroded by flood water into its current shape over the years. Recently a photo of it went viral and it has become very popular. There is a huge parking lot just outside, but no gift shop. So far.

Still, a very cool place that was fun to visit.

Sand Caves, Kanab 

An unmarked, very sketchy hike and climb takes you to this unusual place.

These man-made caves were mined for in the 1970’s. The sand was used for glass making. Not sure why they stopped mining. Maybe they were able to get cheaper sand from China? Maybe everything is made from plastic now?

The natural colors and patterns in the sandstone are like nothing I have seen before.

It was harder going down than coming up. 

No gift shop, but it is next door to the “The Moqui Cave", Tourist Trap par excellence, whose gift shop was larger than its exhibit space.

The Moqui Cave

The Moqui Cave, self-proclaimed “Ancient History Museum, 150 Million Years in the Making”, has some local history exhibits, Native American artifacts, and dinosaur footprints. 

The Moqui Cave was originally opened as a bar to serve the Hollywood actors who were in the area to film a ton of Westerns.

But my favorite exhibit was the photos of Thomas Chamberlain and his 6 wives and 55 children (taken sometime before 1918).

Although the gift shop is huge, they do have an excellent selection and variety of reasonably priced rocks for sale. Also, a café.

Check it out just for the air conditioning. And to add to your rock collection.

Some of the Places We Have Been So Far on This Trip Part 1

Some of the Places We Have Been So Far on This Trip Part 1

We’ve been hanging out mostly in the same couple of square inches on the map of Southeastern Utah for almost 2 months. (Plus the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.) Here are some of the places we have been not as well known as the National Parks.

Red Hills Desert Garden, St George

We were at the St George Chabad for Shavuot and took in this local attraction before the holiday started. A lovely garden which even had dinosaur footprints in a section of rock!

Navajo Lake and Cascade Falls, Duck Creek Village, Dixie National Forest

Navajo Lake, high up at an altitude of 9,000 feet in Dixie National Forest, was naturally formed when a lava flow blocked the eastern end of a valley. The lake is the headwaters of the Virgin River which carved Zion Canyon. The lake drains into sinkholes in the lava and part of the water emerges out of a cave in the rock at Cascade Falls. The trail to the falls has a wonderful view of Zion in the distance.

Candy Cliffs, Yant Flat, Dixie National Forest

A long sketchy road with beautiful views along the way led to this very out of the way place. Being out of the way meant we practically had the place to ourselves 😊

The trail started off with a walk though a mostly forested area with different types of cacti in full beautiful spring bloom. When we got to the overlook of the Dr Seussian “Candy Cliff” basin, we clambered down to the whimsical rock domes to play.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, Kanab. One of the main attractions here is sandboarding down the dunes. We were happy just to watch.

Snow Canyon State Park

In this part of southwest Utah where we have been for weeks, the scenery can be summarized by, “There is a lot of red rock” (actually, rust colored). That sounds like it might get boring after a while. but the variations on the theme are endless and amazing.

The National Parks in the area featuring the red rocks are very, very famous and as a result, very, very crowded. For example, Zion and Bryce. But there are also so many other places that are almost (if not as) wonderful, and nowhere near as crowded.

One of them is Snow Canyon State Park, near Saint George, where we spent about a week.

And just for the record, the place is named after Lorenzo and Erastus Snow, two early Mormon pioneers who helped Mormons settle in Utah in the 1860’s. Not after that cold fluffy white stuff which would not have lasted long in the over 100 degree temps we experienced when we were there.

Snow Canyon not only features the famous layers of red rock but also has a lot of black rock from old volcanic lava flows.

A lava cave

We hiked on petrified sand dunes,

Rented eBikes (1,000 foot elevation gain was too much for us on our regular bikes) and rode the road and bike trails, 

 met some of the locals,

and saw so many amazing views -

And it was so hot, that I even tried boiling water …