Snow Canyon State Park, St. George Utah

Snow Canyon State Park, Utah

I recently visited Snow Canyon State Park in southern Utah for the first time. Snow Canyon has several unique and interesting features including arches, petrified dunes, slot canyons, a few small caves, sand dunes and a natural spring which can be easily accessed from the road or by a paved bike trail that runs through the park. The park is located about ten minutes from St. George Utah. If you’re headed to Zion National Park from Las Vegas on I-15, you’re going to come within a few miles of Snow Canyon State Park. I highly recommend taking a half day to explore Snow Canyon State Park.

Unlike Zion National Park which is usually filled with tourists, visitors to Snow Canyon Park are sparse by comparison. However, most of the major trails in Snow Canyon State Park are less than a mile round-trip, so you should expect to see families and and some tourists  on the trails. The paved “Whiptail” bike trail gives you access to most of the trailheads without ever having to cross the road. I highly recommend bringing your bike to this park.

There are several great hiking trails for families including a short quarter mile jaunt on Jenny’s Trail to see a small slot canyon, the Sand Dunes Trail and the Johnson Canyon Trail. For more of an adventure, one of the best ways to experience Snow Canyon State Park is to find the Petrified Dunes trail and just start exploring. The giant sandstone mounds on the Petrified Dunes Trail are perfect for climbing and rock scrambling. From the top of the Petrified Dunes, you get an amazing birds-eye view of the park below. The Petrified Dunes were my favorite feature in the park.

Admission to Snow Canyon State park is $6 per vehicle or $4 per bike. If you have multiple people wanting to bike, it’s a much better deal to drive into the park with your bikes, park your car and start your bike ride inside to avoid the multiple per-person fees.

Petrified Dunes: Snow Canyon State Park

Snow Canyon has a campground, but it's located very close to the road. While it’s probably a great place for an RV, I would probably avoid tent camping in Snow Canyon State Park if you’re sensitive to road noise like I am. The noise probably won’t be an issue in the off-season during the fall and winter when most of the visitors have dwindled. Campsites are $20/per night and can be reserved in advance here: https://utahstateparks.reserveamerica.com/camping/snow-canyon-state-park/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=UT&parkId=345781

Just  a few miles down the road from Snow Canyon Park, there is a free area to explore called Pioneer Park which has several fun features you can explore including a cave, a small slot canyon and a miniature arch. Pioneer Park is situated high above St. George with an amazing view of the town below and it’s one of the best places in the area to catch a sunset. Pioneer Park is comprised of the same type of red Sandstone you’ll find in Snow Canyon. It’s a really great area for rock scrambling and climbing. I definitely recommend taking an hour or two to explore Pioneer Park.

Pioneer Park, St. George Utah

I would avoid visiting this part of Utah in the late summer when the temperatures are usually sweltering. You get very little shade and the sky is cloudless for most of July and August. My favorite time of year to visit is in late September and October when the crowds are gone and the temperatures are in the 60’s and 70’s.

For a good list of trail descriptions in Snow Canyon State Park, visit: http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/snow_canyon/trails.html

For and interactive map of Snow Canyon State Park, click 

here: https://stateparks.utah.gov/parks/snow-canyon/map/

Pioneer Park overlooking St George Utah

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Indian Cove Campground. Joshua Tree National Park

Indian Cove Campground in Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park is one of the best places for a fall camping trip in Southern California. The weather is mild and breezy, the night sky is cloudless and perfect for stargazing, the crowds are relatively thin and the chance of rain is basically zero. Joshua Tree is a short 2 hour drive from the beach in Orange County.  If you absolutely hate camping, you always have the option of staying in nearby Palm Springs about 50 minutes outside the park. If you’re headed to Joshua Tree from San Diego, you might even consider a stop in Temecula to visit a winery.

I've stayed inside the main part of the park on past trips, but this time we opted to stay in the Indian Cove Campground located in the northern part of Joshua Tree,  just outside of the town of TwentyNine Palms. The Indian Cove Campground is less cramped than many of the campground located in the main part of the park. Most of the campsites in Indian Cove are situated in between giant rock formations that offer a fair amount of seclusion from neighboring campsites.  The tent sites are extremely reasonable for only $15 a night. You can even avoid paying the 15$ entrance fee into the main part of Joshua Tree by hiking the trails located within the Indian Cove Camping area.

The best trail in the Indian Cove section of Joshua Tree has to be the Rattlesnake Canyon Trail. The word “trail” is a bit misleading, as Rattlesnake Canyon is really a maze of giant boulders you’ll have to hop, squeeze through and climb until you've had your fill. There are countless small caves and crevices to explore among the boulders. We even found a few small arches. This is also a popular spot for rock-climbing.  We saw several groups of people climbing in this area of the park.  We spent 3 hours in the canyon navigating through the boulders up the mountainside. We took a break at the top of a large pinnacle of rocks. We came back down limping like wounded birds and covered in scrapes and got ourselves into a little trouble while exploring a pool in a slot canyon when I accidentally disturbed a wasps nest. They chased me up the side of an eight foot granite wall, but I avoided getting stung. I didn't notice how tired I was until we reached the car. This not a hike for beginners or small children. If you plan on hiking to the top of the boulders, do not be mislead by other sites claiming this is a moderate hike. Rattlesnake Canyon will kick your butt. With that said, this was one of my all-time favorite desert hikes.

A few words of warning: The sun can be intense in Joshua Tree and you can end up severely sunburned, even when the temperatures are cool.  Sun tan lotion and plenty of water are the two most important things you can have in Rattlesnake Canyon. I also recommend bringing a pair of leather gloves because the granite in Rattlesnake Canyon is rough and will tear your hands up.

Rattlesnake Canyon was closed for 5 months this year due to graffiti in the canyon. If you see someone vandalizing the park in any way, please report them immediately by calling park headquarters at
760-367-5502. 

Indian Cove Campground can be booked in advance by visiting http://www.recreation.gov/

Rattlesnake Canyon in Joshua Tree National Park

Directions to Rattlesnake Canyon Trail-head:  From TwentyNine Palms Highway 62, turn right onto Indian Cove Road and drive approximately 3 miles. You will pass both the ranger station and the group camping area. Make your first left onto Indian Cove East and continue one mile through the campground until you reach the parking area for Rattlesnake Canyon. 

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Arches National Park. Moab, Utah

Arches National Park.  South Window

Arches National Park is one of the most amazing places to visit in the United States. The entrance to the park is located in the little town of Moab which is about a half hour south of Interstate 70, between Grand Junction Colorado and Richfield Utah. Moab is a mecca for bicyclists, rock climbers and hikers from all over the world. According to the National Park Service website, Arches National Park contains over 2,000 arches. I was only able to spend a single day in the park. I hiked approximately 8 miles total, covering 4 of the most popular hikes in the park. I easily could have spent a whole week in the park just taking photos.  

My favorite section of the park is known as the ‘Windows Section’. It contains a few of the largest and most impressive arches, the North and South Windows and the Turret Arch. These arches are located just a few hundred yards uphill from the parking area. They are accessible for small children and anyone who is physically capable of climbing a few dozen stairs. If you only had an hour or two to spend in the park, this is the hike that you would want to do.

The best hike we did in Arches National Park was definitely the trek to Delicate Arch. This is the arch prominently featured on Utah’s license plate. The hike is approximately 3 miles round-trip from the parking area at Wolfe Ranch, but it feels longer because most of it is uphill and the air is very thin when you’re at 6,000 feet above sea level. One section of this hike involves navigating up a large rock dome. There are rock cairns placed strategically along the way to help mark the trail, but we noticed several people getting lost and heading in the wrong direction. Just follow the cairns and you will be fine. The reward is definitely worth the effort. Delicate Arch is one of the most awe-inspiring natural wonders in any of the national parks.

Our final hike of the day was to see the Landscape Arch located in the ‘Devil’s Garden’ section of Arches National Park. The hike to Landscape Arch is approximately 2 miles round-trip with only a very slight elevation gain. This hike should be suitable for even young children. There are literally dozens of arches located just off the trail in the Devil’s Garden. This is also the section of the park where the campground is located. I’m sure this is a very busy campground because it was half full during a mid-week in the middle of winter.

The weather in the area of Utah varies a great deal, from scorching summers to brutally cold winters. I would highly recommend visiting this park in the spring or fall, especially if you plan on camping. The summers here are especially hard for hiking under the cloudless sky in the 100 degree heat. You would need almost a gallon of water per person for an 8 mile hike in the summer. 

The off-season hotels in Moab are very reasonably priced. We saw multiple places for 40$/per night on Travelocity. 

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Devil's Bridge Arch. Sedona Arizona

Devil' Arch Sedona Arizona

The Devil's Bridge is a 50+ foot natural arch located in Sedona Arizona. You can actually stand on top of it by climbing a rock staircase built into the side on the mountain. The Devil's Bridge Trail is one of the most popular hikes in Sedona and a lot of the information about this hike on the internet is wrong. The official Forest Service website incorrectly lists the hike as only 1.5 miles round-trip. In actuality, the hike is 5 miles round-trip.  I thought I would do  post about it to clear up some of the confusion about this hike. 

The parking area listed on the Forest Service website, and many other websites, is only accessible if you have a 4 wheel vehicle with a high ground clearance. There are several tour groups in town that will shuttle you by Jeep to the closer trail-head for a fee, but most people will have to use the ‘overflow’ parking area for the Devil’s Bridge further down the road. The hike from this trail-head is at least 5 miles round-trip.

 Having just finished this hike last week, it’s obvious that a lot of people are getting bad information about this hike online. We saw several groups of people hiking with little or no water. The Devil’s Bridge Trail also has several forks and many people seemed lost or confused because they expected the arch to be closer. The trail runs snakes downhill from the parking lot through a forest of green high-desert shrubs and small trees. Its crosses through several dry creek beds and forks several times at marked crossings. The last half mile of the trail heads uphill towards the the arch until you reach a set of rock stairs carved into the mountain. At the top of the stairs, you can cross over from the mountain onto the top of the arch.

Directions: From Sedona, Take 89a and make a right onto Dry Creek Road. In 2 miles, turn right onto Vultee Arch Road. Vultee Arch Road is unpaved. Follow Vultee Arch Road for approximately 1 mile until you see signs for the Devil’s Bridge Trail-head parking Area. The Devil’s Bridge trail-head is marked and starts in the overflow parking lot. The trail forks several times at signed intersections and is approximately 5 miles round-trip. 

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