Our Nest on Wheels

Kanab, Utah.

We had never been to Kanab, or at least have never stayed there. We may have driven through it on the way to Zion National Park many years ago. But this year, while working our way south to Tucson, we decided to stay in Kanab for a few days and see what there is in the area. And it turns out that there is quite a lot to see and do.

Here's Jane navigating her way up a rather steep rock slope. [Jane's note: It was way scarier than it looks.]

Once you get up this slope, the caves are easily accessed.

From the road, you cannot tell just how far these caves extend into the hillside. It turns out that they go in pretty far. Far enough that you really need a flashlight to find your way around.

We took a great hike that was in the Dixie National Forest, on the way to Bryce Canyon NP. This hike was every bit as good as the hikes that we've done in Bryce Canyon, but far less crowded. Most of the time there were no other people on the trail with us. 

Yes, that's snow that you see in these pictures, as it was October and had snowed recently. But the day was sunny and reasonably warm, which made for great hiking.

West of Kanab you will find the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. The geographic features of this park causes it to capture sand, in the same way that a snow fence works. The result is these huge sand dunes which can take on a pink hue at sunset. We were there during the middle of the day and it looked more like typical sand. Still impressive.

You may have heard of the Wave, the spectacular sandstone formation that's located east of Kanab in Arizona. Access to this trail is limited to 64 people a day, selected via a lottery. Forty-eight spots per day are allocated via an online lottery 4 months in advance. People typically try for many years to get one of these coveted permits. But if you happen to be in Kanab, you can attend a daily lottery for the remaining 16 daily permits. If you win this lottery, you hike in the next day. We went to the daily lottery in Kanab 2 days hoping to score a permit but were unsuccessful. But your odds are much better in person than online. Some of the people at the daily lottery had been there for 7 mornings in a row and finally got a permit. We weren't so lucky. We did, however, hike to a rock formation on a trail in the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, just north of Kanab, that has a similar look to the Wave.

West of Kanab you can find Pipe Spring National Monument. For thousands of years, First Nations peoples lived at this oasis in the desert, where the water from this spring created a vast grassland and the abundance of game animals. Then white settlers arrived and built a fort around the spring.

The Mormon settlers then used the water from the spring to support a cattle ranch. The vast grassland disappeared under the hoofs of cattle, and in a few years a way of life that had existed for thousands of years was gone.

We only stayed four nights in Kanab and could have stayed quite a bit longer. Next time we're in that area, we will stay longer, and maybe get a permit to hike the Wave.