Pine Valley

Forty miles north of St. George, the red desert climbs into something it has no business being: a cool green valley of ponderosa pine near seven thousand feet. A cattleman named Isaac Riddle found it in 1855 chasing a lost cow, and word of the timber spread fast. Settlers came the next year not to farm but to cut, and Pine Valley became the lumberyard of the whole Dixie country — its beams in temples and tabernacles below, its boards in mines across the Nevada line. The mills are quiet now. People come up for the shade instead.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Snow Canyon State Park — 15 mi
  Red and white sandstone cliffs with ancient lava flows
• Kolob Canyons — 18 mi
  The quiet, uncrowded back door to Zion National Park
• Hurricane Canal Trail — 18 mi
  The hand-dug canal that built Hurricane, now a walking trail blasted into the Virgin River gorge
• St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm — 20 mi
  Real dinosaur footprints preserved in ancient sandstone

More markers nearby

• Pine Valley Chapel & Tithing Office — 1.3 mi
• Wood for Pine Valley Chapel and Salt Lake Tabernacle Organ — 1.3 mi
• Mountain Meadow Memorial (5) Panels — 10 mi
• Mountain Meadows Trail & Camp — 10 mi