Utah · Region

Kanab & the Grand Staircase

The red-rock crossroads of southern Utah — the movie-history town of Kanab, the Coral Pink Sand Dunes, and the largest animal sanctuary in the country.

3 places to explore

In Utah's far south, hard against the Arizona line, Kanab sits at the center of more red rock than almost anywhere on earth. Within a couple of hours lie Zion, Bryce, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and a wilderness of slot canyons and painted cliffs — which is why this small town has long been the crossroads of the region, and why Hollywood spent half a century filming Westerns in the sandstone all around it. Locals still call it "Little Hollywood."

The town is the gateway to the Grand Staircase — the immense geologic stairway whose colored cliffs climb step by step from the depths of the Grand Canyon up to the rim of Bryce. The most coveted hikes nearby, like the swirling sandstone of The Wave, are rationed by lottery, and the permits are drawn right in Kanab.

Two very different draws sit just outside town. Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park is a six-square-mile sea of salmon-colored sand, ground down from the surrounding Navajo sandstone and heaped into dunes you can sled or ride. And tucked into a red-walled canyon to the north, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is the largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the country — home to some 1,600 animals at a time, open for tours and for anyone who wants to spend a day walking a dog through the desert.

Come for the canyons; stay for the pink sand, the old movie sets, and the dogs.