Hidden Gem: Gunlock State Park

A Unique, Family Friendly Day Trip to Gunlock State Park

This reservoir is far from hidden, but for some reason, it is severely underutilized. It’s a gem of a location hiding in plain sight. Gunlock State Park has the looks and the moves to impress, but still flies under the majority of Greater Zion’s visitors’ radar. That covers the hidden part, now let’s take a look at why it’s a gem.

Location

Gunlock Reservoir is a short 20 minutes from St. George, which makes it closer than both Sand Hollow and Quail Creek. There isn’t a lot of anything but wilderness around Gunlock, but when it comes to Gunlock, that’s a positive because a day at the lake is more than enough.

Beauty

Soft orange sand and blue water are complimenting colors and a winning combination when it comes to landscape. In the distance you have the mountains forming a truly impressive backdrop. Looks sure aren’t everything in life, but they are certainly nice, and Gunlock has some great looks.

Unique features

As you reach the far shore on your open kayaks, you’ll feel like a kid again. That genuine sense of exploration and discovery is great. If you park your kayak up on a rock, there will be plenty of room to climb around. If you bring along any kids, they’ll love exploring the little holes and caves within the rock. It’s almost like a pirate’s hideout. These rocks offer more than just discovery and climbing—they are made for some exhilarating cliff jumping as well.

Of all the wild and fun adventures you’ll have this summer, this one is guaranteed to rank up there as one of the best. So when it starts to warm up this summer, don’t hide away indoors, take our advice and give Gunlock Reservoir a chance.

An Incredible Hike Right Outside of St. George

Many times, the build up to an adventure is half the fun. But not always. It would be nice if sometines you could just walk out your front door and have the adventure waiting for you, like a loyal dog. Not a lot of fuss, planning or travel time. Just a simple, straight-forward chance to explore and meditate on your day. For those reasons, Turtle Wall is a gem of a hike.

Turtle Wall is more than just convenient though. It’s convenience coupled with quality. Just as you feel like you’re leaving St. George on Bluff Street, you see the trail head in a pull-off to the left. It’s so fast and easy to access that you have no excuses to not get out and stretch your legs.

As soon as you hit the trail, you’ll realize that Turtle Wall is a melting pot of outdoor adventure. You’ll cross paths with multiple other hikers, mountain bikers, people enjoying picnics and you migt even get to watch some rock climbers enjoy some sport climbing.

The trail is easy to follow, and within a mile, you’ll reach the impressively large sandstone formation that resembles a turtle. The trail takes you up on its back like some massive, super slow steed. From there to the midpoint of the hike is mostly slick rock, which explains all of the enthusiastic mountain bikers.

The only point of interest that tops the turtle monument was the view from the top of the mesa. Right before the trail loops back towards your starting point is an amazing view of the entrance to Snow Canyon and nearly a bird’s eye view of Ivins. There is actually a trail that keeps going from here to Snow Canyon, including the Scout Caves, but you can save that for another day.

If you plan your hike for the afternoon, the hike back features a fantastic mixture of falling shadows and amber light from the setting sun. Wild rabbits and wild flowers can be found scattered throughout the empty space. It truly is a tranquil hike that offers beauty and wonder, and it’s right in Greater Zion’s backyard.

On your next trip to Zion country, you may want a more convenient hike right in St. George. This is that hike. Make sure to add it to your list.

A Snow Canyon Local Favorite

Many refer to Snow Canyon State Park as the little brother to Zion National Park. It’s an amazing place that is widely overlooked, thanks to its impressive sibling.

Snow Canyon certaintly has a lot of hidden gems, but this one definitely stands out. Once you see it, you’ll understand why and you’ll want to do it yourself. So, here’s a link to the info you’ll need to find it.

This hike is a connector trail to the Gila Trail. You can also do the entire out-and-back eight miles of the Gila Trail if you are looking for a longer hike with the same great payoff in the end.

Hidden four miles from the main canyon of Snow Canyon is a small slot canyon filled with petroglyphs! What’s a petroglyph? Well, a couple of years ago – okay, hundreds and sometimes thousands – natives of this area scratched out drawings on rock documenting their lives.

There are actually four different petroglyph spots on this loop, and they are each impressive in their own right. However, the small slot canyon petroglyphs are the ones that will steal your heart. Everything about it screams childhood fantasy. For a few brief minutes, you’ll feel like Indiana Jones! The entrance is well shrouded by shrubbery, but once you find it, you’re quickly enclosed in tall rock walls.

One the most notable parts of this hike is the tree that refused to be dismissed and denied growth. In adversity, it grew strong and tall, and makes for an amazing photograph. Instead of gold or an artifact to steal away like Indy, you get beautiful shots of ancient drawings and cool, tightly cut slot canyon walls. You probably won’t get chased out by a giant rolling boulder, but if you’ll surely walk away feeling satisfied with the amount of adventure you were able to experience.

Please keep this spot special and treat it with love and care. Follow Leave No Trace rules, and don’t damage the area or add your own version of drawings or markings. It’s meant to be enjoyed, so make sure it’s around to be enjoyed by future generations, too.

An Incredible Sand Stone Arch

There’s something about unusual rock formations that unlocks your childlike wonder, so visiting Greater Zion is like vacationing in a giant playground and having over 2,400 square miles of epic outdoor pursuits at your finger-tips!

The newest addition to our “Hidden Gems” series is called Babylon Arch, and it really is a great addition to the many adventures you could have in Southern Utah. If you’re wondering how to find Babylon Arch, directions can be found here. Pro tip: having a 4×4 or renting an off-road vehicle is helpful, but isn’t necessary.

Babylon Arch won’t put a ton of miles on your hiking boots, but it will put a smile on your face as you wind your way through the sandy red-rock trail and pass through its beautiful formation. You have to keep a wary eye out for the arch, though. It’s possible to walk right by it, but once you do find it, it’ll look like a hidden treasure in a mixture of an unimaginable landscape.

This particular hike has another nice addition besides the arch, and that is the Virgin River. Your final destination is the slow-moving Virgin River, and it makes for a great way to cool down, depending on the time of year. Whether you stick to the top of the trail and take in the scenic overlook of the trail or make your way down to cross the river, the views are all extremely photogenic.

If you’ve been following our blog, you may be getting the picture that there are more options than you could fit into one trip to the St. George area, even if you come for three or four days. But that’s really what we all want, isn’t it? It’s always best to have too many great options over too few. Keep Babylon Arch on your list when you visit Greater Zion.

It’s getting to that time of year again in St. George where the weather makes going for an easy four-mile hike in the afternoon not so easy. But enough about that. This week’s installment of our Hidden Gems is a hike hidden in plain site of St. George, called Elephant Arch.

Just like any of our hidden gems, the anticipation is always building as you patiently wait to experience what our wide-open spaces truly have to offer. Once you do, that’s when you realize just how special this place is as the opportunities to experience its glory are endless.

Proximity-wise, this hike is extremely close to the cities of St. George and Washington, which makes it especially convenient. By now, you’ve seen pictures of this hike, and you’ll be clamoring to know how to find it so you can rush out and experience it for yourself, so here’s the best guide to get you there.

This hike begins as you make your way up an empty wash, aptly named Bone Wash, since it can get bone dry in the summer months. Even with the heat, you should be extremely excited to see this sandstone arch. The real treat, though, is that most of the hike features trimmed with wildflowers, a lot of them. Like way more than you could expect or that a desert has any right to grow.

After coming and going from the wash a couple times, and seeing some cool sandstone formations along the way, you’ll finally reach your destination. It’s like some ancient statue left ages ago. It honestly does resemble an elephant, or at least the head and trunk of an elephant. Put this exotic animal on your list and make your next trip more than just a national park visit. You’ll be glad you did.

A Swimming Hole That Will Blow Your Mind

When you have an amazing swimming hole just a 45-minute drive away, you have no reason not to check out it out! Toquerville Falls is a fairly well known spot—at least to the local crowd out here in St. George—and for good reason. It’s a set of gorgeous waterfalls that cascade through the desert and have carved out an impressive little swimming hole.

Although this cool, outdoor destinations require a little work to get to them; it makes for a more satisfying pay off at the end. This adventure’s extra work comes in the form of a rough dirt road, and that’s putting it kindly. It’s recommended that you access this area by 4-wheelers or Razor. However, a high clearance 4-wheel drive vehicle will do just fine.

The area makes for beautiful photographs year round, and the views you’re surrounded by will always be spectacular. But if you’re hoping to take a dip in the water, make sure you time your visit accordingly, as the water doesn’t warm up until about June.

Toquerville Falls is an incredible place full of beauty and adventure. When you plan a trip to the St. George area, whether it’s for Zion, golf or a number of other reasons, this is a special detour to add to that list. Come to Toquerville Falls and make a splash—you’ll love it!

An Addition to the Amazing Views in Greater Zion

The best views that you’ll find outside of Zion National Park are, hands down, the ones you’ll get from the Snow Canyon Overlook on the Red Mountain Trail. Here, two small canyons converge into one, creating a perfect capital Y. This trail features three elements that make for a great hike: trail quality and experience, geographical anomalies, and a great view at the end of the hike.

For trail quality, the Red Mountain Trail gets a dismal score. It’s rough and broken up with large rocks jutting every which way. It can be rough on the ankles, but the entire Red Mountain Trail will take you from just below Dammeron Valley to the actual Red Mountain butting up against Ivins. If you’re interested, you can opt to turn off the main trail and go to the Snow Canyon Overlook, then hike back out the same way you came in. It turns out to be a shorter hike, but features an unforgettable view.

The view you are rewarded with at the overlook is definitely the crowning jewel in this hike, but there are a couple other additional aspects that make it special. The first add-on is that it is on BLM land, allowing for a couple of things you won’t find in state or national parks. For one, you can camp anywhere you want! It may not be a long hike for a great backcountry backpacking experience, but it could be a really cool one-night campout. You can also bring dogs with you, which is a pretty rare bonus.

There are several reasons you could end up loving this hike, but in the end, you just need one. So get out there and give it a try! You’ll be glad you did, and don’t forget the camera.

Exploring Greater Zion’s Lesser Known Attractions

Zion National Park is awesome. We all know that. But outside of Zion, there are some pretty spectacular things to see and do, with less crowds, that are waiting to be discovered and explored. We have created this series of gems outside of Zionto help with just that. On this second installment, we’re taking a look at a great hike called The Bowl.

To truly be a ‘Hidden Gem’, there has to be some element of a hike that makes it really special in at least one of three categories: the actual hike or trail itself, some special geographical element, or an incredible view at the end.

The Bowl achieves a higher-than-average score on its trail, but earns higher scores in the later categories. You start in a high desert terrain and quickly cross a wash into sandstone slickrock and sand. It’s a lot more stone than sand, luckily. Sand can be a real pain after a very short distance.

But what really makes The Bowl special is its geographical formation at the end of the hike. After a short mile or so in, you will loop right onto a large sandstone rise. It doesn’t seem like the right thing to do when looking for a huge hollowed-out bowl in sandstone, but it is. Make sure you don’t overshoot it by climbing to the highest point you can find in order to get a better vantage point. This is a good time to mention that more preparation and planning is always a good idea.

Once you climb up the sandstone tower, you’ll notice a shallow bowl filled with sand and grass and, depending on the recent weather and season, maybe even some water. That’s not the actual Bowl with a capital B, but it’s still a cool additional feature. As you head further up the tower, you’ll come to the real Bowl.

It’s really amazing what nature is capable of, and it’s also amazing what we would miss if we only go to the spots that are internationally known. You will really enjoyed exploring this spot, and make sure to let anyone else you know who’s headed to the area know about this hidden gem so that they can explore it themselves.

We talk to people about the St. George area a lot—on Instagram, over the phone, at travel shows and many other ways—and the same questions come up in a variety of forms: “Where are the secret spots?” “Where are the really cool hidden places?” “What is a spot most people don’t know about?”

As a disclaimer, nothing in this series is going to be completely secret or new as the areas we are featuring aren’t uncharted territory where no human has been before—sorry if that’s what you were hoping for. What is covered is pretty great though.

The trouble with living so close to Zion National Park is that when people come here for outdoor adventure, they’re mesmerized by the siren of Angels Landing. It’s tough for other adventures to compete when stacked up against that hike, but rest assured, there are some pretty amazing things off the beaten path in the St. George area.

The places that this series will feature are where 98% of visitors will never go or even know about.

Our First Gem, Yant Flat

It’s a gem worth a king’s ransom and it doesn’t require a permit to visit.

If you’re interested in exploring natural wonders in the Southern Utah area, then you’ve undoubtedly heard of The Wave, and for a good reason. It’s a popular spot in these parts, but is extremely difficult to see as it requires a rare permit that many travelers deem impossible to get. Fortunately, that’s an advantage to Yant Flat as this hike is, by far, the next best thing.

Yant Flat is located just north of St. George and takes 45 minutes to reach the trailhead. After an easy mile and a half hike, you’ll reach sloping and rolling rocks of swirling colors. It’s a thrill to climb among them, find unique spots, and see how creatively the rocks have been painted by nature. It’s a playground for adventure-seekers and an awesome photographic opportunity.

If you’re interested in experiencing it in a truly magical light, plan your trip around “the golden hour.” There won’t be many other sunsets you see in your life that beat the one you’ll experience at Yant Flat.

Camping at the Foot of Zion National Park

This questions always brings a little bit of a chuckle with it. In this age of technology and online social activity, there are very few, if any, actual hidden gems left to any area, but especially so for top tourist areas like Greater Zion. So our title is a little tongue-in-cheek. Probably a more accurate title would be, “Less Trafficked Areas That are Still Amazing.”

While Oak Grove Campground may not be a secret known only by locals, it is still a breathtaking location that is well off the beaten path of the main tourist crowd. This campsite is located right at the foot of the highest point in Greater Zion. That’s right, higher than anything in Snow Canyon or even Zion National Park. The North backdrop of the site is walled in by nearly sheer cliffs towering a couple thousand feet higher than your tent.

The vegetation is much different than what you might expect for Greater Zion as well. It’s very green with lots of oak scrub bushes, mighty ponderosa pine trees, and a small stream. Along with the giant trees, there are also several challenging hiking trails that range from moderate to difficult. Come on a clear day and be prepared to get some unbelievable views.

The facilities are nice, with picnic tables at each camping site and solid bathroom structures built to make sure you aren’t roughing it too much. This is a well-maintained area, made possible by an affordable camping space fee ($15). There are eight campsites available with the largest one accommodating up to 15 people.

It’s beautiful. It’s secluded, but accessible, and it’s different from the rest of the Greater Zion area camping. Next time you are in the area, try Oak Grove Campground to see what a gem it really is.