Climb a Cinder Cone & Enjoy the Scenery - Snow Canyon State Park
Written: Jun 08 '04 (Updated Jun 08 '04)
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Pros: easy access, great views, climbable cinder cones, full-service campground
Cons: none really
The Bottom Line: With a full-service campground and miles of trails, the Park makes an excellent overnight destination and offers the chance to better explore this varied and intriguing terrain
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| jps246's Full Review: Snow Canyon State Park |
Offering a chance to scramble up cinder cones that look as if they were erupted yesterday, views of lava flows dripping from the sides of the canyon, picnic areas and camping opportunities, Snow Creek Canyon State Park is a great stop on your tour of the southwestern United States.
About 8 miles north of St. George, Utah, the park is located in Snow Creek Canyon, a smaller wide valley filled with natural wonders including lava flows, cinder cones and excellent exposures of rocks for all the geologists out there. In addition to the road traveling through the park, picnic facilities are available as is a full-service campground managed by the park. You are free to hike throughout the park and there are several trails maintained for visitors.
Weather at the park follows the seasons. Temperatures in the spring and fall are generally mild, while it can get quite hot in the summer and quite cold, with snow in the wintertime. It’s generally fairly arid and rains mostly in the springtime or during thunderstorms in the summertime.
Campground
The campground is open year round and access to the campground is available from 6 in the morning until 10 at night (in the wintertime, the hours change to 8 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon). Reservations can be made through Utah’s State Park reservation system online at http://www.stateparks.utah.gov/visiting/reservations.htm or by phone at 1-800-322-3770.
There are 17 RV sites and 19 tents sites in the campground, which also feature handicap accessible restrooms and potable water taps along with full-service bathrooms with showers and waste disposal. Of the 17 RV sites, 14 of them feature electrical and sewer hookups. You can stay in the campground for up to five days. The sites with hookups cost $17 a night and the ones without hookups are $14 a night.
Hiking, Picnicking & Other Activities
Beyond the campground, visitors to Snow Creek Canyon can visit the picnic areas in the park or get a chance to climb amongst the rock formations making up the sides of the canyon. For those who want a more urbane experience, several well-marked and maintained trails are in the park. They run from less than a mile in length to several miles in length. The difficult of the trails also vary from easy for most anyone to trails more suitable for only experienced hikers.
One of the best parts of the park is the opportunity to get up close and climb on the various cinder cones scattered throughout the valley. Climbing up a cinder cone is an experience that you won’t soon forget – take 1 step up and slide about 4 back. Be careful though – the cinders can be sharp and can easily cut through skin. You should be wearing good shoes and pants to prevent scratching your legs up on the cinders.
Overnight backpacking trips aren’t allowed in the park – you can only camp in the campground – but even the longest hiking trips are only a day in length for a hiker in good condition.
Horseback riding is allowed in the park along the network of trails and roads and for the adventuresome, a climbing school uses the park as a base of operations and offers rock climbing classes for interested people. Rock climbing is also allowed throughout the park for those outside of the climbing school.
Experiences
This is a cool park not far from St. George, Utah and was another stop on my geology class trip to the Southwest. There are excellent examples of ancient sand dunes in the rocks and of recent volcanism and make for an interesting area to trek through. Unlike the cinder cones in Sunset Crater National Monument, the ones here are open to the public and I’ll never forget the first time I scrambled up one of the cones, about 500 feet high and looked out from the top.
It’s also nice for visitors that a good amount of the park can be seen from the park road and the cinder cones are immediately adjacent to the road making for easy access. The picnic areas and campground are also easily accessible.
The bright red rocks of the canyon are striking, even more so with the black lava that looks as if it was dribbled across the walls of the canyon. As you drive up to the park you wonder what all the black stuff on the rocks is and as you get closer and closer, you realize that they are lava flows that have cascaded over the walls of the canyon.
The canyon makes a great stop for a few hours on a trip through the region. The day use fee is only $5 for a carload of people and is definitely worth it. You can spend anywhere from a few hours taking in the scenery and perhaps scrambling up a cinder cone to several days staying at the campground and fully exploring the park. Either way it’s worth it and Snow Creek Canyon is worth a stop for anyone interested in the natural wonders of the world.
For More Information
The Utah State Park system maintains a website for Snow Creek Canyon (where you can see some pictures of the canyon, maps of the campground and trail descriptions) at http://www.stateparks.utah.gov/park_pages/scenicparkpage.php?id=scsp. You’ll also be able to access the statewide campground reservation system at this site and find out about the latest news and events at the park. A geology guide to the park is available from the state if you are interested in learning more of the details behind the natural history of the park.
Final Thoughts
One of the many state parks in Utah, Snow Creek Canyon State Park is a great park showcasing some extraordinary natural wonders. There are few other areas you can get so close (and even onto) volcanic features, or scramble across ancient petrified dunes while climbing the red Navajo sandstones. You can even see lava flows that look as if they flowed yesterday dripping down the canyon’s walls.
With a full-service campground and miles of available trails, the Park makes an excellent overnight destination and offers the chance to better explore this varied and intriguing terrain.
Other Southwestern US Destinations
Walnut Canyon National Monument (AZ) / Wupatki National Monument (AZ) / Meteor Crater (AZ) / Sunset Crater (AZ) / Red Rock Canyon (NV) / Quail Creek State Park (UT)
Travel Magazines
Travel & Leisure Magazine / Budget Travel / National Geographic Adventure / Outside Magazine / National Geographic Traveler
Recommended:
Yes
Best time to go: Anytime
Recommended for: Anybody
Review Topic: Overview
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