Photo locations in Kanab Utah and surroundings

[summicron1]

depends on how far ur willing to drive. Everything from Vegas to the Grand Canyon and all points around. Bears Ears is just north. Capitol Reef National Park is worth a visit, arches, canyonlands, all around. Throw a dart at a map and go there, it will be lovely.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Hwy 12 often gets shut at the top, at Torrey Pass, which is about 9000 ft up. But it's a wonderful place to get snowed in, unless you're down some unpaved side road unable to get out, or foolish enough not to have a good winter sleeping bag along. Another risk up there in the aspen is from drunken deer hunters in autumn. You need to be aware where they're at.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

You can't get to the North Rim this time of year -- and Bryce might be closed as well. Check out UT Route 12 -- the most beautiful road in America -- east of Kanab.

I had planned to take Route 12 from Capitol Reef to Bryce staying over one night in Boulder. But I got nervous went the weather report predicted a storm was going to roll in. The lack of barriers at the side of this road got me nervous as well.

So I took at nice road west of it cancelling my stay in Boulder (and losing my one-night deposit). Then ran into a hail storm on the way to Bryce on the alternate road which meant that 12 surely got hit. The alternate was a straight road with nice views but a lot safer. Glad I didn't take 12 although I felt a little bit like a wuss not doing it.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Note that Bryce is the highest also around 9000 feet.

 

[xkaes]

My first trip on Route 12 was when it was a dirt road -- and is wasn't in any guide book. Amazing. In some spots -- slickrock -- it was hard to know where the "road" was!

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

My first trip on Route 12 was when it was a dirt road -- and is wasn't in any guide book. Amazing. In some spots -- slickrock -- it was hard to know where the "road" was!

Yes. I read reviews like yours. That's why I skipped it.

 

[xkaes]

It's not like that anymore, but I'm sure it's impossible to find the pavement in a blizzard. Guard rails? What are those?

Put it on your calendar for next foliage season -- mid-September?

 

[DREW WILEY]

Hwy 12 is like a six lane SoCal freeway compared to where I'm from. Just time it right over the top. Plenty to see and do, and photograph down below either side in the meantime. I do believe, however, that it was a staggering mistake to classify 12 as a formal Scenic Byway. About twenty motels suddenly sprang up in the tiny little town of Torrey just outside Capitol Reef, with naive investors thinking it was something like a Grand Canyon or Zion Springdale business opportunity, not realizing the remoteness of the location over a high pass. Most of those venues remained empty, with doors and windows swaying in the wind, for years. Damned touristification anyway! The clay hills just outside the other end of Capitol Reef got all chewed up with ATV tracks. Still, Capitol Reef is amazing spot, and one of the least visited NP's having direct highway access. Hwy 12 is also the starting point for many classic canyoneering hikes; but some of those too are getting a little overused due to the proliferation of web videos, GPS coordinates, and so forth.

 

[MFstooges]

Kolob Canyons has a completely different entrance on the highway south of Cedar City. It's higher in altitude than Zion Canyon per se.
It has a nice short drive which can be stunning in Fall color. It's even more rewarding to the backpacker. Second longest sandstone arch in the world is down in there, maybe seven miles in. Don't exactly remember. But I sure do remember how ridiculously cold it could get at night in November. I used my backpack as a pillow to discourage critters. But a particular ringtail was persistent, and kept climbing on my sleeping bag trying to get to the pack. They're a slender raccoon-like creature with a long banded tail and enormous eyes, almost entirely nocturnal, and incredibly cute. But this one pestered me all night. The last thing I needed digging through my Sinar gear was that critter.

Kolob Can is a pretty long drive from Kanab; but well worth it if you are heading that direction anyway. No facilities at all there except the
Ranger Station.

Anywhere in that country a serious sleeping bag, extra food and water, and good footwear and clothing is a MUST, especially in Winter. A stall due to weather or an auto breakdown which might just be an inconvenience in the burbs can turn out downright fatal in stretches of the West where help and accommodations can be far and few between off-season, and cell phone reception unreliable.

So I was at Kolob yesterday, being first time I needed to explore where the spots are and spent too much time hiked up to Timber Creek trail and the cloud started to hug the peaks and visibility had gotten worse. Do the lower trails provide better scenery outside of fall season?

Also are there good spots along Hwy 148?

 

[DREW WILEY]

Your lower areas are accessible either in the main section of Zion NP where everyone goes, or via strenuous backcountry approaches into other major canyon branches which might not have road access free of snow to even the trailheads this time of year. From the Kolob section itself, you can drop down into LaVerkin Creek on a lovely trail; but it can be even colder down in that shaded canyon in the Fall except when and where the sun is briefly overhead; and I mean, like down to zero. Been there, done that.

I suspect Hwy 148 is closed much of the winter. It goes up pretty high, and is probably heavily snowed in by now. The main attraction is Cedar Breaks, which is generally closed in winter. When you end up at Panguich, their idea of hospitality is to hand out as many bogus traffic tickets as possible. It's an intersection I avoid.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I took this picture somewhere along East Kolob Canyon Road shown also on the Google map link below for directions. I don't know if it's open this time of year. Sorry it's a digital image.

Kolob Canyons Visitor Center to Kolob View Point

goo.gl

Kolob Canyon - Northwest Zion by Alan Klein, on Flickr

 

[DREW WILEY]

Kolob itself is generally open year-round. But Cedar Breaks is a lot higher, more equivalent to the rim altitude above the Kolob canyons. And since that's a secondary road to Cear Breaks, they don't attempt to keep it open all the time like to the far more popular Bryce Can NP, which also tops out around 9000 ft elev. But one can potentially get stuck anywhere up high that time of year, regardless, so a warm sleeping bag and extra supplies are essential. I've gotten snowed in quite a few times, and considered myself lucky when it was snowing in Kolob at the same time as the Fall color peak.