Snow Canyon, Utah - Thanksgiving Weekend

[jbdaniels]

My wife Lisa and I took a trip down to the balmy Mojave Desert outside of St. George, Utah to celebrate my birthday and escape from the cold of Salt Lake City.

Everything was great. The weather, the food, the campground, the hiking and the scenery. What a great place to do some winter camping. Weather was 60ish in the days and lows in the high 30's. Just spectacular.

Here are some pics:

[Wolffarmer]

WOW

That looks like a great place to go camping. I will have to find that on a map and might hit it sometime soon.

Looks like you had a good time. I have camped before on a major holiday and had great time. Most people that is really strange.

[hiker chick]

Excellent pics! Looks like a Happy Teardrop Thanksgiving.

60s-30s is a nice temperature range.

[Wolffarmer]

I just looked up that state park,

Looks nice, electric hookups, hot showers. Near St. George Utah. Open all year. Sounds like a good place for a late winter or early Spring camp. If my arm lets me. And I am doing some fixing on my trailer. It is still campable but the wires to the bright light inside is kaput. having to rip some head liner out and making a great mess, probably won't be able to continue on that job for a month or so.

[jbdaniels]

Here is the website for the State Park:

http://stateparks.utah.gov/parks/snow-canyon

There are sites with hookups but to be honest, they are a bit close together for my taste. The tent sites are much nicer.

We had reserved site 25. It wasn't too bad. However, we did scout out all the other sites and 27 is by far the nicest site. Especially for a teardrop. It has a double wide paved and level drive which is easy to back the trailer in to. Some nice trees and excellent views and seclusion.

So if you are going to reserve a site I would highly recommend #27.

[Wolffarmer]

Thanks Joe for that info

I am getting a wild idea about calling a camp out of the Great Basin Tear Jerkers for the week end before Easter ( That is when the Glyphs is held).

Like March 29th 30 and 31st. The glyphs camp seems to start on Wednesdays or Thursdays. If i am still unemployed then I might could make it to both.

Is reservations really needed? I just have something against that, specially when the 3rd party company charges so much just to make the reservation.

Thanks

[jbdaniels]

The campground wasn't full this weekend but was pretty busy.

I would imagine a weekend in spring it can fill up. personally I will usually pay the extra for reservations. I beats not getting a spot.

Joe

[sunny16]

This is so funny. I was just looking for somewhere to go in the spring and was looking at Snow Canyon. I have been by there a few times but never actually up the canyon. I should be there in February for a conference and will have to drive up there and take a look around. I should have gone this past weekend with you. Camping where it is warmer than up here would have been much nicer than putting up Cristmas lights!. Glad you had a good time. Thanks for the pics!

[Ageless]

Righteous!! A few years back I was going thru Utah in early November. Daytime was 80s and nights in the upper 20s. The cold wasn't as bad as it is here; no moisture to irritate the bones.

[TENNJIM]

Great pictures! Thank you! I have not been to Snow Canyon but I am interested in it now. MOKI has not posted up for a long time and I thought this thread would get his interest-has anyone heard from him?

Jim B / Utah

[sonar37]

Super cool pics!! Thanks for sharing your adventure with us. I really want to go back out west to take my wife teardropping. Thanks for the info.

Rob

[Downunder Dave]

Thank you Joe and Lisa for sharing some great pics of what looks like a good weekend. It is great to see a bit more of your part of the world.
A great looking rig, hope to see more pics next time you camp out.

Cheers Dave

[KBS]

I used to live in St. George, my wife is from there. We made regular trips to Snow Canyon. The sand dunes on the south end are fun. There are also a couple of really cool lava caves that are completely accessible to the public. For the one I'm familiar with, you would need to hike about a half mile, be able to climb down a small cliff (10 feet), jump maybe 4-5 feet down (or stretch far enough to spiker crawl down), and crawl or squat/duck walk for maybe 15 feet through the cave entrance. A good light is imperative, and going in a group is recommended. I'd be glad to answer more questions if anyone has them.

Summer is oppressively hot (100-115 degrees F is common), but fall through spring is nice. The park rangers are extremely happy to enforce every imaginable rule, so make sure you know what's not permitted.

There is also an impressive arch at the mouth of the canyon called Johnson Arch. It's maybe a 2 mile round trip hike on level ground. It was closed to the public in years past, but I recently read that it's open. Checking with the rangers would be wise.

I can give a virtual tour of just about all of southern Utah, so if anyone has any questions, just ask.

[Dragonryder]

There are so many beautiful places and so little time. Wonderful pictures. Thanks for sharing. It gives us snow bound, freezing, cabin feverish campers something to look forward to. Well done!!!