The good people of the West Coast pride ourselves on social progress. We’ve figured out a few things a half-tick faster than the rest of the country and have allowed ourselves to believe that we’re somehow more elevated than our neighbors to the east. As I see it, the problem is that we have put ourselves in a righteous position that lacks the exact kind of serious self-examination we wish the rest of the country would engage in. The reality is that out west, we are just as guilty of lazy thinking as anyone, anywhere else. Take for example our liberal use of the term “fly over country” to describe the majority of the United States.

While not scientifically measured, it would appear that any semi-arid patch of our nation that is not currently hosting a music or arts festival would qualify as fly over country. Sparsely populated and filled with wide open space, Southern Utah is exactly one of those places that my self-righteous brothers and sisters of the coast would dismiss. This part of our great land is so rugged and unforgiving that it was the last part of the lower 48 to be mapped. After returning from a recent trip there, I would like to offer a piece of advice to my neighbors who would characterize it so harshly. Keep flying over it.

Over spring break, we took the kids into Kanab, Utah. Kanab is a small desert town of 5000 that lies about 200 miles north of Las Vegas. Situated in the Grand Staircase National Monument and surrounded by BLM land, it is perfectly positioned to use as a home base for any visitor to the area. Kanab is central to three national parks; Zion, Bryce, and the northern rim of the Grand Canyon. In addition, its proximity puts it and only an hour north of Page, Arizona, home up the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon, as well as Lake Powell. Aside from the parks and Instagram famous locations, the town is ringed by some incredibly wild country that deserves further exploration. Thanks to the good people with Dreamland Safari Tours, we were able to do just that.

We booked a tour with Dreamland Safari based off a recommendation. It ended up being a great choice because it opened up the land to us. We would not have seen half of what we did without our guide Orion and his very reliable Suburban. Satellite phone equipped, his four wheeler allowed us to see places we would have never had access to. Over the course of five stops, we were able to spend time playing in sand dunes, learn about the formation of sandstone, see ancient petroglyphs, spent lots of climbing, saw two of the steps in the Grand Staircase, and wandered through an empty slot canyon. It was a wide open wilderness completely devoid of online influencers trying to get that perfect photo.

Our kids were able to have a kind of fun around Kanab that they would have missed out on back home. Aside from being able to play with plenty of dirt over the course of the day, they also got to have some real world-opening experiences. Since the majority of the sights we went to were well off paved roads, they were able to travel up sand washes. As we drove from location to location, they were able to spot mule deer zipping across our path. During lunch in the Ponderosa Grove Campground, they entertained themselves with the unsophisticated delight of throwing rocks into a puddle. At the end of the day, they spent some time searching for fossils.

After taking the tour with Dreamland Safari, my knee jerk reaction would be to go out and convince my fellow coastal elites to get out of California and take a look around. However, the more prudent position would be to let them keep their limited outlook, The countryside is so pristine that bringing narrow minded people in would be a waste of time.

This entry was based on a visit to the area surrounding Kanab, Utah on April 1, 2019

People interested in visiting should contact Dreamland Safari. We took the Ultimate Kanab Tour.

4350 E Mountain View Drive

Kanab, UT 84741

435 644-5506

Can get enough dust? When in Nevada, visit Valley of Fire State Park.

One day, a historian will write a book about our slice of the twenty-first century and will identify right now as the moment when people lost any sense of a nuanced approach to their dealings. It does not matter if it’s an opinion about the president, or a Yelp review of Moons Over My Hammy, the best we can manage is to say that things are either entirely great, or wretchedly terrible. The majority of people are only carrying two crayons in their boxes. One is black and the other one is white. While I am busy throwing stones at the rest of humanity, I will go ahead and plead guilty of the same binary approach to thinking.

Take my thoughts about the city of Las Vegas, for example. I have been more than content to shrug that city off based on my limited interactions with it. To me, Las Vegas is nothing more than a town built to dispense little units of pre-programmed joy. Every day, swarms descend looking for a recharge and the machinery running Las Vegas provides exactly what the robots need to be happy. A wonderland covered in sparkle and light, Las Vegas is a city that specializes in too much drink, too much food, and too much gaming. Thankfully, my wife convinced me to look past the obvious Las Vegas offerings on our latest outing. If I would have relied on my own lazy thinking, we would have missed a chance to see the marvel that is Valley of Fire State Park.

The Valley of Fire is a remarkable contrast to the obvious Las Vegas fare. Don’t look for smoky casinos filled with people who failed math as they bet it all on black. Starting with the hour long drive north, all the trappings of a major city slip away. Despite its close proximity to endless jumbo shrimp cocktails, there was little more that endless blue skies without a cell phone tower or powerline in sight. Entry into the park is only ten dollars per carload making it one of the best values around. Valley of Fire Highway snakes through the park and offers several places to turn out and explore.

While the Ancestral Puebloan people who once claimed it have moved on in the shuffle of history, they left their mark on the land in the form of the petroglyphs they left behind. There are several locations to see them but the most accessible is at Atlatl Rock near the entrance of the park. Ringed by a parking lot and an RV campground, Atlatl Rock is a monolith jutting up from the dry, red sand and features 3000 year old petroglyphs. High atop the rock, carved into the face of the red stone, there are pictures of people and long horned sheep. They are also supposed to include the depiction of an atlatl, a hunting tool that predates the bow and arrow. It is a staggering thing to see and still I am moved by the gravity of being able to show them to my kids. I could see these markings being left by a party of hunters as they bided their time, waiting for a herd of sheep to pass through the valley. For the convenience of visitors, the park offers a staircase directly to the rocks. Aside from the petroglyphs, the observation stand also offers commanding view of the park. While the access to the carvings is remarkable, it has had its price. While the stairs allow curious people to take in the wonder of the artifacts, they have been damaged by visitors over time.

Only a few miles down the road from Atlatl Rock lay the Seven Sisters. Once again, the Nevada State Park Service does a tremendous job of accommodating visitors with parking and picnic tables. The Seven Sisters, a group of red rock formations is an ideal place to bring kids and let them run wild. The formations became castles and cathedrals for my kids as they climbed and played. It was absolute rocket fuel for imagination. The Seven Sisters was the antithesis to the obvious pleasure center activities in the Strip. Only 54 miles away, a giant jumbotron flashed advertisement for French Canadian acrobats and buffets, my kids were lost in a world of their own creation.

All totaled, we were only able to spend a few hours in the park. Our stops and simple hikes amounted to us seeing only a fraction of the Valley of Fire. Weather permitting, I could see returning many more times in the future. My enthusiasm for the park made me reconsider my opinions about Las Vegas as a vacation destination. While I may still not be excited about the bright lights and wretched excess of the Strip, I would say that I am now more included to seek out some of the quieter, more subtle places in Nevada.

Anyone considering a trip out to the Valley of Fire should plan head. Bring food and water because there are no concessions inside the park. The only place to get food is at a truckstop just outside the entrance.

This entry was based on a visit to the Valley of Fire on December 27, 2019

Valley of Fire State Park

29450 Valley of Fire Highway

Overton, NV 89040

Interested in dusty adventure? If you’re ever in Utah, book a trip with Dreamland Safari.