Running on Eddie: Snow Canyon State Park Hike

Monday, April 13, 2015

Snow Canyon State Park Hike - St George Utah

Introduction

So after running a marathon, what does one do? Well, besides rehydrating and getting some food, one goes hiking -- of course.

In attempt to visit all the tourist things in St George, we decided it was best to head on over to Snow Canyon State Park. Snow Canyon is about a 15 minute drive from St George and pretty easy to get to. Just head out of town and follow Snow Canyon Parkway until you reach your destination.

This park is absolutely stunning and not super heavily visited (but it certainly was busy for a Saturday afternoon), so you can easily stop at each of the little areas and check them out. Apparently there are a lot of hiking trails there -- some easy and some lengthy. Being that it was an extremely warm day and I had just run 26 miles, I wasn't going to be doing any serious hiking but I definitely wanted to see the sites.

Snow Canyon

The drive to Snow Canyon is actually pretty interesting. Obviously on the far outskirts of town, the town is quickly catching up to the borders of the canyon. There are some really nice looking subdivisions that have a desert appeal to them. Virtually the entire way is lined by a jogging / bike trail. There were a ton of cyclists enjoying the day as well.

After about a 4 minute way to get into the park's entrance -- and paying $6.25 for entry, Shari and I checked out the map and stopped at the various grottos and exploration areas. Sometimes it would just be a scenic view with rocks to climb on and other times there would be a full-fledged hiking trail. The trails that I saw were all super easy and didn't have too many challenging climbs -- although the Lava Field hike did have some scrambling parts to it.

I wasn't into going on any marathon hike -- being I had just run a long ways. I could certainly go on some mild walking excursions and I was sort of interested in seeing the Petrified Sand Dunes as well as the Lava Fields. Shari isn't much of a hiker and has problems with heights so I think we both figured this one would be an easy enough hike. We wound up hiking over a mile each way and enjoyed the atmosphere.

This park is absolutely stunning and can be done in a few hours. I suggest bringing food / picnic supplies. They have plenty of areas to eat at. It is also suggested that you bring sunscreen and plenty of liquids, as there isn't much shade here and in the summer the temperatures can easily get over 100. When we visited it was in the lower 80's.

Enjoy the pictures: