Snow Canyon State Park is a 7400-acre park tucked amid lava flows and sandstone cliffs in Southwest Utah. Within the park is the 31-site Snow Canyon Campground.
Campground Info:
Address: 1002 Snow Canyon Drive, Ivins, UT 84738
Phone Number: (435) 628-2255
- 14 Sites with Electric and Water and 4 Sites with Electric Only ($25/night)
- 13 Sites without Hookups ($20/Night)
- Restrooms with Flush Toilets
- Showers (Free)
- Dump Station
- Water Spigots for Drinking Water
- Group Campsites
- Park Office Located within Campground
- Recycle/Trash
We stayed in site 14, which is at the end of the row of 14 pull-through sites in the middle of the campground. These 14 sites are tight and even though they are paved, are not very level. Each one of the pull-through sites has a covered picnic table and a grill. If we were to return to Snow Canyon, we would try to get site 15A or 15B, which offer more privacy and nicer views.
Park Info:
We checked in late Tuesday afternoon and left early Saturday morning, so we really only had three days to explore the park. Seeing as those three days were week days and we need to work most of the time during the week, we didn’t really explore this park as much as we could have. There are more than 38 miles of hiking trails, a three-mile paved walking/biking trail, technical climbing and more than 15 miles of equestrian trails. However, dogs are only allowed on two trails, so this park isn’t as dog-friendly as other state parks.
We were able to get in a few different hikes:
Cinder Cone Trail: 1.5 miles. Difficult. Steep slopes, loose uneven surfaces. Hike among “lava clinkers” as you corkscrew 500 feet to the top of an extinct volcano where you can view a volcano crater and panoramic scenery.
Petrified Dunes to Butterfly Trail to Lava Flow Trail:
- Petrified Dunes: 1.2 miles. Moderate. Some steep slopes, uneven surfaces. This route crosses massive Navajo sandstone outcrops and sand dunes frozen in time.
- Butterfly Trail: 2 miles. Moderate. Some steep slopes, steps and uneven surfaces. Winding along the west side of Petrified Dunes, this trail leads to West Canyon Overlook and lava tubes.
- Lava Flow Trail: 2.5 miles. Moderate. Uneven surfaces. Hike through a jumbled lava field, the vivid remains of a long-ago volcanic eruption.
Johnson Canyon: Closed annually from March 15 to September 14 – 2 miles. Easy. Level with some rocky slopes and steps. Leads to a sheltered canyon of willow and cottonwood, winding through lava flows and red rock to an arch spanning 200 feet.
In the Area:
The city of St. George (population 82,000+) is about a 20-minute drive from the campground. You’ll find grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, a post office, movie theatre, shopping, and basically anything you could need. There’s a cute, downtown historic area where we ate dinner at a fantastic restaurant called The Painted Pony and got delicious cupcakes from TwentyFive Main. There is also an airport in St. George, which is the second busiest airport in Utah after Salt Lake City.
Just south of the south entrance of the park is the Red Mountain Resort that has a spa where I got massage one day. It was nice to get a little pampering after being on the road for so long!
Zion National Park is less than 60 miles away — about an hour and fifteen minute drive.
Missy & Travis – that’s a great write-up and right on. We camp hosted there three winters right out of the chute full-timing, so it was a great spot to have hookups and meet other full-timers as we greenhorns learned the ropes. Snow Canyon is cool in that it offers the sense of being away from it all but is only 20 minutes away from a Home Depot and other suppliers, a Starbucks, and some really good eateries. Harmon’s is a great grocery store that is right up there with Whole Foods, maybe better. If you’re still there and have time, we recommend trying the Red Mountain Trail a few miles north of the park and on the west (left) side of Hwy 18 heading north. It’s about a 5-6 mile RT and has a great payoff – a view of the entire canyon from a cliff at the north end of the canyon. After the hike, you can drive a few more miles north to the tiny town of Veyo and have a slice of their very good pie. We also found the best pizza around is at the Dixie Pizza Wagon in Hurricane – stone-fired pizza in an outdoor oven cart that is priced super affordably and uses fresh local products. The staff at Snow Canyon is great and the park manager, Kristen Comella, carries out a tough job maintaining the character of the park – no easy task.
Again, great post and we’ll be following you two.
Thanks for the info! We’ve moved on to Page, AZ, but I’m sure we’ll make our way back through the area again in the future.