The Ultimate Way To See Southern Utah
On our way into Utah, Andrew was immediately envious of everyone riding their ATVs and OHVs around. There are a ton of trails in Kanab, so he had to book one. We rented a side by side OHV for a whole day from Kane County Off Road. It ended up being the most fun we had during our entire stay in Kanab.
The owner of Kane County Off Road had us download an offline map on our phones, highlighted a route, and gave us a satellite phone just in case we needed to contact him. His itinerary threw us right into some of the most challenging terrain of the day. We went downhill over some rocky switchbacks where Andrew was too nervous about going over 5 miles an hour.
After about 2 hours of driving, we ended up at our first stop of the White Wave. It’s a similar rock formation to the exclusive Wave, except it’s white, not red rock, and we didn’t need to enter a lottery to go. It was stunning and unique, and the best part is that we were the only ones there!
Next up, we headed to Peek-A-Boo slot canyon. Water has slowly formed this incredible canyon as it drips down the sandstone. Again this place was deserted, unlike other famous slot canyons nearby. From there, we both had a blast driving through the deep sand.
Avoid Our Mistake – We returned the machine an hour early because we misinterpreted how long our return trip would be. On the way back, we were mostly on paved or easy gravel roads. In retrospect, we should have played around more on the sandy dunes near Peek-A-Boo to use up all the time we had with the OHV.
We next headed through Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. The animal sanctuary is the largest no-kill location in the country. We even passed the pet cemetery filled with wind-chimes and decorative tombstones. It was a bit strange but peaceful as well. The reason for driving through was to end up at Hidden Lake, a creepy lake in a cave. It was cool to see, and nearby we even spotted some (possible) petroglyphs and remnants of cisterns from early inhabitants of the regions.
Our final stop of the day was to Cutler Point, where there is a short hiking trail that leads to a cavern where the wind has to turn the sandstone into a huge dune. We had so much fun running up and down the dune. Erica had to create a sand angel before leaving! We later learned that this is called the Great Chamber. It was so unexpected and incredibly cool.
All in all, it was the most incredible day. Not only was it enjoyable to drive the machine we rented, but it also took us to gorgeous, remote locations we would not have seen otherwise. It was expensive, but it was worth it.
OHV Renting Tip – Bring hand warmers and layers! The morning of our trip, we went to graph our ski goggles for the wind and sand and saw our hand warmers with the rest of our ski gear. We threw a few in our packs because we had been hiking in unexpected cold weather. However, we didn’t think we would be using them on our OHV trip because it was supposed to be a warm day. It was warm while hiking, but we were cold in the windshield-less vehicle, especially our hands. Almost immediately, we activated the hand warmers and threw them in our gloves- it made all the difference.