Hello Hiveians and welcome back!
We're picking up from the last post and heading to Snow Canyon!
After wrapping up most of Valley of Fire, we had to head North to make our timeline work. The plan was to be at Zion National Park for the next morning, and we had about 2 hours of drive time from Valley of Fire. We weren't sure what we would do for the rest of the day, and then I came across Snow Canyon, which was right on the way to Zion and it looked really cool!
So after a few hours of driving, it was looking like we would be cutting it close time wise before sunset, which was a bit unfortunate, but all we could do was try.
We got there right around sunset time, which is kind of earlier in these areas, due to the mountains blocking the sun early than actual sunset. Now it was time to figure out what we had time to do. The first thing that caught my eye was Petrified Sand Dunes. What? I had never heard of that even being a thing! So we headed there first, with the plan being to check that out, then some of the volcanic lava tubes, and then the view of the canyon.
The dunes were a short hike in, but we could see them pretty clearly on the way in, and wow, what a unique formation! Then we got up and onto the Petrified Dunes!
And there were some people across from us making a video, but the light looked very cool on them!
And then we looked across and saw this monster Petrified Dune! It looked surreal how it just rose out of seemingly nowhere to towering heights!
I really wish we had more time here, and specifically more day light, but we had to make due with what we had, so we headed to check out the lava tubes!
The lava tubes were all underground, so all you could really see was the dark caves that lead to them, you can see one in this photo in the bottom right.
So the lava tubes were a bit underwhelming, but on the way there we found those amazing petrified hills behind them!
The light was fading quickly, so there wasn't any time to lose, so I headed to a high ground to get a view of the whole canyon!
Then it was tie to hike down from the rock I climbed, and on the way down I ran into a new friend.
And then it was time to hike back and head on out, but even the hike out was beautiful!
You could also a lot of the pumice in that last photo from the volcanic lava tubes over time, which was very cool!
Well, that's it for this installment friends! I hope you enjoyed! What did you think of Snow Canyon? Have you ever heard of it, or even been there? Did you know there were such things as petrified sand dunes? What was your favorite part or favorite photos?
Thanks for reading, see you in the next one!
- Sean
//:# (!pinmapple 37.216525 lat -113.643612 long Great American Western Road Trip: Day 1: Snow Canyon d3scr)