Hurricane, UT
We left Boulder City on Sunday morning and headed north on I-15. The drive is pretty mundane until you hit the Arizona State Line. At that point the highway winds its way through the narrow, scenic Virgin River Gorge.
After a 30 mile drive through the corner of Arizona, we came out of the north end of the gorge and entered Utah. We were immediately treated to a great view of snow covered mountains.
Sixteen miles north of the state line we exited the interstate on to UT 9 and followed signs to one of our favorite parks, Sand Hollow State Park. Dave and Sue traveled with us and are in the site right next door.
This is a very nice park with full hook-ups, plenty of space between sites, and great views all around.
Dave and Sue are next to us
The view from Pam’s chair
For our first adventure we decided to take a drive that we have taken a couple of times during previous visits to the area. So Monday morning we headed east on UT 9 toward Zion National Park. Just past the tiny community of Virgin we turned north on Kolob Terrace Road and headed up into the mountains.
We love the beauty of the rock formations all around us as we gain elevation.
Since our daughter, Jessica, was about to experience another snowstorm back in our former hometown of York, Pa we decided to keep going up Kolob Terrace Road until we ran into a bit of the white stuff.
We continued up until the road was covered with snow. At that point we thought, “Ok, enough winter for one year” and headed back down.
We will be staying here for a week and the nimble hiker has been busy researching hikes, so we’ll soon be getting back on the trail. You know what that means, more rock pictures in the next post!
More on that later . . .
Oh, the Places They Go! 
That Virgin River Gorge blew me away! So nice to be able to go to snow when one wants and to be able to just turn around and leave it behind…..
One of our favorite areas in one of our favorite states! Never get tired of seeing the scenery in Zion. Snow makes it even more beautiful!
Like you I love Southern Utah and its colorful rocks.! Im glad you are camped there so I know and be jealous of what I missed last year 😦 And yes we love that drive up Kolob Terrace too!
Just in case you are looking for trails, check Eagles Crag Trail a moderate trail just across Zion NP
What a gorgeous drive to the park. Love the snowman. That’s my idea of experiencing snow too. I’ll have to look up your new home town on a map. Sounds close to Zion and that’s super. Looking forward to red rock.
Ah, gorgeous vistas. I need a rode trip.
Looks like a great campsite and the scenery on those drives is beautiful!
Haha, a token snowman/woman! It’s fun to enjoy a little bit of snow, and then to get out of it quickly. We almost stayed at Sand Hollow SP a couple of years ago but decided on Snow Canyon SP instead. Sand Hollow looks beautiful, and the sites are certainly more spacious than in Snow Canyon.
We drove the gorge yesterday. Amazingly, there was no wind which I think was a first. Lol Oddly….I saw an Arizona highway patrol with someone pulled over just before the gorge. That was a first too.
Love that park and the scenery in that area!
Bring on the red rock photos! As you know that is also one of our favorite places.
Your photos of the Virgin River Gorge are so lovely. The photo with the whitecap mountains is my favorite. The view from your campsite is fantastic! Looking forward to seeing what trouble y’all can get into on the trail….lol
We are heading in that direction in a little over a month. Cannot wait to see all this beautiful scenery for ourselves. And I agree with your theory on winter weather. 30 minutes at the top of Mount San Jacinto earlier this month was enough winter for us!
Definitely enough snow for one winter, but very pretty. I love that Virgin Gorge drive. Have you done Smithsonian Butte Scenic Byway?
It’s always good to experience a little winter, emphasis on ‘little’. Now bring on the red rock photos!
Gorgeous. Just got back from Moab a few days ago. Utah is gorgeous!
Thanks, Kristy! We are moving to Moab on Sunday. Such a neat area with so much to offer.
We know others that have stayed at Sand Hollow so will have to give it a try one day. There’s a nice BLM campground in Virgin River Canyon that we’ve stayed at a few times. Zion is such a great park!