Kanab | Utah

While I was exploring Kanab, I stayed at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park.  I think they're more reddish than pink, but they sure are pretty in the light just before sunset.

Look closely at this next photo, you'll see people climbing the dune.  It gives a good indication of how large these are.

When I checked into the park, they had firewood advertised on the counter.  I put a coin down to show the size of the bundle.  Really cute - they did sell the regular sized logs though!

Just had to take a shot of this meticulously maintained home/museum.

Not too far from town is this totem behind a locked gate with a sign that no trespassers were allowed due to vandalism.  Unfortunate, since there's a really nice looking swimming hole nearby.

Kanab is known as "Little Hollywood" because when Westerns were really popular, they filmed quite a few in this area - one of the more famous ones was The Outlaw Josey Wales.  There is a museum of some of the old stage sets, which was quite interesting.

This little building looks like stone, but is made of painted styrofoam. 

This looks like authentic adobe, but it's made from fiberglass.  The laundry on the line adds a great touch! 

One of the more important places I visited was Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, where they house stray or abandoned pets - including horses, pigs, birds and others.  They have over 500 cats in this complex, which includes a clinic, buildings to house the domesticated animals.  Some of the animals have private rooms due to personalities, diseases or other issues.  I didn't get to take the entire tour but I imagine they have the same type of facilities for dogs and other animals.

For more information on this organization - this is the link http://bestfriends.org/

Little Sahara Recreation Area | Utah

This area is set aside for people who take four wheelers into the desert for fun and to climb sand  hills.  I decided it would be a good place for a quick stop over to decide where to go next.

Strangely enough the dunes have ripples in them caused by wind very similar to the ripples in the sand bottom of  the ocean caused by what wave action.

This has been a nice little stop over and the scenery is quite striking.  There are three different campgrounds and Oasis seems to be the best of them.

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

 

White Sands National Monument is an area of about 275 square miles of gypsum sand dunes, the largest area of its type in the world.  There are dunes with vegetation and vast areas of dunes where there is very little life, either vegetation or animal.  Any animals in this area have evolved throughout the years to white coloration to blend with the sand – such as lizards. 

 

 

I started a hike across the dunes, the “trail” was marked by 4’ stakes that were driven into the dunes spaced so that you could see the next one, thereby assuring that you shouldn’t get lost as long as you were paying attention and didn’t wander too far.  The sand is very bright, not exactly white, but very close.  In the bright sun, there were grains that were very shiny and reflective.  Luckily, I had remembered to put sunscreen on my face, or the reflection would have burned me. 

 

 

The trail was over a sand dune, down the other side and up the side of the next one, then repeat.  In some places, the sand was soft and very deep – just like a beach with lots of loose sand.  In other places it was more hard packed, easier to walk in.  There were areas with ripple patterns made by the wind blowing over the sand.  When it blows over the roads, they have to plow it and there are piles on the sides of the road, looking suspiciously like snow.

 

 

I was probably about a half mile into the trail, having just trudged up the side of one dune, standing there on top, looking at unlimited dunes in front of me, with the mountain range in the far distance.  It was very dramatic, something I had not seen before and something I may never see again.  There were miles of dunes in all directions, nothing else in sight except for those mountains way off.  As I looked at the next trail marker, on the top of the next dune, with a valley between the two dunes, I decided I had gone far enough.  It was very hard walking through the soft sand and I had not started early enough in the morning.  It turned out to be a good decision because I found out the trail was 5 miles long, not the two miles I had thought.  And by the time I got back to the beginning, it was lunchtime. 

 

 

There were lots of families there and the kids had plastic saucer type toys to slide down the steeper dunes, other people were using flat cardboard to slide down.  As I was leaving the hiking trail, two people started on the trail with those saucer type sliders – I told them it was a great idea, they can hike up one side and then slide down the other side.  Meanwhile, it could be used as a sun shade!  It sure looked like it would have made the hike more fun.

 

The area is definitely unique and totally different from the rest of the surrounding area, which is part of the Chihuahuan Desert that is mostly in Mexico, but extends to parts of southern New Mexico.