On a Friday afternoon in early April at 4 PM we left to visit 3 sites around Kanab, two we read about from other people’s blogs and one we found from a flyer made by the Kanab tourist center.
Working our way north, our fist stop was Dinosaur Track trail, accessible by the small parking area near the potta potty at the point of entry inspection turnoff for trucks off of Hwy 89, about 3 miles north of Kanab. We followed a trail through the brush to where someone made a rock arrow indicating where to start the ascent. While a short hike at about 1 mile round trip, the getting to the plateau was steep and rocky. The trail is barely marked, making navigating to the top and down again difficult in some areas not knowing where the real trail is versus the social trails. We arrived at the plateau on the south side. At the top we found 5 Grallator dinosaur footprints, maybe there were others, but the ones we saw had small cairns near them, or some white powder. The views of the surrounding area was nice. The way down was a little easier, as we took a slightly different path at the west edge of the plateau; there was one area I scooted down on my tush.
When we arrived there were only 2 other cars, one group was coming back and already in the brush, one was at the top; both groups had small children with them. One group arrived when we were at the top and they were walking east, past the rock arrow to start their assent.
My thoughts: I’ve seen dinosaur tracks before, so the effort to get up the “hill” for only a handful of tracks, I could have skipped it.
The next stop was the Moqui Caverns/Wind Caves (not the museum) about 3 miles further north. These caves are on the east side of Hwy 89 if driving north, but the parking lot/pullout area is on the west side of the road. After crossing the road, it is fairly easy to find the trail, but where to scale the rock, was the bigger question. Thankfully, we read in advance to go to the north end of the rock for easier climbing. We did see a few people, and young kids, scale the steepest part in the middle, but that wasn’t in my comfort zone! Once we got to the top, the trail was flat entering into the cave. The cave was very sandy and offered about 4 lookout areas. There were so many people there, that we only stayed in the cave for a few photos and headed back.
My thoughts: this .5 mile “hike” was different that many others in the area. Scaling rocks is not something I do and it looked intimidating. Going up wasn’t too bad, going down I was more nervous and scooted down crab style for a few bits. It is a very popular hike and I would have preferred to go at a less busy time to have a few quieter moments to enjoy the feature.
Our last stop was another 10 miles north, to the Belly of the Dragon, a man made cave for drainage for the upper canyons that feed into the North Fork River. We opted to walk up the short trail and drop down into the cave entrance, whereas other people opted to walk through the wash and up into the cave. Since my earlier hikes the same day prepared me, I had no problem shooting down on my butt to get to the entrance. There were 4 other cars parked at the entrance and one family right in front of us, and one right behind us, thankfully, they ended up going up the wash, so we had a little time to give the people in front of us time to take all their pictures. The tunnel itself was longer than I expected, and the trail goes on for 4 miles to a slot cave, but we turned around to leave after we got to the other side.
Directions: Right before Mt. Carmel, about 16 miles north of Kanab on HWY 89, take the left dirt road directly across for a sign for Zion National Park. Follow the dirt road around on the left side for just a little bit and you’ll have a clear view of the Belly of the Dragon, where you can park.
My thoughts: Originally I was least excited about this, maybe because it was a manmade tunnel…but I ended up being surprised and happy we walked through it. Again, timing was bad with three parties arriving at once, but other than that, it was kinda neat.
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