Kanab Utah is a small southern Utah town of approximately 5,000 residents located in rural Kane county in the south/central region. Aptly named Utah’s “Little Hollywood” for the many movies, TV series, and commercials filmed over the years using the area’s scenic landscape as a backdrop. Other than the weathered and decaying set of the Gun Smoke TV set in Johnson Canyon, there is little evidence of its connection to Hollywood. Sure, there’s a movie museum in town and the Parry Lodge boasts of the stars that have stayed as guests, but these are not the attractions that stand out. Kane County is best known for it’s natural attractions.
Kanab is basecamp to many wild and scenic wonders namely the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, The Wave, Paria Canyon Wilderness, and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (Lake Powell), to name just a few of its prominent attractions. It also borders the iconic national parks of Bryce Canyon, Zion, and the Grand Canyon. Needless to say, this is one of the most concentrated areas of natural beauty on the planet. It is also home to many remote canyons filled with ancient native American ruins and rock art. The best way to access many of these archaeological sites is by rope, which is what we did this trip with our friend Nick Smith, owner of Seldom Seen Adventures.
For information about Seldom Seen Adventures visit www.seldomseenadventures.net
Seldom Seen Adventure’s new store front in Kanab UT located on main street near the Rockin’ V Cafe
Seldom Seen can accommodate groups from 1 – 50 with all the necessary gear for a day in the canyons
The “trailhead” to our adventure
Gearing up for our rappel in the canyon below where we’ll find the ancient pictographs
Nick preparing the ropes for Susan
Prepped and ready to go exploring
Nick successfully lands the first rappel
Prepping for second rappel
Our journey will take us to these ancient native American pictographs in a remote canyon.
The panel was completely covered with pictographs
Nick and Susan studying the markings and drawings on the rocks
Anyone know what these are?
Nick rappelling to our next destination where we found pottery shards, petroglyphs & corn cobs
We found corn cobs and pottery shards here
Ancient corn cob, probably several hundred years old or older
We found a few petroglyphs at this site
The colors and patterns were vibrant and interesting. Streaks like this are generally caused by iron and manganese in the sandstone
Susan is standing on a rock fall that covered the entrance to this alcove
A perfect ending to our day
Our day in the canyons of Kanab UT with Nick Smith of Seldom Seen Adventures Kanab Utah is a small southern Utah town of approximately 5,000 residents located in rural Kane county in the south/central region.