Kanab, Utah sits at the center of the Southwest’s greatest road trip

Kanab’s the base camp you didn’t know about

About 4,700 people live in Kanab, Utah, a small desert town just north of the Arizona border. Red sandstone cliffs rise around it on all sides, and sagebrush fills the gaps between.

The town sits at 5,000 feet in the middle of what people call the “Grand Circle,” a loop of major national parks and monuments across the Southwest.

Zion, Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, Lake Powell, and Grand Staircase-Escalante are all within 90 minutes of town. The parks get all the fame, but Kanab is where you sleep, eat and plan your next move.

The name goes back to willows and Paiute land

The Southern Paiute people lived in this part of Utah for centuries before European settlers showed up.

The name “Kanab” comes from a Paiute word tied to willows, though sources go back and forth on whether it means “place of the willows” or refers to a willow basket.

Fort Kanab went up in 1864 along the east bank of Kanab Creek. Six years later, ten Mormon families settled here and formally founded the town.

Today, Kanab serves as the county seat of Kane County.

John Wayne slept here, and so did Clint Eastwood

Hollywood found Kanab early. Actor Tom Mix filmed Deadwood Coach here in 1924, and director William Wellman later gave the town its nickname, “Little Hollywood,” after the locals pitched in to help his crew.

The Parry brothers opened Parry Lodge in 1931 to house film productions, and over the decades it hosted John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.

More than 100 movies and TV shows have filmed in Kane County, from Gunsmoke to Planet of the Apes. You can walk through old sets and props at the free Little Hollywood Museum downtown.

Sandboard down pink dunes 20 miles from town

About 20 miles from Kanab, 3,730 acres of pink sand dunes spread across a valley between the Moquith and Moccasin Mountains.

The color comes from eroded Navajo sandstone, and wind funneling between those two mountain ranges has piled it here over thousands of years. The dunes shift as much as 50 feet per year.

You can rent sandboards or sand sleds right at the park, hike across the dunes, or ride off-highway vehicles on about 90 percent of the area. Utah made it a state park in 1963.

64 people a day get to see the Wave

The Wave sits about 46 miles east of Kanab in the Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness.

Its red and orange sandstone swirls date back roughly 190 million years to the Jurassic period, and those flowing, striped patterns make it one of the most photographed rock formations in the country.

You need a permit to go, and the Bureau of Land Management hands them out by lottery. Only 64 people per day get in.

The hike runs 6.4 miles round trip across open, unmarked desert, so you navigate by landmarks and GPS.

Walk between walls hundreds of feet tall

Buckskin Gulch cuts roughly 16 miles through the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, and the Bureau of Land Management calls it one of the longest continuous slot canyons in the world.

The walls tower hundreds of feet overhead and narrow to just a few feet across in places.

Most hikers enter at the Wire Pass Trailhead off Highway 89, about halfway between Kanab and Page, Ariz. You need a day-use permit at $6 per person. Never go in during or after rain.

Flash floods hit these narrow corridors fast and without warning.

No lottery needed for Peek-a-Boo canyon

If you can’t win the Wave lottery, Peek-a-Boo Slot Canyon is about nine miles north of Kanab along Highway 89. The narrow, sculpted sandstone walls catch light and shadow in ways that stop you mid-step.

Deep sand blocks the road in, so most people reach it by guided off-road vehicle. No permit or lottery is required, which makes it one of the easier slot canyons to access in the area.

Nearby, the Great Chamber opens into a massive sandstone alcove where the scale alone draws people from all over.

Mushroom-shaped rocks on a family-friendly trail

The Toadstool Hoodoos sit about 40 minutes east of Kanab, right off Highway 89 in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

You get there on a 1.8-mile round trip hike with almost no elevation gain, so kids and older adults handle it fine. The formations look like giant mushrooms.

A hard caprock sits on top of a softer stone column, and the softer rock erodes faster underneath, leaving these top-heavy shapes standing in the open. No fee or permit is required to visit.

1,600 rescue animals live in a canyon outside town

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary sits on nearly 5,800 acres in Angel Canyon, about five miles north of Kanab. Founded in 1984, it is the largest no-kill sanctuary for companion animals in the country.

On any given day, up to 1,600 dogs, cats, horses, pigs, birds and rabbits live here. You can take a free guided tour or sign up to volunteer and spend time with the animals directly.

Reserve your tour slot ahead of time, because they fill up, especially in peak season.

A cave that went from shelter to dance hall to museum

Moqui Cave sits about five miles north of Kanab along Highway 89. It is a natural sandstone cave that Indigenous groups originally used for shelter and food storage.

In the mid-20th century, someone turned it into a tavern and dance hall, and it became one of the area’s social hangouts. Today it runs as a small natural history museum.

Inside, you walk past Native American artifacts, dinosaur tracks, fossils and a collection of fluorescent minerals. A small admission fee covers a guided tour.

Step inside Kane County’s first modern home

The Kanab Heritage House is a Victorian-era home built in 1894, once called “the first modern home in Kane County.” The City of Kanab bought it in 1974, restored it, and opened it as a free museum.

Inside, you see original furnishings and period items while guided tours tell the stories of the families who lived there for close to a century. The house sits on the National Register of Historic Places.

A short walk away, the Kanab Museum inside the public library covers the area’s history from its earliest known peoples to the present.

The North Rim is close, but check before you go

The Grand Canyon’s North Rim sits about 80 miles south of Kanab, roughly a 90-minute drive. It draws fewer crowds than the South Rim, with forested trails and canyon overlooks that feel more remote.

But the 2025 Dragon Bravo Fire destroyed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge and visitor center.

The North Rim is set to reopen for limited day use on May 15, 2026, with scenic drives and viewpoints open, but no overnight lodging inside the park for the 2026 season.

Check with the National Park Service for current conditions before you drive down.

Explore Kanab, Utah

You can reach Kanab by driving about four hours south from Salt Lake City or roughly three hours northeast from Las Vegas. The town sits at the junction of Highway 89 and Highway 89A in far southern Utah.

Downtown, a walkable main street runs past the Little Hollywood Museum, the Heritage House and the Kanab Visitor Center.

Kanab is a candidate for International Dark Sky Community status, and the desert around town delivers some of the best stargazing you will find.

Every summer, the Western Legends Roundup celebrates the town’s cowboy culture and film history with music and entertainment.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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