Best Friends Kanab
Ten minutes north of town
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, and the town it built.
Up to 1,600 animals spread through Angel Canyon, a free guided tour that has to be booked in advance, and more than 400 jobs in a county of this size. Here is how to visit it and why it matters to anyone weighing a move to Kanab.
Start here
A canyon full of animals, ten minutes from Center Street.
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary occupies Angel Canyon, about five miles north of Kanab and roughly ten minutes from the middle of town. It holds up to 1,600 animals at a time, which is a number that does not mean much until you drive in and understand it is spread across a canyon rather than gathered in a building.
It is the largest no kill animal sanctuary in the country. Dogs, cats, horses, pigs, rabbits and parrots all live in separate areas built for them, and the whole operation runs on staff plus a constant rotation of volunteers. More than 400 people work there, which makes it the largest employer in Kane County by a wide margin.
The Welcome Center is open every day except Christmas, generally from eight in the morning until five in the afternoon. You can turn up there without a booking, look around, and ask what tours have space. What you cannot do without a booking is get into the animal areas.
The visit
What the free tour actually involves.
The guided tour is free and it is the standard way in. You start at the Welcome Center, and from there a bus takes the group through the sanctuary with somebody who works there talking the whole way. Because the animal areas are spread through the canyon, the driving is not filler; it is how the place is laid out.
Tours run several times a day and the schedule shifts with the season, so the booking page is the thing to trust rather than a number printed anywhere else, including here. Reserve a slot before you come. Turning up hoping for a cancellation works occasionally and ruins an afternoon more often.
If you want more than the tour, the sanctuary takes volunteers for day shifts in the animal areas, and those are also booked ahead. A volunteer morning is a completely different experience from the bus and it is the version most locals have done. There is also a pet friendly hotel run by the organisation in town, which is the practical answer to the question of where to stay if you are travelling with an animal.
Free does not mean walk in. Every part of the sanctuary that involves the animals is reserved in advance, and that includes the tour and the volunteer shifts. The Welcome Center is the only part you can simply arrive at.
The part that matters if you are moving here
What it did to the town.
Kanab's economy stands on three legs. Tourism is the visible one, running hard from spring through autumn. The county seat functions are the steady one: county offices, the school district, the hospital, the city, and a BLM field office that manages half a million acres from the edge of town. Best Friends is the third, and it is the one people do not expect.
More than 400 jobs in a county this size changes the arithmetic of the place. It means a share of the local workforce is not seasonal, which matters in a town where the visitor economy empties out every winter. It brings a steady stream of people through who came for the animals rather than the canyons, and a number of them end up staying.
It also shows up socially. People here volunteer, foster and adopt, and taking visiting relatives out on the tour is a standard Kanab thing to do. If you move here you will meet people who work there within your first month, and it will come up in conversation more than any other single employer in the county.
A no kill sanctuary is an unusual thing to build an economy on. In a county of this size it turned out to be a durable one.
Keep reading
More of Kanab on The Local.
The paperwork
Permits and lotteries, explained
The Wave, Coyote Buttes and Buckskin Gulch, with the systems explained properly.
Read the guideNarrow country
The slot canyons
Four pieces of narrow country, ordered by what they ask of you.
Read the guideThe shelf
Kanab, from a local
The town itself: the position, the film years, the permit culture and the seasons.
Read the pageQuick answers
The sanctuary, answered.
Yes. The guided tour costs nothing and neither does the Welcome Center. What the tour does require is a reservation, made in advance online. Tours run a handful of times a day, the schedule moves with the season, and they fill up, so book before you drive out rather than after you arrive.
For the tour and for volunteer shifts, yes. Walk in visitors can use the Welcome Center and ask what has space, but cannot be taken into the animal care areas without a booking. The Welcome Center is open every day except Christmas, generally from eight in the morning until five in the afternoon.
Allow more time than the tour length alone suggests. The sanctuary is spread through Angel Canyon and the tour moves between areas by bus, so the driving is part of it. Add the ten minutes each way from town and it is a solid part of a day rather than a quick stop.
Yes. The sanctuary takes volunteers for day shifts in the animal areas and those are booked in advance, the same as the tour. It is a different experience from the bus tour and it is the version most people who live in Kanab have done at some point.
More than 400, which makes it the largest employer in Kane County. That matters locally because it is year round work in a town whose other main industry, tourism, empties out every winter.
A sanctuary is an odd thing to build a town around.
It worked here. If you are weighing Kanab as a place to live rather than visit, the year round employment picture is one of the things worth talking through honestly.