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.
By Scott Buehler, Kanab local
Updated September 2026
The short answer
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is the largest no kill companion animal sanctuary in the country, spread across Angel Canyon about five miles north of Kanab. Yes, you can visit, and it costs nothing: the guided tour and the Welcome Center are both free, though the tour has to be booked ahead because it runs a set number of times a day and fills up. What surprises most people is the scale. Up to 1,600 animals live here at a time, across a canyon rather than inside a building, and more than 400 people work the place, which makes it the largest employer in Kane County by a wide margin. For a visitor that is a good free morning. For anyone weighing a move to Kanab it is something more useful: year round work in a town whose other main industry, tourism, empties out every winter.
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 booked ahead the same way. A volunteer morning is a completely different experience from the bus, and it is the version most locals have done at some point. You can also stay the night out at the sanctuary: there are cottages, cabins and RV sites near the Welcome Center, and some guests arrange an animal sleepover so a dog or cat spends the night in their room. If you would rather be in town, the organization also runs a pet friendly hotel in Kanab, which is the practical answer when you are traveling 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.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
Keep reading
More of Kanab on The Local.
The permit country
Permits and lotteries, explained
The Wave, Coyote Buttes and Buckskin Gulch, and how each lottery and permit actually works before you plan a trip around one.
Read the guideNarrow country
The slot canyons
Four slot canyons within reach of town, sorted by how much scrambling, water and nerve each one asks of you.
Read the guideThe whole town
Kanab, from a local
Kanab itself, from someone who lives here: where it sits, the movie years, the permit culture, and what the seasons really feel like.
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 during daytime hours, and the tour and volunteer slots are the parts that fill, so reserve those before you drive out.
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.
There are rules about where personal pets can go on the property, for the obvious reasons. Ask when you book, and plan for your own dog to stay elsewhere during the tour itself.
Most people base in Kanab, about ten minutes south, which carries the lodging, the food and everything else a trip needs. The sanctuary sits up Angel Canyon and the town does the hosting, so booking a room in Kanab and driving out to your tour is the normal pattern.
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.
Morning, both for the animals and for the light in Angel Canyon. Tours run a handful of times a day and the earlier ones tend to feel less rushed.
Yes. There are cottages, cabins and RV sites on the property near the Welcome Center, and some guests arrange an animal sleepover so a sanctuary dog or cat spends the night in their room. The organization also runs a pet friendly hotel in town if you would rather be in Kanab with your own animal.
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.
Or call me: (435) 357-4345or send me a message
Keep going
Continue your Kanab research.
Eight more doors into Kanab, chosen for what this page covers.
Questions about Kanab?
Call me, send a message, or find out what your Kanab home is worth. No pressure, no obligation.