The dunes Kanab
Twenty five minutes west
Coral Pink Sand Dunes.
A state park of rose coloured sand in a bowl between pine ridges, most of it open to riding, part of it closed since 1997 to protect a beetle that lives here and nowhere else on earth. Here is how to use it, when to go, and what the closure actually means.
Start here
A dune field between the pine ridges.
Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park sits about twenty miles west of Kanab, roughly twenty five minutes on the road, in a bowl held between ridges of ponderosa. The sand is genuinely the colour of the name, and it is at its best in the last hour of daylight when the low sun turns the whole field rose.
The park protects about 3,730 acres. Most of the dune field is open to off highway vehicles, which is the character of the place: side by sides, quad bikes, sandboards, and families who have driven out from town for the evening. If you want silence, this is not the state park for it. If you want the local sand culture, this is exactly it.
It is open daylight hours, every day of the year, and there is a day use fee charged per vehicle with a reduced rate for Utah seniors. That fee moves, so treat the park as the source rather than any number printed elsewhere.
Coral Pink Sand Dunes at a glance
~3,730 acres
the protected park
~25 min
west of Kanab
1997
the conservation closure
Year round
the campground stays open
The part most visitors miss
A beetle that lives here and nowhere else.
The Coral Pink Sand Dunes tiger beetle is found on this dune field and on no other ground on earth. It is about the size of a sunflower seed, ivory backed with green and bronze in the right light, and its entire world is a few hundred acres of sand west of Kanab.
That is why the dunes are not uniformly open ground. Core habitat has been closed to vehicles since 1997, a couple of hundred acres inside the park and a few hundred more on the neighbouring public land. The closure is marked, and the rest of the field remains open to riding, which is a genuinely unusual arrangement: a working off road area and a protected habitat sharing one dune system.
Utah's rare insect programme surveys the population here every year and has done for decades. It is a small thing that gives the place more character than a dune field would otherwise have, and it is the reason to read the signs rather than assume the sand is all yours.
An off road park and the only home of a species, sharing the same sand. Reading the closure signs is the entire deal.
Staying out there
Camping, and the season.
There are two campgrounds, with hot showers and flush toilets, which puts this well ahead of most desert camping in the area. A little over twenty of the sites are dry and a dozen have water and power, and there are two dump stations for larger vehicles. The campground stays open year round.
Reservations open on a rolling window several months ahead through the state parks system, and the good weekends go. Spring and autumn are the busy seasons for obvious reasons. Winter camping out here is cold and quiet and, if you are equipped for it, one of the better nights available near Kanab.
The season shapes the day more than it shapes the year. Spring and autumn are comfortable through the middle of the day. Summer pushes everything to the early morning and the evening. Winter is entirely usable, with firm sand and nobody around.
Book the campground, not the day use. Camping is reserved in advance and the popular dates fill. Visiting for the day needs no reservation at all: turn up, pay the vehicle fee, and go.
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Kanab, from a local
The town itself: the position, the film years, the permit culture and the seasons.
Read the pageQuick answers
The dunes, answered.
About twenty miles west, which is roughly twenty five minutes of driving. It is one of the closest things to town that feels like a proper destination rather than an errand, and it is a common evening trip for people who live in Kanab rather than only a visitor stop.
Yes. Most of the dune field is open to off highway vehicles and that is a large part of the park's character. A section of core habitat has been closed to vehicles since 1997 and is marked, so the practical rule is to read the signs rather than assume the whole field is open ground.
Not for a day visit. You turn up, pay a day use fee charged per vehicle, and go. Camping is different: the two campgrounds are reserved in advance on a rolling window that opens several months out, and the popular dates fill.
A small beetle, roughly the size of a sunflower seed, that lives on this dune field and on no other ground anywhere. Its core habitat has been closed to vehicles since 1997, covering a couple of hundred acres inside the park and a few hundred more on neighbouring public land, and Utah's rare insect programme has surveyed the population here annually for decades.
Spring and autumn are comfortable all day. In summer the sand gets very hot and the sensible windows are early morning and evening, which is also when the low sun turns the dunes the colour they are named for. Winter is cold, quiet and entirely usable, and the campground stays open year round.
Twenty five minutes west, and the sand turns pink.
The evening run out to the dunes is one of those things that sounds like a holiday and turns out to be a Tuesday. If you are weighing what daily life in Kanab is actually like, that is the sort of detail worth talking through.