Yankee Meadows, up First Left Hand Canyon.

Take State Route 143 out of the top of Parowan and turn off around the five mile marker onto the signed Yankee Meadows road, which locals call First Left Hand Canyon. From there it is roughly another five miles of climbing to the reservoir, past the Five Mile picnic area on Bowery Creek and the red formations at Vermillion Castle. The lower part is paved and the upper part is not, and the whole trip is about ten miles from town.

In dry summer conditions, generally yes, and plenty of people do. The road above the picnic area is graded dirt with rough sections and a good deal of climbing, so low clearance vehicles have a harder time of it and wet weather makes it a poor idea in anything. It is also seasonal: snow closes it, and in a heavy winter it can stay unreachable well into the early summer. Check current conditions with the Dixie National Forest rather than assuming.

Trout fishing from the bank or from anything you can carry in and float, paddleboarding and small boat use on a modest ramp, and camping at Yankee Meadow Campground by the reservoir or in the designated dispersed area nearby, all at 8,655 feet while the valley below runs into the nineties. The campground has drinking water; the Five Mile picnic area lower down does not, and there is nothing to buy up there, so everything else goes in the car in Parowan.

Graded dirt up the canyon, manageable for a careful passenger car in good conditions and easier with clearance. Rain and early season runoff are what change the answer.

Yes. Yankee Meadow Campground sits right by the reservoir with numbered sites, drinking water and vault toilets, and it takes reservations on recreation.gov in season. There is also a designated dispersed area nearby for self contained camping with no services. Pack out whatever you carry in.

8,655 feet, which is more than 2,600 feet above Parowan and puts it firmly in the high country. In practice that means an afternoon temperature roughly twenty degrees below the valley, evenings that get properly cold even in July, and a season that starts later and ends earlier than the calendar suggests. It also means the altitude is real if you have driven up from somewhere near sea level that morning.

This canyon, and it is quieter than the well known one. The maple in the lower part of First Left Hand Canyon turns before anything else in the county, and the aspen higher up turns after it, so through late September and into October you can drive from one end of the leaf season to the other in about forty minutes. Cedar Canyon on the far side of the valley gets most of the attention and most of the traffic.

It is the main reason most people make the drive, along with the quiet. The state stocks it through the season with rainbow, brook and cutthroat trout, and it fishes best early and late in the day and the season. Water levels move year to year, so ask locally before committing to a long day.

With the snow, which usually means late autumn through spring. The lower canyon opens first and the reservoir road is the last part to come in.