In mid-October we booked a week in Kanab planning to visit a variety of attractions in the area, traveling back and forth from a home base. The campsite itself was nothing special – a gravel parking lot on the side of the highway, but its central location was perfect for us and we weren’t planning on spending too much time at the campsite itself. In town, we caught up on laundry, washed the car, and played at an epic playground. Back at the campsite we did OT, found the most amazing exoskeletons of giant horned beetles, did some homeschooling and Cole caught up on work. That wrapped up the first couple of days and then we were ready to explore!
Sand Caves
About five miles north of Kanab, on the side of HWY 89 are the Moqui Caverns, also known as the Kanab Sand Caves. We saw the mouths of the cave openings as we were driving past, and our curiosity peaked! We could see people up there, but had no idea how they got there! It definitely looked like somewhere we wanted to explore. At the roadside Cave Cafe, set beside Moqui Cave Museum, some fellow tourists gave us directions to an unassuming parking lot (with no signage) just a few minutes up the road. From the parking lot, it was 2.8 miles (4.5 km) hike (round trip) to get to the base of the cliffside where we had to climb up to get to the caves.
The Sand Caves are 100 feet up in the air, accessed by a cliff scramble that is quite steep and barren – no safety lines or clear footholds – it’s an attempt at your own risk. Novel physical tasks can sometimes be more difficult as motor planning skills and physical coordination can be challenges for our kids and myself as I am still struggling with symptoms from my concussion that affect my balance and visual processing – so I was slightly apprehensive about climbing a 100-foot cliff. But the boys were confident, as was Cole in his ability to help them, so I strapped Julian into his carrier on my back and up we went.
The Moqui Caverns are remnants from an old sand mine, where the sand was mined for glass production until the operation was discontinued in the 1970’s. Today, the caves are simply a tourist destination for exploration. Standing in the mouths or windows you are greeted with fantastic views! You can wander from room to room peeking into crevasses and over huge drop-offs near the edges. The sand is deliciously soft and the kids promptly dropped to the ground and took their shoes off, pushing their hands as deep as they could go and taking turns burying each other.
Although we didn’t stop there, the Moqui Cave Museum has a fascinating history! It is believed to originally be a place of food storage and shelter for the Anasazi people and later used as a speakeasy during the Prohibition. The cave extends over 200 feet underground and today it hosts a Curios Museum with fossils, gemstones, and artifacts as well as an indoor saloon. Were it not so expensive for our family of 6 to go in, it would have been fun to explore.
Pink Sand Dunes
Another easily accessible park was the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. Cole had work, so I took the kids to explore the State Park which was just a 25-minute drive from our campsite. Unlike sand dunes that originate by an ocean, these Coral dunes are completely landlocked and are created by wind funneling through Moquith and Moccasin mountains across eroding sandstone. The result is 3,370 acres of huge, beautiful, coral-pink-colored dunes rising up out of desert scrub.
We went early in the morning before the sand got too hot. At first, we wandered and climbed and rolled down the dunes, an ecstatic sensory experience. As more visitors arrived, we saw people riding sandboards, disks, and snowboards over the dunes like snow or waves. The boys begged to try and even I thought it looked like fun so went back to the visitor center to rent a sandboard for $25.00. Actually riding the board took some getting used to. To pick up speed you needed to ride sitting on the very back of the board and leaning backward, hands dragging behind to steer. This coordination proved very difficult for one of my kids who became increasingly frustrated and disappointed in his inability to control the board or pick up much speed. He continually fell off part way down the hill but was insistent on persevering in his attempts. I was really proud of him for pushing through and keeping his attitude positive as I could see how frustrated he felt, especially as he compared his own runs to his brothers’ longer faster rides.
Climbing the hill back up after a ride was exhausting! The sandboard itself was heavy and a bit awkward and the sand gave way at each footstep making progress slow. However, we were amazed at how quickly time had gone by! We had arrived at the park around 9am and it was 1pm when we decided to call it a day and go home to get some lunch. There was sand in every bodily crevasse, thick in the kids hair, through every clothing crease and pocket and we spent days shaking it out of bedding, sweeping it from floors and repeatedly vacuuming it out of the car. Still, it was a fun expedition that we would definitely do again!
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