Snow Canyon Trail Rides

Rides run daily through Snow Canyon State Park itself, past Navajo sandstone cliffs and the black lava flows that spilled across the canyon floor. In summer the operation moves to a Red Mountain rim ride, which is the sensible answer to desert heat: the rim sits appreciably higher than the canyon floor, and a canyon of pale sandstone in July is a reflector oven.

How it works

Snow Canyon is a state park rather than a national one, which is why activities are permitted there that would not be inside a national park boundary. Its geology is the draw: pale Navajo sandstone cut by black basalt from lava flows that are geologically very young, some of them only a few thousand years old, so the flows sit on top of the sandstone rather than under it.

Worth reading alongside this: horseback riding around St. George and the petrified dunes. Browse all Horseback Riding & Trail Rides in the directory.

Nearby: Red Mountain Resort, Black Desert Resort, The Inn at Entrada.