Ooooh, look at that! Where is it? The Grand Canyon? Bryce? Zion? Nope. Not far from all of those, but far less well known: Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah.
A companion and I were defying the pandemic when we decided in the autumn of 2020 to mask up, bathe in hand sanitizer and rent a cabin in the exact geographic center of nowhere, Utah. We took one trip to a grocery store and cooked for ourselves the whole week, and we spent our day mostly outdoors, hiking at Bryce Canyon and Zion, both of which were nearby.
Most of America rediscovered our national parks during the pandemic, which is undeniably a good thing. Our national parks are AMAZING. They are treasures. And during the pandemic, they were unbelievably crowded. Zion was so crowded that, in the more heavily trafficked areas near parking lots and trailheads, we had to hike masked because we couldn’t keep six feet away from our fellow visitors on the paths.
The shuttle buses that take visitors around Bryce were packed, the stops were packed, the visitor center was packed—the trails weren’t quite as busy as the ones at Zion, but that’s only because Bryce is bigger and it’s easier to get away from your fellow wanderers. My companion remarked to a shuttle driver about how crowded the place was, and her response was “this is nothing” compared to July and August.
Now, I’m not disparaging Bryce and Zion. The vistas are truly breathtaking, the geology is fascinating, and they are 100% not overrated and well worth a spot on your bucket list if you haven’t been yet. If you have time for only one, I would suggest you get more bang for your buck at Bryce; Zion is a jewel, but Bryce its a big treasure chest of jaw-dropping gems. You shouldn’t need to choose, though, because they are an easy twofer: If you stay anywhere along U.S. 89 between about Hatch and Mt. Carmel Junction, or indeed anywhere between that stretch of U.S. 89 and I-15, you are within a relatively short and easy drive of both.
But that’s not all you’ll find in that area. I’d never even heard of Cedar Breaks National Monument, but after the hustle and bustle of rush-hour Zion, that turned out to be a huge advantage: Hardly anybody else has heard of it either, and we had the place almost to ourselves. It’s stunning. You stand there at over 10,000 feet and gaze into a colossal hole in the ground that changes colors as the sunlight, clouds, and shadows shift. It’s quiet, with hardly any sound but the wind through the bristlecone pines. Just magical.
When I was scoping out places to stay in southern Utah, I kept running into reviews by people who had traveled great distances primarily to visit an animal shelter. Huh? I mean, I love animals and happily support shelters, but, you know, I have one of those like a mile away from my house, and I don’t need to fly a thousand miles to visit pets in cages. Why would anyone? And then I did a little research and got the answer—and the perfect day trip for a non-hike recovery day.
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is no ordinary animal shelter. Best Friends Animal Society is an astonishing juggernaut in the animal rescue universe, and its goal is to make every shelter in the nation no-kill by 2025. Sound like an impossible dream? They’ve actually made huge progress already, and they’re well organized and funded enough that they look likely to pull it off, which would be glorious. The sanctuary is kind of Best Friends HQ, though they have outposts all over the country, and many community shelters have ties to Best Friends.
If you love animals, or even if you would just enjoy a few hours in a place that is awash in kindness, optimism, love, compassion, and can-do spirit (and after the past 2 1/2 years, who couldn’t use a big dose of all those things?), the Best Friends Sanctuary makes a wonderful variation from tromping up and down trails, reapplying sunscreen and wiping dust off your water bottle. The sanctuary is in a beautiful spot near Kanab, Utah, on U.S. 89 just north of the Arizona state line; it’s also a good side trip if you’re visiting the Grand Canyon or Lake Powell.
There are separate areas for dogs, cats, horses, and assorted farm animals, and free guided tours are available daily—sign up well in advance if you have strong feelings about which tour(s) you want to go on, because they fill up. If that doesn’t work out, the main visitor’s center building has a cat room, where you can meet some representative cats, and a pretty bountiful gift shop. There’s even a café.
The horses, dogs, and livestock have fenced outdoor areas where they can enjoy the sunshine and receive whatever medical attention and behavioral interventions they may need. All animals at the sanctuary are given the help that will make them adoptable—and if they turn out to be too ill or traumatized to be adopted, they are welcome to live out the rest of their lives at Best Friends. We toured Dogtown, and the amount of effort and expertise the staff and volunteers put into rehabilitating dogs that might be euthanized as “too much trouble” or “too far gone” at busy community shelters is breathtaking.
Most animal areas aren’t open to self-guided exploration, for the sake of the animals (it’s not a zoo!), but visitors are welcome to drive through the grounds and take it all in from a distance. Remember, the sanctuary is near some spectacular national parks, and Mother Nature doesn’t turn off the show at the park boundary. The views within the sanctuary are lovely. There are hiking paths that will take you to an ancient habitation with a cave and some ancient petroglyphs, and then there’s Angels Rest.
Angels Rest is probably the most beautiful pet cemetery you will ever see. Animals that die at the sanctuary are buried there, but, if you want to, you can have your pet interred there too. And each gravesite gets a wind chime. If that sounds awful—the cemetery is on a hilltop and yes, it’s pretty breezy—I can assure you that it’s not. I think they must all be in the same key; the sound is not at all discordant, which is, in itself, kind of a miracle.
Best Friends has accommodations for humans, too, because people take vacations there and spend them volunteering. With such a serene setting, surrounded by kind people and deserving critters, I could have stayed longer myself, but we had spotted an intriguing sign on the highway on the way down and wanted to check it out before we lost the light.
And so we landed on Mars. No, we drove into Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. The name tells you exactly what you will find there, and the sight is 100% worth the $10 to get in. There’s not a whole lot to do there, unless you have an ATV you want to zoom around the dunes on, but it’s geologically impressive (the dunes are basically pulverized rock formations squirted by the wind through a notch in the mountains), and the photograph struggles to convey the otherworldly quality of walking around in a whole landscape of pinky-orange sand.
As much as I treasure my time at Bryce and Zion, I feel a special warmth for Cedar Breaks and Best Friends—because they were bonus discoveries. It’s always a good idea not to laser-focus exclusively on the destination you’re aiming at; there may be other experiences within reach that are well worth having—and if they turn out to be hokey or weird, they’ll at least provide a funny, offbeat story to share. Just set aside some time you won’t begrudge your marquee destination and be curious. Isn’t that kind of why we travel—to be surprised and delighted?