In The Desert
Back to
Day Trips
Content including photographs are Copyright © 2013 - Present - Don & Linda Gilmore
Contact us via E-mail
Back to
Day Trips
Kanarraville Road
Kanarraville Mountain, Utah
Video
Topography Map
Beautiful day for a trip up the mountains to cool off a little. 90's in the valley, 69 degrees on the mountain. And a lot of really pretty scenery on this trip in the desert. This is just the beginning of the trip. Most of the roads looked like this. Travel up this mountain may not be possible in the winter.
The Klean Coal Company mines on Kanarra mountain used this tramway to haul coal ore down off of the mountain to Kanarraville. This is back in July of 1938. This is interesting because of all the tram towers that are still in fair shape up on the mountain. The one tramway tower at the bottom of the mountain was torn down about 5 years ago to keep kids from getting hurt on it. In the photos here you can see 4 different towers that were used for the tramway. There are more than this still visible on the mountain.. It's amazing how they built something like this up on this steep and rugged mountain side.
On the way up the steep winding road you'll get beautiful views of rock formations and the valley below. This is a great short cut to Kolob Reservoir. See the included video for a better view.
One of a few of the rock pinnacles that you'll see on the way up the mountain.
This is one of the many places where you'll get a great view of the valley floor from up on Kanarraville Road. This is red rocks country and is just north of Kolob Canyon, which is part of Zion National Park.
On the way up we stopped to look at this water tank? Just a guess here, but this was probably one of the boilers from the mines.
Look at the larger version to see a close-up of a Soap Tree Yucca in bloom.
If you look at the larger version of this photo you'll see a buck in velvet. You'll see why we had a hard time photographing the 4 different deer we saw on the mountain.
Once you get to the top of the mountain, at it's highest elevation, you'll be in a forest of Aspen trees. Really pretty area.
The area opens up on top when you get to Kolob Road, which is only a short distance away at this point.
We took a short jaunt to the south, toward Kolob Reservoir, to see this section of malapis (lava flows). This is full of holes and presents an interesting view. I fell into one of the holes. Ouch!
We spotted these pink Asters along side the road. Probably one of the prettiest wild flowers we've found.
At one of the many overlooks we watched this rain storm headed south into Cedar Ctiy. I framed it with the 2 old dead snags.
This got us excited, but what kind of bird is it? At first we thought maybe it was a Sage Grouse. It was an immature Turkey.
Look at the enlargement if you want to see the bird's head close up. He was keeping an eye on us..
If you happen to be in the area or live here in Southern Utah, we'd highly recommend you take this trip up on the mountain. It's cooler up there and you could go fishing in Kolob Reservoir too. Have fun.