Coral Pink Sand Dunes: The Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park 3,750 acres in size and is located a short drive north of Kanab, Utah. A unique wind pattern creates the dunes as they blow through a notch in the nearby mountains and dumping the sand in fairly small area. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Hikers: A few hikers are seen walking through the deep sand on their way to a popular area of the dunes for recreation. Sandboarding and driving Off Highway Vehicles, OHVs, are other favorite activities at the park. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
By GARY WARREN
Photographer
Formerly of Los Alamos
Red Navajo sandstone is seen everywhere in Southern Utah. Weather can create some spectacular sites with the red sandstone. Wind can carve interesting shapes and formations and also erodes the sandstone which creates sandy soil.
Just a few miles north of Kanab, Utah, the landscape creates wind a pattern that forces the wind to drop large amounts of the reddish sand in a confined area which creates sand dunes.
The work of nature first started creating these sand dunes over 10,000 years ago and it continues today. The shifting sands in the area make up the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. The coral pink sand is actually a deep yellowish/red sand.
The Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park opened in 1963 to preserve the unique landscape, the dunes and the animals and insects that make the dunes their home. One of the special insects found at the park is the Coral Pink Tiger Beetle. This particular beetle is unique to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes and is not found anywhere else in the world. The insect is also covered by the endangered species protection act due to the limited number of the insects.
Outdoor recreation is the reason that visitors enjoy visiting the sand dunes. Off highway vehicles, OHVs, are allowed in the park and are allowed on about 90% of the sand dunes in the park. An area of about 265 acres are protected as conservation area where the Coral Pink Sand Dune Tiger Beetle is most prominent. Those areas are marked as such.
Hiking the sand dunes is the most popular way of experiencing the park but another activity, sandboarding, has also become popular. Sandboards are rented at the park for best sandboarding as snowboards and other snow sledding devices do not do as well on the sand.
The Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park features a nice visitors center, a campground for RVs as well as tents, and picnicking facilities.
Southern Utah is a mecca for outdoor recreation and sightseeing and the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park is just another unique area of interest that visitors can visit while in this part of Utah. The area can be seen in a short visit, or a longer visit may be needed if one wishes to get out on the dunes in an OHV.
The park provides many outdoor activities as well as photo opportunities and is a stop well worth the time in the Kanab, Utah area.
Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn are traveling around the country, and he shares his photographs, which appear in the “Posts from the Road” series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.
Coming and Going: Visitors to the dunes were continually coming and going during the time we spent in the park. The state park is situated at 6,000 feet in elevation and the area around the dunes consists of pinon and juniper trees and some pine trees at slightly higher elevations. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Dunes and Plants: Plants do grow in the dune, especially in areas with less foot traffic but they must be suited to the unique terrain. The Coral Pink Sand Dunes Tiger Beetle also is found in certain areas of the park. This endangered beetle is found only within the state park and is not seen anywhere else in the world. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Sandboarders: A group of sandboarders make their way out to the dunes to sandboard on the dunes. Sandboarding is similar to snowboarding but uses a different board design for best results. The boards can be rented at the park. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
