There comes a day when a boy must turn into a man, which means handling chicken testes and plucking feathers…

Most of us know where and what the “fours corners” are (where the corners of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, & New Mexico meet). But not many know about an amazing geological wonder that surrounds the St. George area. I guess you could call it the “three corners”. In the wilderness surrounding St. George the Colorado Plateau, Mojave Desert, and the Great Basin collide and have produced amazing areas of adventure. One place to witness this great collision is from the top of Canaan Mountain.

Degrees Minutes Seconds:
Latitude: 37-04’57” N, Longitude: 113-00’38” W

Decimal Degrees:
Latitude: 37.0824834, Longitude: -113.0104948

We joined our friends Paul & Chantra Gooch and their mules and rode up to the top of Canaan Mountain last Saturday. It was a long day in the saddle, and my body was not happy with me the day after, but I would do it all again in a heartbeat to soak in the views from the top. To the West you can see Pine Mountain, the Kolob Cliffs & the East side of Zion. To the North & East, Bryce Canyon and the Paunsaugunt Plateau. To the South the Arizona Strip and Mount Trumbull which sits on the North rim of the Grand Canyon. I regret I only had my phone to take pictures with, next time I will remember a proper camera. Here are some pictures and a short video of our adventure:

We explored the Red Mountain Wilderness Area a couple times the last two weekends. The Red Mountain Trail is actually a couple different trails that start just north of Diamond Valley on Highway 18 (GPS coordinates N 37° 16.784 W 113° 39.163). We first explored the trail two weekends ago with Dan & Beth in the Jeeps. You can only Jeep in about a mile on the middle trail. It is an awesome Jeep trail strewn with large boulders. From the end of the Jeep trail we hiked about a mile and half to the East Snow Canyon Overlook. It was Amazing! Then last weekend the boys and I joined our neighbors the Gooch’s to explore the North trail. We rode mules all the way to Hell’s Canyon above Kayenta (approximately 20 miles round trip). This part of the trail included the West Snow Canyon overlook & awesome red rock country. We stopped for lunch overlooking Hell’s Canyon in an area with dozens of huge water pots full of water and Triops. Henry rode a mule & Erik rode a mustang that Paul Gooch bought from the BLM wild horse adoption program. They were awesome cowboys! They are tough little men!