Utah state parks worth visiting: Snow Canyon and Kodachrome Basin

If you love Utah’s national parks but dread the parking lots and shuttle lines, there’s good news. On a recent trip to southern Utah, my husband and I discovered that some of the state’s most impressive scenery lies beyond those headline destinations.

While we’d planned our route around Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, we found ourselves just as taken with the state parks we visited along the way — places where the views were nearly as dramatic and the pace much slower.

Two parks in particular stood out: Kodachrome Basin State Park and Snow Canyon State Park. Both offered the red rock vistas for which Utah is famous but with much fewer people. The campgrounds were intimate and scenic, with sites that opened directly onto the surrounding landscape. Staying overnight gave us time to settle in, notice the shifts of light and color, and experience the parks beyond a quick visit.

Kodachrome Basin

Kodachrome Basin State Park lies 20 miles southeast of Bryce Canyon National Park, close enough to make it an easy side trip. The park takes its name from Kodachrome, the richly saturated color film once prized by photographers. The connection was obvious as soon as we arrived when we saw a landscape so vivid it looked as if it had been color-enhanced. Bands of red, orange and pale cream spread across the valley, their hues subtly shifting as light and clouds move overhead.

Part of Kodachrome’s appeal is its scale. At about 2,200 acres, the park feels compact and approachable, with trails that reward curiosity rather than endurance. Like nearby Bryce Canyon, the landscape is defined by vertical stone formations, but instead of delicate hoodoos, Kodachrome features towering sandstone chimneys rising from the valley floor. You can wander for a few hours, take in striking scenery and still have energy left for the evening.

Camping at Kodachrome added greatly to our enjoyment. From our site, we had wide, unobstructed views of the spires catching the light at sunrise and sunset. Evenings brought cooler air and deepening color in the rocks, while nights were quiet and peaceful. Much of the scenery was accessible without planning a hike or driving to a viewpoint. We could simply step outside with a cup of coffee in the morning or settle into a camp chair as the day wound down.

During our visit, we hiked several of the park’s well-marked trails. Routes like Angel’s Palace and the Panarama Trail are short to moderate in length, with gentle elevation changes and frequent viewpoints, making them easy to enjoy at a relaxed pace. The open landscape offers constant visual interest, from the changing colors of the rocks throughout the day to the way the spires shift in scale as you move through the terrain.

Snow Canyon

Snow Canyon State Park offers a starker, more arid version of Utah’s red rock scenery. Although it lies just 10 miles from the city of St. George, its 7,400 acres feel surprisingly remote once you arrive. It’s a park many travelers unknowingly pass on their way to Zion, missing one of southern Utah’s most dramatic landscapes.

Snow Canyon taught us about the geological forces that have shaped much of southern Utah. Black lava flows from an ancient volcano spread across the canyon floor, while petrified sand dunes preserve the rippling shapes of long-ago winds. Towering cliffs frame the scene, packing a surprising range of landscapes into a relatively small area. Many of its highlights are reached via short, well-maintained trails, making it easy to walk across hardened lava or trace the curves of fossilized dunes.

We especially enjoyed the Tortoise Walk Trail, which introduces visitors to the Mojave desert tortoise, the park’s most vulnerable resident. Interpretive signs explain the tortoise’s habitat and habits, and the trail ends with a striking granite tortoise sculpture that underscores the park’s role within the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, which protects the only area in Utah where these tortoises live naturally.

Camping in Snow Canyon gave us the chance to be out on the trails at first light. Early mornings found us walking through the canyon as the rising sun slowly lit up the red and white Navajo sandstone cliffs. The rock faces shifted from shadow to flame, the colors intensifying minute by minute. With only a handful of other early risers around, it felt like witnessing a private performance staged just for those willing to wake up early.

Together, Kodachrome Basin and Snow Canyon show why state parks deserve a place on any southern Utah trip. Entrance fees are modest, access is simple, and rewarding scenery is often just steps from the car or trailhead. While Utah’s national parks draw the headlines, its state parks are gems in their own right.