After spending six days in Monticello, UT and then driving through Capitol Reef National Park, we arrived in Kanab, UT for a week-long stay.
Having had a couple of longer days of driving, we didn’t want to have another relatively long drive to Zion or Bryce Canyon National Parks the following day, so we decided to visit somewhere a little closer by – Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park.
Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park covers more than 3,700 acres, with sand dunes that are thought to be 10,000-15,000 years old. It’s a popular recreation area with people buzzing around on dune buggies and others – like us – visiting so that they can go sandboarding down the dunes.
You’re more than welcome to bring your own sandboards to the park if you have them. We don’t have any though, so we rented a couple of boards for $20 each from the State Park’s visitor center which also included wax to help ensure a smoother ride down the dunes.
Before going sandboarding, we walked on to a platform that overlooks the dunes to take a look at the surrounding area.
The platform had a few information boards sharing how the dunes were formed.
After learning a little more about the Coral Pink Sand Dunes, it was time to go and have fun on them! Shae and I had gone sandboarding before at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, but my parents had never tried it, so we started off on a shorter sand dune to ease them in to it.
Both of them did a great job – here are their first rides.
Although she’d gone sandboarding before, Shae was still a little nervous about going too fast down the dune.
Seeing as we’d rented a couple of sandboards, we decided to do a couple of races – me versus my mum and Shae versus my dad. Both us youngsters won 😉
One of the great things about Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park is that it’s pet-friendly provided you keep your dog on a leash.
Truffles also seemed to enjoy coming down on the sandboards with us. She rode down a couple of times on our laps on the shorter dune, then again on my lap when we moved over to a taller dune.
What goes down must come up though which is the only downside to sandboarding. It’s fun, but the further you slide down a dune, the harder it is to climb back up to the top – especially seeing as Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park is at 6,000 feet elevation.
My parents were all sandboarded out by that point as their legs didn’t have it in them to keep climbing back up the dunes. There was a taller sand dune nearby though, so my parents kept an eye on Truffles while Shae and I went to check it out.
There were some people who’d been riding dune buggies who were also going sandboarding, so they went down before us. A couple of them managed to slide down incredibly far, so we were hopeful we’d get a good ride in.
Shae went down before me…
…then it was my turn to give it a go. I didn’t slide down anywhere near as fast or far as some of the other people had before us, but it was fun nonetheless.
Final Thoughts
Kanab, UT is a great base for visiting Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park, but if you have time then it’s definitely worth going sandboarding at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park too. It’s a lot of fun and an even better workout climbing up the dunes!
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