Snow Canyon State Park features a preserved pristine landscape

Located just minutes from St. George, Utah, beautiful Snow Canyon State Park offers scenic splendor in an eroded landscape of colorful sandstone and black lava. A paved scenic drive through the park connects with nearby attractions, passing a central campground and trailheads to hidden beauty spots among the canyons and recesses carved from stone by wind and water.

Snow Canyon's proximity to several pioneer Mormon towns made it a destination in frontier times for picnicking, camping and group gatherings. Today, the 5,700-acre park preserves a landscape rapidly being altered elsewhere by population growth and urban development. Where horse-drawn buggies and wagons once bumped over the desert, paved Highway 18 speeds visitors to this recreation site just a 15-minute drive from downtown St. George.

Reach Snow Canyon in a couple of hours' drive from Las Vegas by following Interstate 15 north 122 miles to St. George. Take the Bluff Street exit and turn left to find Highway 18. Follow the highway 11 miles north to reach the park entrance. Just before you reach Snow Canyon Drive, turn onto a spur to an overview where much of the park lies below like a detailed relief map.

Dark rock from two nearby volcanic cones caps the older sandstone layers of bright white and vivid shades of pink and red. Geologists date the most recent volcanism at about 1,000 years ago. A favorite of Hollywood film directors and advertising photographers, the dramatic landscape already seems familiar to many visitors. Look for backdrops recalling movies such as "Electric Horseman" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" as you drive Snow Canyon's main road or hike or mountain bike along its many intersecting trails.

Stop at park headquarters to get information on trails, facilities and special programs. Day-use visitors pay a $5 fee, less if you walk or bike into the park. Tent or RV campers using the 35-unit campground pay $15-$18 per night. Pull-through campsites include sun shades, access to water, parking pads, grills, tables, and RV hookups. Centrally located restrooms include showers. You can take your chances, or you can reserve campsites in advance by calling the Utah parks central reservation service at (800) 322-3770.

Park trails range from short and easy to longer and strenuous. Because of summer heat, park rangers close some trails from mid-march to late October. On foot, visitors experience the moist coolness of shaded canyons, the silken texture of coral stands, the haunting call of canyon wrens, and the scents of aromatic desert plants and blooming wildflowers.

The canyon's name honors brothers Lorenzo and Erastus Snow, pioneer Mormon leaders who settled the area after 1850. Early cowboys searching for strayed livestock claimed discovery and exploration of the canyon in frontier times. However, ample evidence remains of much earlier human use of the park site. Ancient native people seasonally visited.

Special programs help visitors to Snow Canyon State Park learn more about this unique place. Due to the popularity of this park and its programs, register to attend any programs that interest you by calling (435) 628-2255 two days in advance of the event.

Learn about birds of prey during presentations on Friday and Saturday. Enjoy a campfire program featuring these birds on Friday at 6:30 p.m. On Saturday, visit park headquarters to meet a live raptor or prey bird. Visitors frequently see a variety of birds of prey riding the thermals above the park. This program aims to help you recognize them.

Some programs occur only at night. Spot spring constellations with an expert on May 10 at 9 p.m. Enjoy a magical moonlight hike on May 17. Explore the park's dunes to find nocturnal scorpions hunting at 9 p.m. on May 24.

Margo Bartlett Pesek's column appears on Sundays.