You might call it St. George’s “three-fer:” Red Hills Desert Garden, Pioneer Park and Red Cliffs Desert Reserve.
The three destinations, all contiguous on the northern border of the southwestern Utah city, make for one-stop, full-day exploration and fun. And in an age where everything carries a price tag, the park, garden and reserve are free.
Red Hills Desert Garden, an amazing four-plus acres, was built and is designed and managed by the Washington County Conservancy District (motto: “Get off your lazy grass”).
Visiting the garden is to discover a desert oasis.
“Its primary reason is education,” says Doug Bennett, the district’s conservation manager. “This garden attracts 150,000 people a year. People are surprised at what water efficiency can look like.”
The main attractions are more than 5,000 water-efficient plants, trees and flowers that come with ample informational signage; a simulated, red sandstone slot canyon; a 1,150-foot stream stocked with endangered species of fish; whimsical sculptures; and 200-million-year-old dinosaur tracks.
“As were excavating for the garden, we found dinosaur tracks,” explains Ryan White, the landscape architect who has overseen the garden since it opened in 2015. “They are the real thing – true tracks – natural casts made by nature. If we were to dig down further, we could find even more tracks from the early Jurassic period.”
The garden, which took six years to plan and build, is a hit with kids and adults, and the paths are easily accessible. Viewpoints offer expansive panoramas of the rapidly growing St. George metro area (population 185,000-ish, but check again next month). The city owes its existence to Mormon pioneers, the Virgin River, and as of late, its tourist-magnet, other-worldly landscapes like the adjacent Pioneer Park.
Our ascent to the top of the massive sandstone boulders had been easy; the descent not so much. But like the view from atop the garden, this one, too, was worth the lingering. Eventually, though, we had to vacate our perch. With no trails or signage, we followed our noses, taking care to avoid the chasm crevasses, sheer drop-offs and loose rock. I was forced to make a controlled slide down while my husband managed a more dignified exit, remaining mostly upright.
Other than a few picnic tables and a bathroom, there are few amenities at Pioneer Park. The big draw is the rocks and formations created by millenniums of geologic forces. Time and nature created the Crack, a slot canyon (300 feet long, 20 feet to 30 feet deep, and only 12 inches wide at its narrowest point; the Cavern, a large cave with a narrow view to the sky; and the Arch, a red-rock configuration that no doubt has spawned thousands of selfies.
Adjacent to the park and garden is Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, a 69,000-acre wildlife reserve set aside to protect the Mojave Desert tortoise and other rare animals and plants. The reserve sits at the confluence of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin and Mojave Desert, and it might be the closest thing on this planet to a Martian landscape.
A drone’s-eye view makes apparent the importance of conserving this area for precious flora and fauna; housing developments creep up to the boundaries of the garden, park and reserve.
The reserve’s crowning jewel is the visitor Discovery Center with live “ambassador animals,” history and geology exhibits, and loads of maps and guides on the entire southwest corner of Utah.
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