The 30th Anniversary Tour, 9.19.22 - 10.15.22, Part 11 of 12: Yant Flat/The Candy Cliffs
Last spring when we did another southern Utah trip, someone from my Navion/View Facebook group asked me if I had ever been to the Candy Cliffs. I had never even heard of the place so being the naturally curious person I am, I googled it. Lo and behold, in the images tab I was smitten instantly and told Bridgit we had to add this place to our next southwest trip. Coincidentally, I was chatting with our friends Debbie and Darren, who used to live up by us but recently moved to St George, Utah. Debbie informed me that they had been to the Candy Cliffs. Well this was music to my ears so in the planning for the 30th Anniversary Tour, we made a point of arranging to moochdock at their place in St George and pay the Candy Cliffs a visit.
After our sunrise visit to the Court of the Patriarchs in Zion, we said our goodbyes to Mike and Sandy. Gina also left for her new home in Mesquite, Nevada, but we had plans to see her again right after our night in St George. It was a short one hour drive to St George, Utah and before noon we were plugged in outside of Debbie and Darren’s house. Around two we climbed into Darren’s Jeep and he drove us out to Yant Flat which locals I believe refer to as the Candy Cliffs. This was a less than hour drive out of town. The road was fairly bumpy and washboarded but not too bad. Darren didn’t bother to air down his tires but a little prodding from Debbie encouraged him to air down for the ride back. More on that later.
There was only one other car in the parking area when we arrived. We followed a sandy trail past juniper and assorted cacti for about a mile until we came over a rise to a cliff overlooking a very cool area with waves of dark brown rippled slickrock. To the west, a string of low pointy mountains made for a great backdrop to the slickrock below us but it was all in the wrong direction for photography. It was still very beautiful and some of the photos I had seen online were from this area but clearly this was more of a sunrise location. Darren told me to follow him so while Debbie and Bridgit hung out, we hiked around a point further to the northeast. Coming around the point, we ended up on another cliff but this area had a whole slew of cool looking slickrock that tilted up to the east it was all getting full sun. This was my spot! While Darren went back to get the girls, I made my way down the steep cliffy section and onto the slickrock. From there I just wandered for a couple of hours as the sun slowly got lower in the sky. Darren also came down and did his own wandering until we eventually met up and hiked back up to where Bridgit and Debbie were waiting. Some of the rock reminded me of White Pocket but the Candy Cliffs had its own unique characteristics. As we hiked back to Darren’s Jeep we got some good views out to the Kolob Canyon area of Zion. They were very knowledgeable about a lot of cool places to go in a broad region including the north rim of the Grand Canyon, Gold Butte, and Escalante but especially about the Zion region. I’m sure I’ll be picking Darren’s brain as I plan our next trip down there.
Candy Cliffs
Candy Cliffs
Candy Cliffs
Candy Cliffs
Candy Cliffs
Candy Cliffs
Candy Cliffs
Candy Cliffs
Candy Cliffs
Candy Cliffs
Candy Cliffs
Candy Cliffs
I really did like the other end over by the pointy mountains but couldn’t really shoot in that direction when we were there. I believe dispersed camping is allowed by the trailhead so hopefully one day we can go back and spend a night out there to get first and last rays at the Candy Cliffs. Cool area!
Now then, back to Darren’s Jeep. He aired down his tires for the ride back on the same road we came in on which gave me a perfect opportunity to compare and to see if I noticed much difference. Well, do you remember the first time you saw HDTV? It was kind’ve like that. All of us agreed that it was very noticeable and a much smoother ride. It was like driving on big balloons which we sort of were. I was hugely impressed. Airing down is not just for the extreme Jeeper. It would do very well just for things like washboarded dirt roads. I’m sold. I decided right there I would air down for the journey to our next adventure. For that you will have to head to the final installment of the 30th Anniversary Tour, Part 12!
Bridgit, Jon, Darren and Debbie at their favorite corn dog stand. Were they grubbin’? That’s a big “Hell, yeah!”