As a teacher, having a bit of a break for Thanksgiving is something that is generally not just a want, but turns into something of a need. That being said, fall break time is not time to squander. It must balance both relaxation and adventure.
While I now live in Colorado and miss the desert, when I was a desert-dweller, I sorely missed the seasons and that often meant a trip to Utah.
Yes, Green Bees, Utah is one of those places that I’d never given much thought until I drove through it for the first time on my move from Chicago to Vegas. I was immediately taken by how rapidly the rock formations changed and by just how expansive the world felt. From my base in Vegas, the city of St. George, Utah quickly became something of a gateway to all that the great state has to offer.
I’m a big fan of a road trip, but something about which I haven’t often written is that I really don’t enjoy driving all that much, so on my very first trip to Utah (we were heading for Salt Lake City), imagine how happy I was to roll right into St. George about 3 hours in the car. It was a place of wonderful respite and I was surprised to see all that the town that was supposed to be just a pit stop had to offer. Here are my top three things to do in and around St. George, Utah in the fall:
1) Take the time to stop and explore St. George itself. Yes, it’s a chain restaurant, but on all of my trips through town, I found that the Black Bear Diner in St .George was a fun, friendly, and always busy spot to fuel up (or to refuel on the way home). The Dinosaur Discovery Site, which I first noticed and was not able to visit on my move to Vegas, is a great place to check out some local prehistoric culture. This museum literally came to exist because a farmer was tilling a new section of his land and happened to find dinosaur tracks. The volunteer docents are incredibly knowledgeable, they are friendly, and the one that I met when I was there allowed me to step into an exhibit to compare the size of my curled-up body to that of a T-Rex footprint (the footprint was bigger). After this little excursion, I’d recommend that you simply take a drive around the foothills. The views are breathtaking!
2) Zion National Park is just over an hour away from St. George and is definitely one of my favorite national parks ever. It is another place with amazing landscapes, but also contains some rather thrilling hikes, like that up to Angel’s Landing and through the Narrows (Check out those adventures HERE and HERE). If a 1500 foot gain in elevation isn’t your thing and you don’t love walking through a rushing river (which is epic both in the summer and in the fall), there are quite a few easy hikes (like Emerald Pools) and the camping is wonderful.
3) St. George is also a great gateway to Salt Lake City. As aforementioned, my first stop in St. George was on my way up to the capital in the late summer. We wound our way up through the Silver Reef Ghost Town and into the city, where we then branched out and did some hiking. The further north we got, the more the leaves had changed and it is easy to imagine how beautiful a drive on the scenic Big Cottonwood Canyon Road would be.
If, like me, you’re in need of a short break from your every day life, I’d highly recommend putting Utah on your travel to-do list. St. George Is perfectly situated to provide you with anything that you need to continue on a journey or to comfortably keep you relaxed and entertained for a longer stay.
Content Produced in Partnership with Visit St.Georgeand Travel Mindset.
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