Kanab wasn’t even on our itinerary until Bryce Park turned out to be a few hour event due to the snow and there is NOTHING else to do there. So we checked out early and drove 2 hours to Kanab, Utah. We were warned by my FB friends that there is nothing to do there, its a hole in a wall so I was a bit skeptical – but booked hotel and sanctuary tour, at least something compared to Bryce town.
What a beautiful surprise. Town is small but very artsy, some high end food and organic restaurants and overall – quite the up and coming small town for lots of big city folks who are moving here. Hotel was super nice, cute and comfortable/convenient. The owner moved to UT from Seattle and set up a few boutique places here – we had a nice room with parking and accessories with breakfast. The attached restaurant was fantastic tapas (Sego) food and the other two restaurants we visited for lunches were also excellent. (Wild Thyme and Rocking V cafe). We booked an ATV tour for that afternoon and loved it. Laurie, our guide thought I’d drive behind her which didn’t happen – and good choice that was! Wow, was that wild driving in a desert, holding on for life! But the final destination, the Pee-ka-boo canyon was like something out of a fairytale – amazing!
Of course, this turned out to be the most popular thing to do, go figure. Our second outing was the next day at 730 am at the Best Friends Sanctuary – and again this was a surprising hit. After a lot of complaining on the very early wake up, we entered the 3K+ acres premises of this amazing place. The society basically shelters thousands of animals in this gorgeous mountain place and takes care of them until they are adopted (heavily lobbies for no-kill policies state by state). We took a tour of the dogtown, cat world, saw an intro to horses, pigs, parrots – even were able to interact with some of the volunteers and animals. This place is unbelievably impressive and to my surprise made a huge impact on the “normally untouched” teenager. He actually started planning a summer here to come and volunteer as a family (which we are doing in 3 weeks!).
So our first trip west was a success – especially the totally unplanned part that we are going back!
sbmamatravel 
Sounds like you are home, but if you go back and missed it this time, check out Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park next time. It is beautiful and the sand is so pink, you’ll think you are in a fairy tale.
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[…] We loved Utah so much that we decided to make a family vacation out of it – and this time let’s do some work and merge it with fun. After a quick MGM stay in Las Vegas to recover from the late arrival – and our even stronger determination that the Vegas mania is just not for us (think crowds, lines to check in/to elevators/check out), too hot for walking around, smoking everywhere) – we got out. On the way out we did manage to do the CSI experience where you get ipads and scan various 3D evidence to solve a crime. Kids loved it, practiced there CSI Miami skills and their fabulous electronics skills. […]
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