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Am I happy we stopped home in southern Utah for a few days OR WHAT!
Photo source: unknown
James and I have been roadtripping-it-up since taking off in the new National Park Foundation Travato. But with the grandmunchkins’ spring break happening in northern Utah, we were excited to get home and have them come to the sticks and bricks for a quick visit.
Luckily, they’re an outdoorsy clan, and were mostly interested in exploring our southern Utah outdoor playground. You certainly don’t have to twist my arm!
One could spend a lifetime and not see everything Southern Utah has to offer.
Case in point: Gunlock Reservoir State Park.
How many of you out-of-staters have even heard of it?
With so many other famous jaw-dropping awesome parks in the southern Utah area, Gunlock seems to get less attention. Well, unless you’re a local.
Back in the Das Bus days; AWWW!
Here’s a secret: Gunlock Reservoir is James and my favorite camping spot in the greater St. George area!!!
I love the serenity I feel when I’m there. It’s a great place to get away and stare at nature with very few other people around… except when rare phenomenons occur:
The reservoir, due to all the precipitation the area had over the winter, is so full, its spillway is spilling.
Normally this is completely dry and you can walk along the cement wall!
The spillway area beyond the reservoir is actually just the natural red rocks original to the area… nothing man-made. The phenomenon that occurs when the reservoir spills?
AMAZING WATERFALLS!
The last time the waterfalls were seen like this was back in 2011, according to the locals.
There’s one pool so deep that the local kids have been lining up and diving in from a high ledge above it. It blows me away to think that on a normal day, they’d be diving head on into solid rock.
We spent the day out there thanks to our buddy Steve, who’s a fellow Travato owner AND fellow resident of southern Utah. We’ve got him to thank for letting us know this was happening in our backyard…. AND he even hauled our whole clan there. He’s probably still vacuuming all the red sand out of his van.
Had to put this one on your radars, gang, since it’s such a rare sight! If you are RVing through southern Utah in the next week or so, catch this while you can! Whether you’re a kid of 7 or 70, this is simply too spectacular to miss.
One more pic… looking back at the reservoir right where it begins its spillover; and my cute lil grands:
Wishing y’all safe and healthy adventures!
xoxo, Stef
Thanks for this Stef! We are leaving Great Basin NP tomorrow and heading down that way, we will add it to our plans.
How lucky are we , we made it to the super bloom at Anza Borrego this year and now this.
Safe journey,
Liz
And Bob
So exciting! Hurry up and get there; I’m not sure how much longer it’ll last! xoxo
If we weren’t busy doing repairs on our RV over here in Phoenix, we’d be hightailing it over there. Spectacular sight… thanks for sharing!
Repairs?!?! Oh man sorry to hear it. Hopefully it’s a quick fix and you’ll be on your way in no time!
Thanks for the tip. Do you need a high clearance vehicle to see the falls?
Nope, it’s super easy to access! You can either park at the parking lot of the state park past the guard station and then it’s an easy walk to the south end of the reservoir (probably around .2 mile) so you can view the falls from the top, or before you get to the state park entrance you’ll see all the cars parked along the side of the road, you can park there. That’s a more challenging hike up the rocks to the top, but super fun! As long as you have some general fitness you’ll have no trouble scrambling up the rock. GO!!!