Where's Liz? 2016: Pahreah Ghost Town and Coral Pink Sand Dunes

There was just a simple sign by the highway, "Paria townsite." Nothing to hint at the history and awesome beauty that awaited. I'm so glad Diana and I stopped to check it out.

There was a little historical information at the parking area off the highway.

Following established Native American Trails, a Spanish expedition came through here in 1829. The town was established and inhabited in the late 1800s by Mormon settlers.

In addition to the old townsite, there was once a movie set here too. The dotted line from the star represents the dirt road you must follow to get there.

The 5+ mile road is pretty rough, but the scenic beauty makes the effort worthwhile.

What you see is part of the Vermillion Cliffs in the Grande Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Just go really slow and take in the beauty.

A high-clearance vehicle would have been better, but I only scraped bottom once near the end.

This is as far as the car could go. There is a parking and picnic area with vault toilets here. It was the site of the old movie set that was destroyed by floods in 1998, rebuilt and destroyed again by arson. So not much to be seen of the movie set except in your imagination. The last movie filmed at the set and townsite was "The Outlaw Josey Wales," in 1976.

To get from the day-use parking area to the townsite required a 3-4 mile round trip hike to the river.

Notice that the townsite is on the other side of the Paria River.

Views from the hike. You can certainly understand why settlers would find this appealing.

Ahead is the town cemetery.

The plaque lists the names of those buried here. The stones have no individual names or markings on them.

The trees at the base of the colorful cliffs are along the river.

Just beyond those cottonwood trees is the fast-flowing muddy Paria River. There was no way to cross it to find out if there are any remaining ruins of the townsite to be seen. Unfortunately, my camera stopped recording photos to my SD card, so I lost all the photos I took from this point. (I think my battery compartment came partly open.)

There are some photographs from the early 1900s, taken not long before the town was abandoned.

More historical information about the town.

Another place Diana and I visited while in Kanab was the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. This park has camping and a day-use hiking area, but is most popular for the OHV riding area on the dunes.