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Position: 37°01’45″N 112°30’24″W
Crossing Utah’s southern border with Arizona west of Lake Powell soon brings you to to the resort town of Kanab. Surrounded by spectacular, craggy windblown cliffs in layers of tan and red, the town is instantly recognizable to fans of TV westerns like Gunsmoke and The Virginian. For three decades starting in the 1940s, Kanab was the seasonal home to an array of glittering stars, at least for the establishing shots. Luminaries like Gabby Hayes, Maureen O’Hara, Dennis Weaver, Robert Fuller, Larry Storch, Don Knots and many others returned regularly. The main road is lined with short, biographical placards that offer some quirky insights into Little Hollywood. I learned, because he wanted a place to cool off, John Wayne helped bankroll a swimming pool for Parry Lodge, the star’s favourite hostelry. And that during the filming of Sergeants 3, Frank Sinatra bought football jerseys for Kanab’s high school team. If you’re a Western super fan, the local movie museum is up for sale!
The real star, however, is the scenery. At least two generations of Americans were buffaloed into believing Kansas was covered in high desert scrub and towering mountains. These days movie scenery is as likely computer-generated as not. Still, within 90 minutes of Bryce Canyon and 30 minutes of Zion National Park, some of the world’s finest scenery is here for the partaking. You don’t even have to go that far. Simply looking down the end of Main Street is breathtaking.
Crew’s Booze
With so many debauched Hollywood types coming through town, the question of how they navigated Utah’s famously restrictive drinking laws pops to mind. During the 1940s through the 1960s Utah prohibited sales of liquor by the glass. If you wanted wine with dinner, or a drink beforehand, you brought your own. Restaurants provided glasses and ice and you were the bartender. The wrinkle was you couldn’t have an open bottle of liquor in your car, so you had to drink it all, or dump it. I seriously doubt John Wayne ever tossed a drop of whiskey in Kanab.
Panguitch
After our visit to Bryce Canyon, we found a bed and breakfast in Panguitch. With its wide main street and storefronts that leapt off the pages of a Lucky Luke comic book, it’s every bit the small western community it claims to be. 4-H Club banners hung from the high school, as they do in so many rural communities here. The population of this historic town hasn’t changed much in 130 years. It’s still around 1,500. That is until the bikers turn up for their annual rally. Then the population doubles for a weekend.
Summers here are one festival after another. July’s calendar includes the Chicken Lights and Chrome Truck show, followed by the Old Skool Panguitch Bike Rally, then a barrel race and finally the Panguitch Invitational Rodeo and Pioneer Days celebration. It’s a busy schedule and we were surprised to find the local liquor shop well stocked after the bikers left. We were fortunate, we were told, that we picked the one quiet weekend in July to visit.
Heading south along Highway 89 we drove alongside the Sevier River for 20 miles. The river meanders down the valley cutting a narrow green sward through the dusty ochre hills. Cattle grazed sleepily in the cool of the morning, a few finding shade under a tall cottonwood. We climbed the hill and crossed a pass and headed down again. Finally, we turned right onto UT-9 towards Zion, the third busiest spot in the National Park Service’s portfolio. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’d never been to Zion and, unusually, hadn’t done much research…
Photos from the area:
