I want to explain why anyone in their right mind would solo trip to Kanab, Utah in January. The answer is budget. January in Kanab hits a price point for accommodation that doesn’t exist in spring and fall, which are the sensible times to go. I stayed at the Hampton Inn for a rate that made me suspicious it was a typo. It wasn’t. I booked two nights instead of one and started building a list of trails on AllTrails and OnlyInYourState. Kanab doesn’t have Moab’s reputation or Torrey’s Instagram presence, but it sits at the center of a remarkable concentration of BLM land, slot canyons, and natural formations that most people drive past on US-89 without stopping. I had driven through enough times to suspect it deserved more than a gas station visit. It does. What I didn’t anticipate was that most of the hiking would happen in a blizzard, and that I would find the snow and the wind and the empty trails more valuable than any of the scenery by itself.

The Trails

Arches Trail, Dixie National Forest

I planned the drive from Salt Lake City to Kanab to include a few trails along the way. The Arches Trail in Dixie National Forest came first, which was exactly the right scale for legs stiff from three hours in the car. Half a mile up a dirt-accessible hill to the top, close views of hoodoos, sweeping red rock landscape stretching out in every direction. It got the blood moving without costing anything I’d need later. A correct first stop. Full guide: Arches Trail

Golden Wall/Buckhorn Loop

The Arches Trail is a short drive from the Golden Wall/Buckhorn loop, which made doing both in sequence a natural plan. What the plan didn’t account for was the blizzard that was in full progress by the time I started climbing. The first three-quarters of the trail follows a paved bike path along the wash, easy and clear navigation. Then you hit the Red Canyon campground and the climb begins. The switchbacks on this trail are not subtle. They go up, turn, go up again, and repeat. I found stairs installed at the steeper sections near the top, which were necessary given that the snow had made the straight sections genuinely slippery. Getting traction on snow-covered red rock at 1,056 feet of gain is its own kind of workout. I stopped often. Not because my legs demanded it but because the view demanded it. Snow driving horizontally against red canyon walls is a visual combination that doesn’t come up often, and I stood in it longer than made practical sense, trying to hold the image. I called it at the base of the final climb to Buckhorn because the conditions at the top looked legitimately sketchy and I was solo. I’ve regretted that call since. I’ll be back. Full guide: Golden Wall/Buckhorn Loop

Red Hollow (The One That Didn’t Happen)

I followed the AllTrails map precisely and arrived at where the trail was supposed to start. There was a gated fence. To the right of the gate was what appeared to be private property with horses on it. Three-week-old reviews had said the trail was easy to find. Something had changed. I chose not to proceed onto the property and moved on. Some trails don’t happen. This was one of those trips where I counted it as data rather than a failure and drove to the next thing.

Belly of the Dragon

Belly of the Dragon had been on the list since I started researching Kanab. A drainage tunnel under US-89 north of town that water erosion has turned into a carved sandstone passage with smooth, curved walls and genuinely interesting interior geometry. It’s right at the beginning of the trail: park, walk down into the wash, and the cave is immediately in front of you. The walls inside have carved initials and names from visitors who apparently needed to leave their mark, which is the predictable tragedy of an accessible natural feature. Past that, the interior is everything the name implies. The water erosion patterns in the sandstone walls are distinctive and the light inside is indirect and strange. I got good shots from inside looking out at the desert beyond the opening. Bring a headlamp for the darker sections if you want to see the wall detail clearly. Without it, you’re photographing silhouettes. After you exit, the trail continues into rock formations that are fine but not the reason to be there. The tunnel is the reason. It’s worth every minute of it. Full guide: Belly of the Dragon

Peekaboo Slot Canyon

Slot canyons. If you’ve been in one, you know what I mean. If you haven’t, describing it to you is approximately as useful as describing a color you’ve never seen. Getting to Peekaboo requires a high-clearance vehicle on BLM Road 102. A sign at the entrance makes the vehicle requirement explicit. I have all-wheel drive in my Infiniti Q50, which is not a truck. I tried BLM 102M off Kanab Canyon Road as an alternative approach, which had the same sign with the same requirements. I chose not to risk the tow bill and parked at the small turnaround at the start of 102M. The mile hike up 102M to the cattle grate was honestly manageable. Beyond the grate onto 102 itself, the road goes from passable to vehicle-destroying in a short stretch. I was glad I walked. There was still active snow accumulating, which meant route-finding on snow cover, but without it the approach would be easy to navigate. The road is popular for UTVs so be aware of traffic moving at UTV speeds. As you descend toward the canyon mouth, small streams of water pour off the red rock walls, a preview of what’s coming. A trail etiquette sign marks the entrance. Then the slot. The canyon alternates between shaded slot sections with walls closing in overhead and open exposed sections where the sky comes back, then shade again. About halfway through there’s a ladder to get over a boulder. When I went, there was a small waterfall running over it from recent precipitation. At the back of the canyon, a second waterfall comes from above. My socks were completely soaked by the time I reached it and I didn’t care at all. On the way out, I met a group entering the canyon. First humans I’d seen on a trail since arriving in Kanab. We talked briefly and one of them offered me a ride back to my car. I said yes immediately and enthusiastically. The group turned out to be ROAM Outdoor Adventures, a southern Utah tour operator running UTV tours in the area. They loaded me into a UTV and drove me back through the desert at speeds that made the 4.5-mile foot return feel like a different kind of experience entirely. They didn’t have to do that. I’m genuinely grateful for it and I’d recommend checking them out if you’re in the area: ROAM Outdoor Adventures runs tours across southern Utah. Full guide: Peekaboo Slot Canyon

Where to Eat in Kanab

Rocking V Cafe

First night in Kanab, I asked the front desk for a restaurant recommendation. No hesitation: Rocking V Cafe, two blocks from the Hampton Inn. The restaurant bills itself as the best in Kanab and the staff backs that up from the moment you walk in. I had the Pub burger, mashed potatoes that deserved the phrase ‘to die for’ without irony, and a Chasing Tail Golden Ale. Everything was good and the price was right. Left satisfied and returned to the hotel without the usual traveler’s guilt about money.

Glazier’s Market

After dinner I needed snacks and something to drink back at the hotel. Glazier’s Market was around the corner: a small-town grocery with a deli, a solid selection of beverages, and no need to consult Google. In a small town, a grocery store that carries what you actually want within walking distance of where you’re sleeping is a legitimate luxury. Glazier’s delivered that. Stocked up, went back to the hotel, and planned the next day.

Why I Went to Kanab in January

Being on the autism spectrum means I’ve spent most of my life wearing a social mask. Presenting the version of myself that reads as functional in the contexts I move through. Most of the time I don’t even register that I’m doing it. It just happens, constantly, without much conscious effort. Something about being alone in a blizzard on a trail in southern Utah removes the requirement for that. There’s no social context to navigate. No one to read, no cues to respond to, no performance to maintain. It’s just the wind and the snow and the red rock and whatever version of me actually shows up when all of that is gone. On the drive back to Kanab from the Golden Wall/Buckhorn climb, seeing the snowstorm I’d been hiking in from the outside, I screamed. Not in distress. Just to release whatever had been building. If anyone had seen me they would have had questions. I didn’t care and still don’t. That’s the version of myself I go looking for on these trips. The one that doesn’t need to perform being okay because the desert doesn’t have an opinion about it. That’s what keeps me going back out. Not the trails specifically or the formations or the landscapes, though those matter. It’s the thing that happens when I’m far enough from everything else that I can just be whatever I actually am for a few hours. Kanab in January, in a blizzard, alone with soaked socks in a slot canyon while a stranger offered me a UTV ride home, was a good version of that.

Chase the Quiet

Kanab doesn’t need January to be good. Spring and fall are the sensible times to visit and the trails are better in them. But there’s a specific version of a place that only exists when the weather is bad and no one else is there. Snow driving sideways into your face while red rock rises on all sides. A canyon that echoes differently when you’re the only one in it. An unexpected UTV pulling up with a driver who just offers you a ride back to your car without making a thing of it. Those moments don’t happen in peak season. They happen when you go somewhere that most people aren’t.

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