About 20 miles from Kanab is the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. According to the State Park website, these 10,000-15,000 year old sand dunes are created by three things: sand, high winds, and a notch between the Moquith and Moccasin mountains, that causes the dune formation. The eroding Navajo sandstone gives the sand dunes their ‘coral pink’ hue.
The park is popular with ATV/OHV vehicles and has campsites for visitors who want to stay overnight. Many people, like us, come to sled or sand-board down the dunes. There’s a $10 state park day-use fee and sand-board/sled rentals are $25 for all-day. With the sled, the Ranger will give you a small block of wax and instructions on how to apply it to the underside of the board. They also explain the best technique to successfully ride the sled down the dunes. Properly applying the wax to the bottom of the board greatly affects the speed downhill.
For $5, you can get a permit to fly your drone in the park – one of the few State Parks I’ve visited that allows this. I brought my drone so after sledding, I flew it over the park (video below).
Most visitors come to sand-board or sled down the dunes. There are several smaller dunes but everyone seemed to pick the largest dune to ride. We started lower then moved higher as we got the hang of it and got braver. You can have some great, fast runs if you start high on the right slope angle. But climbing back up in the soft sand is an exhausting workout. The higher you start, the longer the climb back up. After a few runs, we were done.
In the afternoon, the wind can start blowing so be prepared for everything, including you, to be covered with the fine, red sand. Bring sunscreen, water and snacks with you cause once you hike out to the dunes. You will not want to trudge back to the picnic area or parking lot unless absolutely necessary.
We had a great time and highly recommend spending a couple hours here especially if you have kids.
One tip – a couple was having a terrible time sledding successfully down the dune. They tried all the tips & suggested techniques but their sled would turn sideways and catch-an-edge after several feet. Since we were done, we offered them our board and, like us, it worked fine for them. Applying wax to the underside of theirs wasn’t working because it was so heavily scratched/gouged. So when you rent, be sure to check out the underside of your sled and ask for a smoother one if it looks rough. Ours had gouges but not nearly as many as theirs. These sleds look like they’ve been around a long time and the undersides surely shows their age.
They log the board number when you rent so you’ll want to return the same board. When the couple were done with ours, we got it back to return. I do not know the park’s policy if you swap boards with somebody & return a different number.
