We had reservations for a hotel in St. George for the night, so after getting a good night’s sleep, we were up making our way back to the Grand Canyon via Zion National Park and Kanab Utah.
Our route back to the Grand Canyon took us through Zion National Park. I was here with my grandchildren in July of 2016 and really enjoyed this park. We did not make any sightseeing stops, just did a drive-through.
We then made it to Kanab, Utah where we were spending the night. Kanab is a small classic American West town, surrounded by towering Navajo sandstone cliffs and vistas of sagebrush. This scenery has lured filmmakers to Kanab for nearly 80 years. Abandoned film sets near town have become tourist attractions. Many buildings all over town have plenty of movie posters and autographed photos to support Kanab’s self-proclaimed title, “Little Hollywood.”
Parry Lodge, I found to be fascinating and interesting: Founded in 1931 by the three Parry brothers (Whitney, Chauncey, and Gronway), Parry Lodge has hosted some of the biggest names from the golden age of Hollywood. John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Gregory Peck, Maureen O’Hara, Anne Bancroft, Dean Martin, Clint Eastwood, and Barbara Stanwyck are just a few of the hundreds of stars and character players that have stayed at Parry’s while filming. Check out the link below for the fantastic history of Parry Lodge.
https://parrylodge.blogspot.com/2016/08/history-of-parry-lodge.html
We next visited the Little Hollywood Museum Set. You enter a store with the Free museum outback. It is interesting with a variety of different movie sets that were used that were acquired and moved to this location. The place is for sale and things have been kept up as they should be, but it is still interesting.
After spending the night in Kanab, we headed back to the Grand Canyon and on the way made a stop at Lake Powell in Page, AZ. I had not been back to Lake Powell since the summer of 2017 when I was working at the Grand Canyon, so I was in shock when I saw how low the lake was. Lake Powell is a reservoir on the Colorado River that straddles the border between Utah and Arizona. Lake Powell is a major vacation spot that is visited by nearly 2 million people every year. The Lake is 186 miles long and 25 feet wide. Lake Powell is a water storage facility for the Upper Basin states of the Colorado River…..Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico so it is expected to have low water levels as water is released to these states. The hope, of course, is that each spring there will be plenty of snowmelt to fill the reservoir for the summer enjoyment and to continue to supply water to the states that depend on it.
Over The Hill With Sherry 