10 HIDDEN GEMS in UTAH 🇺🇸 That Aren't National Parks

good morning ladies and gentlemen bright-eyed and bushy-tailed it is just after five in the morning actually 5 18 to be exact and we're heading out into the wilderness let me back up and tell you the story of how we got here so a few months ago i get an email from visit utah and they said we saw your videos from zion bryce canyon and lake powell but we want to challenge you to see if you can discover some of the lesser-known places here in southern utah some of the places that you don't see from the national parks and don't get all the coverage truth is when the world starts opening back up again in june and july and august when the national parks are super busy we don't want them to get overwhelmed with people so my job this week is to discover 10 of the best hidden gems must visit hidden gems here in southern utah that you can explore outside of the national parks i brought daniel along with me he's behind the lens what's up daniel what's up guys and we are heading out from our launch pad here in st george we actually flew into las vegas and then drove up here last night and our home base for this first leg of the adventure is the avenir a great little hotel right in downtown st george it's got a rooftop hot tub overlooking the town it also has some great food at the restaurant right in the lobby it is the perfect launch pad to our adventure here in southern utah so this is the starting off point and we are up early to begin this adventure and it all starts right now here we go and stop number one of this incredible journey is here at yacht flat about 45 minutes away from st george and a relatively quick red sand hike to get here these incredible rock formations are not to be missed look at this [Music] how incredible is this it's like we're walking on the backs of dinosaurs like a giant sea turtle shell in white and red and just all of these waves of rock formations as far as the eye can see i've never seen anything like this and this is the highest point you can see all of the rocks from this exact vantage point yam flat a definite must visit hidden gem here in southern utah all right let's keep moving [Music] this is sand hollow state park a perfect place to cool off after a long day on the trail [Music] [Music] here we go now if you're a local in the area i know sand hollow cliff jumping is nothing new but to the rest of the country mark this and nearby quail creek as a great alternative to lake powell [Music] [Music] all right and if you have the chance you got to come to stand hollow and there's some sand dunes get yourself an off-road vehicle and take a sunset and you go cruise around this tank [Music] okay oh we have now made it to the top of sand hollow this is the highest point what do we call this this is top of the world you can see sand hollow down below the beach you can see the cliffs where we jumped off this morning you can see red cliffs conservation area the other side you can see yacht flats where we were this morning and this beautiful glorious place is incredible you can even see the sand dunes down there see them we got a music video shoot going on up here you come out here all the time it's the third time is it yours but i discovered that one is that your truck yeah that's right that's awesome oh thank you thank you right here that's incredible congratulations thank you when you're married 33 years you can get with something like this right hey i finished with my case on a higher cd so it's my time with the people i love all right next up is cedar breaks national monument within dixie national forest met up with a couple of locals here on the trails where we have right now what is this place cedar breaks national monument we're at over 10 000 feet in elevation now it's a much smaller park i like to tell people it's a great alternative to bryce canyon and it's incredible do we call these hoodoos as well the hoodoos the red and white rock formations the layers the incredible landscape here you see it just jetting out of the surface and it's a much quieter place i would say than bryce canyon a lot more foot traffic over there and a great alternative and is it mostly up on the ridge that you hike or can you also go down in as well up on the ridge is the is the primary okay wow all right let's go check it out let's do it i'm good it's just all so green the area all around the red and white rock formations is so green and why it tells me that during the week it's like this there's no people here right yep it's nice and quiet nice and quiet during the week the weekend's a little busier but man this is a peaceful peaceful place tell me a little bit of how you even got this role and why did you come here to see the breaks so i this is somewhere to do a camera so i was an intern down at zion national park last summer and it was crazy and it was hot and it was busy all the time so we'd come up to this tiny little place called cedar breaks which i'd never heard of on our vacations and we would string up a hammock in a tree and talk to no one for three whole days and it was perfect um and then i applied and they were like here's a job because you won't shut up with the interview they were like we will hire you if you stop talking um and i'm like his paradise here how could i say no sitting at over 10 000 feet in elevation looking down into a half mile deep geologic amphitheater cedar breaks his home to an unbelievable landscape and one of its most popular residents is said to be the oldest species on the planet the bristlecone pine yeah so a lot of these trees that we're looking at here would they could be upwards of 2000 years old and i love that the little sign tells us that it's uh these would have been seedlings when the pyramids were being built uh which is just mind-boggling to me so these trees were growing the time the pyramids were being built unreal they grow at what 10 000 feet yep yeah so wow bristle cone pines and they are not dead they are not dead i mean you can see all the growth on even these ones right here that they've got the parts that don't look like they're growing but you've got all this other stuff that's still growing and they just keep keep going that's cool we are now standing in a location that has been inhibited by people for over 12 000 years this is the parawan gap petroglyphs and as you can see next to me and all around this little valley it's actually a road that separates two sides with the most concentration of petroglyphs in anywhere in southwestern united states now these petroglyphs were carved into these rocks thousands and thousands of years ago as the history is told and this is from all different types of tribes that were migrating through this area on their way to other places and these petroglyphs tell a million different stories everything from hunting expeditions and travel routes to historical religious and cultural information they are dotted across all of these rocks and it truly is incredible to think that people have been here for thousands and thousands of years we're here in southern utah and get a glimpse of a time and a place that once was [Music] now they gave you a quick history lesson now let's talk about culture it's not just all outdoor activities here and in downtown cedar city there's a great place for that and that is at suma the southern utah museum of art that's where we're at right now let's go take a look suma is part of a 39 million dollar center for the arts on the southern utah university campus here in cedar city which also features a performing arts theater that hosts the annual utah shakespeare festival and look they even have a real picasso here pretty good don't underestimate southern utah now this one in particular really speaks to me you can tell just the curvature of the lines here and how they're juxtaposing some of the bright contrast colors with the i would call it more of a subtle supple color if you will and it really shows off the voluptuousness of modern art let's keep moving and heading north from cedar city you gotta make a stop in beaver at the creamery for all of your dairy needs everything from ice cream over there we got cheese slicing going on here cheese curds over there let's go get some ice cream [Music] this is the variety pack yeah um i would just like to get some bonus points here i've been in the creamery for about 20 minutes and i've been watching these women on the slicer and i haven't made one joke about who cut the cheese not one joke i haven't said a word and i would just i'd like some credit for that very mature that is america in a bag buddy good old pork rind you like it here at the creamery i love it whoa so many players [Music] well done well done well done you did okay thank you girl so much is the most dairy i've seen in one place in a long time the whole operation is right in back and this is the coconut flavor ice cream the most popular there's some nuts in it on a waffle cone and this is just a single three bucks great staff in there let's give it a try coconut and almonds with chocolate chunks i love this place beaver top five best ice creams i've ever had and the best thing is you see farmland you see the cows that give us this beautiful ice cream all around us big open valleys rolling hills signs for the creamery all the way down the highway so we had to stop and this was well worth a stop outside of cedar city heading north about 40 minutes this beaver we didn't stop for the beaver tacos we came straight to the creamery that's a great stop all right let's continue and after the creamery and beaver continue heading north about an hour and you'll run into fish lake national forest it is a beautiful breathtaking drive up into the forest everything turns from red to green from southern utah and it is this lush lush forest that you can take a hike into and find bouillon falls you want to talk about a hidden gem there's not many people here at all i didn't read much about it online but we're hoping to come across an incredible waterfall i'm way too out of breath than i should be it's only about a mile hike but i think i had too much ice cream and cheese curds but i'm gonna battle through it and show you guys this incredible waterfall let's go [Music] it's amazing and after that long beautiful drive we are now in green river at la verosana we have steak shrimp sizzling cheese we got some peppers tomatoes avocado rice and beans this is a must stop when you're on that road trip around southern utah my friends if this isn't a hidden gem i don't know what it is let's dig in you're gonna like this straight from mexico into southern utah straight to the heart this was the aspect of the trip that i was most looking forward to having the opportunity to connect with lewis from ancient waves a navajo and native to this land grew up on the navajo reservation grew up with uh no electricity no water who immediately opens my eyes to the world around you like i did and then i we what we do is we bless ourselves put it all over bless our limbs and always we spend the day trekking around his ancestral terrain stopping at one of the most incredible ruins i've ever seen this is house on fire we've made it to house on fire house on fire is a great home um setting they literally weren't living in these dwellings i would see if i wanted to further investigate you know i just gotta look around and i say okay definitely there's no doorway there's a window but that's an access to where to the granary okay so what we're looking at is storage rooms oh really yeah so that put all this work in for storage huh yeah definitely very important place faster they stored food mainly food probably weapons okay tools you know they were making pottery so many of these could be possibly kilns okay you know where they made um pottery they finished their pottery here so this is a big uh um factory that we see here at another location remnants of an entire civilization is obvious to the trained eye homes hundreds of years old hide within the canyon wall this is incredible houses built within the canyon walls steps carved into the rocks towers built thousands of years ago if you appreciate this country's true history i highly recommend taking the time to experience these forgotten places with lewis i can't imagine what you're feeling with the energy and just like that that does it for my adventures here in southern utah daniel thanks for being behind the lens thank you a big thanks to visit utah and all of the partners that were involved in making this journey happen for example this outro is coming to you from the bluff dwellings resort and spa just outside of bluff it is an incredible property located right on the side of a cliff's edge and this is where i will wrap the video i hope that gives you an idea of things to do in southern utah outside of the national park some hidden gems if you will it's been an incredible journey and especially the people that we've met along the way has truly made this special so i hope you enjoyed the video if you have give it a big thumbs up subscribe if you haven't already hit that notifications bell if you have leave a comment let me know which spot on this list you would most like to visit that's it travel deeper forever mighty as visit utah says i'll see you guys on the next one [Music] there's an incredible bike path that runs along the highway making it for a making for some and making for some spectacular why am i struggling it's only a mile hike let's try that again oh the ice cream and the cheese curds are lodged in my lungs i can't breathe um oh yeah right there ready yes oh gosh oh wait i didn't tell you your lines oh i have lines any last words i hope he's not too cold all right you gonna get a running start start back there you gotta step there no ready [Music] wait no one said anything what happened and these petroglyphs symbolize everything from stories trade routes hunting expeditions different ways of what were they art different stories hunting hunting things

Channel: Gareth Leonard

Views: 84,206

Keywords: national parks, usa national parks, utah national parks, Zion national park, bryce canyon, moab national park, moab, zion, lake powell, things to do in utah, utah travel, usa travel, gareth leonard, travel deeper, travel deeper usa, #traveldeeper, sand hollow state park, cedar breaks, fishlike national forest, native american, navajo, cedar city, green river, beaver utah, cedar city utah, bluff utah, yant flat, st george, southern utah, arches national park, zion park, usa

Id: lItUsh1I-Dg

Length: 21min 13sec (1273 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 09 2021