Hiking Yant Flats Trail to the Candy Cliffs

As we planned our stay here in Leeds, Utah, near St. George, our friends Dick and Gaila recommended that we hike the Yant Flats Trail.  We knew little more than this about it, but, once we researched it, we learned that the 1.75 mile trail leads to Yant Flats and the Candy Cliffs, a section of the Dixie National Forest abutting the Cottonwood Canyon Wilderness in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve that surrounds St. George and nearby communities.

We drove up Silver Reef Road and Forest Road 32 into the red hills above Leeds, passing by many gorgeous designated campsites in the forest.  The topography and drive reminded us of our drive in 2017 through the Alabama Hills below Whitney Portal and above Lone Pine, California.  Within 15 minutes or so, we were into the beautiful red hills of this area:

Forest Road 32 gave way to Forest Road 31, and on up we climbed, crossing the heads of some remarkable canyons --

-- until we reached the small parking area near our trailhead.  Our Jeep Dusty was pleasantly surprised to see another Jeep Wrangler Sahara already parked at the trailhead.  The two vehicles looked like they were ready to film a Jeep commercial, with the Pine Valley Mountains and Signal Peak in the backgrounds:

The mountains still boasted a mantle of snow, which was forecast to increase this afternoon and evening as rain (in the valley) and snow (in the mountains) moves in.  In fact, the rain is predicted to be so heavy that our road in and out from the trail is expected to be impassable due to deep, slippery mud.  This was all the greater reason for us to get up early this morning and make the hike before up to 4 days of rain come in.

Here is our obligatory trailhead photo -- not much of a trailhead sign on this one:

Most of the 1.75 miles from the trailhead to our objective was across rolling terrain of red sand and limestone slickrock.  As we arrived at Yant Flat, we spotted the swirling patterns in the rock, as well as some puddles of rainwater remaining from storms that came through a week or two ago:

Crossing the creamy-white-swirled-with-red flats, we arrived at the top of the Candy Cliffs and our first view of the Virgin River Valley below.   The Pine Valley Mountains and these hills form the divide between the Great Basin watershed, to the West, and the watershed of the Virgin River, a tributary of the Colorado River, below us and to the East.

Turning our gaze more eastward than southward, we spotted Sand Hollow Lake in the distance, where we had paddled our kayaks yesterday:

The views were breathtaking in all directions:

Turning westward, we got another view of the Pine Valley Mountains peeking over the candycane-striped rocks of Yant Flats:

The sandstone and limestone formations we were walking on created fantastical shapes, such as this dome that looked like a stack of pancakes --

-- and this steep rockface criss-crossed with erosive cracks:

Kathy found a geocache in the area that she wanted to hunt down, but while she was doing that, David continued looking for his own cache of amazing views, such as this swooping look at a variety of sandstone formations:

Here is a closer look at the sandstone formation that reminded us of dollops of vanilla and strawberry custard plopped into the mountainous landscape:

David stumbled upon this ad hoc campsite, fit out with a fire ring, a large square sitting stone, a rain-filled pond for reflection, and a cache of firewood to stave off the nighttime cold.  This wouldn't be a bad place to spend a starry night:

Kathy didn't have time to find her geocache because we needed to finish the 19-mile drive down to St. George along rutted, rocky, sandy forest roads before the predicted rain closed in and made the roads dangerous.  Here she stands, in the vicinity of her geocache.  She got within 20 feet of it before deciding she needed to focus on heading back up the trail:

As we started back, we took one last look out at the beautious landscape, feeling drawn to explore as much of it as we can:

It wasn't long before we crested the last ancient sand dune before swooping down-then-up back to our trailhead, and we were rewarded with on of the prettiest views we had of the Pine Valley Mountains:

The hike was over in far too short a time.  However, our 19 mile drive down Forest Road 31 to St. George was an adventure in itself!  By the time we reached town, we had worked up an appetite, so we stopped for lunch before running errands in downtown St. George.