White Rocks Amphitheater

On the northern ege of Snow Canyon State Park there's a sandstone formation made of briliant white rock. A short but beautiful trail leads to a natural amphitheater within the formation, and that's just the beginning. This trail is an easy and famiy-friendly hike that provides access to slickrock and sand for the kids to play in. For a more exciting adventure, the amphitheater is a jumping-off point for scrambling to the highpoints surrounding the bowl. This is one of just a few areas in the park where non-technical scrambling is allowed.

Snow Canyon State Park was named not for the snow-colored rock located near this trail but instead for Mormon settlers named Lorenzo and Erastus Snow, who explored this area in the 1800s. Snow Canyon became a Utah state park in 1959, but it had seen lots of human use prior to this date. Anasazi hunted and gathered in the canyon between approximately 200 and 1250. After that time, Paiute occupied the area until the Mormons arrived in the mid-1800s. The park has also served as a backdrop for Western films like "Jeremiah Johnson" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

Today visitors to the park enjoy hiking, camping, rock climbing and wildlife watching. The quickest way to get to the amphitheater is from the White Rocks Trailhead, located just north of the park entrance. A half-mile easy trail ends in the amphitheater. For a longer adventure, access the Lava Flow or Butterfly trailheads and hike a few miles to the Whiterocks area. Watch for lizards, desert tortoise and gila monsters along the way. While you're likely to stumble across many species of lizards, the desert tortoises and gila monsters are much rarer sights. Appreciate these incredible animals from a distance and give them plenty of space.