Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, Leeds, Utah

Hiked September 13 and 14, 2025. Red Reef, Silver Reef, and Anasazi Trails. First trip was a very quick pop-in, just because we were already there, having visited Silver Reef Ghost Town earlier that morning. Second time was a slightly longer stay, to hike the Red Reef and the part of the Silver Reef trail near the dinosaur prints.

The "main attraction" near the Red Cliffs campground is the "waterfalls" up the Red Reef Trail, into the Cottonwood Canyon wilderness. It's the first photograph, here.

Not surprisingly, by late summer, the waterfall is often dry. There are two spots where steps are carved into the sandstone, to help you attain the next level. The second one goes above what was a pretty substantial pool of water, which psyched me out. Without a potential fall into water, it's an easy traverse. But I was afraid of mentally freezing and/or falling into the water with my camera and phone, so I waited below for an opening to photograph it.

Despite the relatively small number of people there, the wait stretched about 45 minutes, as some groups were very slow to traverse the six or seven steps, and some individuals posed repeatedly for pictures at the top, and one group just stood around talking at the top for about 20 minutes. When other groups were taking their shots, I moved back into an alcove to give them a clear view. When I finally had a break in the people, I spent about two minutes snapping my pictures, then headed back.

To me, I thought it was obvious, if a guy with a camera keeps peeking around, then moving back, he's waiting to take a picture. But either it wasn't obvious why I was loitering, or people just didn't care. I spent more than half my time on this hike just waiting. Gave me plenty of time to check my exposures, of course. :D

On the way towards the waterfalls (a bit earlier in the trail), there's a large alcove, at the canyon split. A pictoglyph is to the left of the cave, and a few other pictoglyphs are inside the cave.

Two other "attractions" in this area of Red Cliffs: Dinosaur tracks, and an ancestral puebloan ruin. The ruin isn't much to see; the residence was mostly below ground, so you're just seeing the outline of where the sticks and mud would have made a roof over the residence. The dinosaur tracks are pretty cool, though.

There may once have been more signed viewing points along the Silver Reef trail, but now there's only the one, quite near the start. It overlooks a campsite.

There are quite a lot of known dinosaur track sites in the St. George area. Big, protected one at the Johnson Farms Discovery Site. Outdoor one is the Warner Valley site. Another small one is closer to Washington (which I could have sworn I posted about, but can't find!). Also, some further north, at Parowan Gap.

The ancestral Puebloan ruins I found along the Anasazi trail, which was my expectation, with a name like that. Pretty setting and a nice, short walk, but with some inclines. Pretty becuase there are quite a bit of cottonwood growing along the dry wash. Their green stood out nicely against the red rock cliffs.

Because of that, I think this area might be interesting come October or November, when the cottonwood leaves change color. Not sure if I'll be coming back this way, though. Giving some thought to either southwest Utah or the eastern Sierra for my fall foliage trip. Also, there's a comet (not superbright, but might photograph nice) that, come early- to mid-October, might be a sight to see. Will have to decide in the next three weeks or so what I'm going to do.

For this trip, the only other post I'll need to make are for the ghost towns or Silver Reef and Grafton. Not much walking, but something different.