Our first stop on our trip through Utah, the Hurricane Cliffs Recreation Area was a decent, if not perfect, stopping place to take in the town of Virgin, Utah. More importantly, it was a good staging area for exploring Zion National Park. While the area is scenic, this BLM area was one of the least “big rig friendly” locations we’ve ever stayed at.
What Hurricane Cliffs Has to Offer
Hurricane Cliffs Recreation Area isn’t a dispersed camping area like we’ve come to understand it. In most Dispersed camping areas, you can camp wherever you can without damaging the area. Instead, Hurricane Cliffs has 56 numbered sites, complete with fire rings. This isn’t too big of a deal until you notice that only about 6 of these sites are accessible by bigger rigs. The other 50 sites are only accessible by high-clearance off-road vehicles. The BLM has addressed this issue by signage that says RVs are welcome to go to an RV park in town. That’s not the exact language, but its sentiment carries over. When looking for a spot to park, we noticed several “unofficial” sites, complete with fire rings, no signage otherwise. While we initially set up in one of those, we eventually squeezed into a numbered spot with friends.
While we were there, we noticed several rigs in the ‘’unofficial area’’ until a ranger came out and put up a “no camping area” sign. The area is surrounded by large homes and almost all of the numbered sites were behind hills, tucked into gullies, or otherwise out of the direct sightlines of the homes.
The Surrounding Area
In addition to Zion National Park, Hurricane Cliffs also acted as a launching point for exploring the towns of Virgin and Hurricane.
Hurricane Valley Heritage Park Museum
One thing we love is little museums and the town of Hurricane had one. Outside of the museum was an assortment of semi-labeled pioneer-age farm equipment and wagons, as well as a few statues and other displays. This was the only comfortable part of the museum.
When we entered the museum, we were immediately greeted by the attendant. We were quickly made aware that the museum was less a history of the area and more a shrine to the family of the attendant.
This isn’t to say there wasn’t local history, but the attendant followed us around from room to room, display to display, pointing out their Great-Grand-Whatever in photos or how their 2nd uncle, twice removed on their niece’s side crafted a particular object, or owned an item on display.
We like to explore museums at our own pace but with the constant attention and commentary from the attendant, we rushed through this one.
Fort Zion
Fort Zion is more or less a tourist trap, easily spotted on the road to Zion. We couldn’t help but pop in. Inside the main building is exactly what one would expect to find in a roadside attraction: Lots of tchotchkes, local art, knives, and dollar store quality souvenirs. What drew us in, however, wasn’t the shop, but the attached village and petting zoo.
For a small fee, one could get access to their petting zoo, which is housed in the same yard as their little townscape. The town consists of 6 playhouse-sized buildings painted up like old western prop houses that guests can take pictures in. The petting zoo isn’t necessarily amazing, consisting of domestic livestock, but to a city dweller who’s never touched a goat before it can be pretty cool. For us, it was a nice reminder of life before the bus when we raised our own goats.
Amenities Around Hurricane Cliffs Recreation Area
Considering the hostile policies around RVs, we were really surprised to see a Conoco in the nearby town of La Verkin that had free dump-and-fill utilities for RVs. This coupled with plenty of grocery stores makes the Hurricane Cliffs Recreation Area a tolerable stop on your quest to see Utah’s “Big Five.”
