Snow Canyon State Park, where we spent our day, is a 7,400-acre scenic part tucked in between lava flows and soaring sandstone cliffs in a strikingly colourful desert environment just outside St. George, Utah.

Transported by wind more than 180 million years ago, tiny grains of quartzite sand covered much of what is now Utah. These sand dunes, up to 2,500 feet thick, eventually cemented into stone. Burnt orange to creamy white in colour, Navajo sandstone is the predominant rock, and what remains of the ancient desert sands.

Over time, water cut and shaped the sandstone to form canyons. Approximately 1.4 million years ago, and as recently as 27,000 years ago, nearby cinder cones erupted causing lava to flow down these canyons, filling them with basalt. The lava flows redirected ancient waterways which eventually began carving new canyons. As you look up, you can see lava-capped ridges that were once the floors of canyons!

Snow Canyon averages 7.5 inches of rainfall each year and vegetation includes desert adapted species such as creosote bush, narrow leaf yucca, sand sage and black brush.

Me and the intrepid explorer Miss Poppy sitting on one of the many petrified sand dunes.

Where you see the light green on the photo is where lava once flowed!

Snow Canyon State Park was the site of the Hollywood film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid!