Road Trip — Caliente Nevada to Kanab Utah

Posted by Karen on 24-Nov-2008

(Click photo for all 111 photos)

Last night I arrived in Caliente, Nevada and took a motel room to settle in for the night.  I soon learned that Caliente is a very active train town.  A train seemed to come through every half hour and, of course, a train has to blow its whistle when it passed through a town.  Thankfully I also learned that I can sleep through train whistles without any problem.  In the morning, stopped by the historic train depot to check it out.  It also houses other businesses and city government offices.  Time to head east and the last Nevada town I come to is Panaca, a small quiet town that, according to one of the history markers, is home to the oldest building in Lincoln County, Nevada.  I cross the border and enter Utah, my first trip to the state (airport layovers don’t count in my book because your feet don’t touch actual earth). I stopped for a lunch break in Enterprise, Utah and explored the lovely Heritage Park they have built there.  The memorials center around Thomas Sirls Terry, his wives and the contributions they made in pioneering the area.  It’s a really nice memorial and park. As I head south on Highway 18 through the Dixie National Forest, I see a sign for the Overlook Monument and turned off to check it out.  The walking path leads me to memorial markers that describe the horrific Mountain Meadow Massacre of 1857. It’s a somber place, but it’s kind of nice that this sad piece of history isn’t being swept under the rug. As I leave the Dixie National Forest, I arrive in St. George, Utah and am officially in red rock country–I love it! The gleaming white spire of the St. George Mormon Temple attracts me from the freeway and I veer off to view it.  I can’t go into the actual temple, but they have a very nice visitor center on the grounds and I tour that.   It’s sunset and I head down the Arizona Strip to Kanab, Utah in the dark.