Kanab is a small town in southern Utah that punches well above its weight as a base for exploring some of the American Southwest's most spectacular landscapes. Sitting at the junction of US-89 and US-89A, it is within easy reach of four major protected areas: Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and the vast Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Travellers who come for a night often end up staying for a week.
The town itself has a quiet, dusty character that Hollywood once found irresistible. Kanab and the surrounding canyon country served as the backdrop for dozens of Western films and television shows from the 1930s through the 1970s, earning it the nickname "Little Hollywood." You can still visit the Paria Movie Set, the remnants of a frontier town built for the 1962 film Sergeants 3 and used for many productions since, including The Outlaw Josey Wales.
Kanab is also known for Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, the largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the United States, which sits in the red rock hills just outside town. Visitors are welcome to tour the facility, meet the animals, and — if the timing is right — adopt a pet to take home.
The landscape around town is extraordinary: red and cream sandstone formations, slot canyons, and open desert that glows at sunrise and sunset. The Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch trailheads, just west of town, lead into some of the longest and most dramatic slot canyon hiking in the world.