Cinder Cone Volcano Hike in Southern Utah

I love hiking.  One of my favorite things about living in southern Utah is that you can go hiking almost year round! Not to mention that there are gorgeous hike all around us!  We just joined a homeschool field trip group, and I am so excited about it because I have a hard time venturing out on my own with just my kids and I.  My husband can’t go do things as often as we would like so when we heard about this group we were so excited!  Our first week we went to hike the Cinder Cone Volcano out in Snow Canyon Area out past Santa Clara, Utah.  I wrote about my experience of hiking this hike with my one year old HERE if you want a good read!  If you don’t now what a Cinder Cone is it is a steep, conical hill of volcanic fragments that accumulate around and downwind from a vent. The rock fragments, often called cinders or scoria, are glassy and contain numerous gas bubbles “frozen” into place as magma exploded into the air and then cooled quickly. Cinder cones range in size from tens to hundreds of meters tall. There is usually a bowl shaped crater at the top of the hill.  

Directions:  If you are coming from St. George drive North on Bluff Street, which will turn into St. Route 18.  Drive approximately 11 miles from South Bluff out to the Cinder Cone Trail Head which is after the north entrance of Snow Canyon and just before you see the small town of Diamond Valley.  

 You will see this sign to your right. Watch for it as you go around the bend after the north Snow Canyon park way entrance. 

{photo from here at Utahtravelwithkids}

Here is a little bit about the Cinder Cone Trail in Southern Utah.  

Cinder Cone Volcano Trail

Length: 1.5 miles round trip
Difficulty:  Moderately easy for the first 2/3 of the hike as you go around the base of the mountain.  The last climb is a steep up hill Moderately Strenuous.  

The Cinder Cone Trail takes you to the rim of one of Washington Counties beautiful cinder cones.  Just one mile north of the main Cinder Cone lies another Cinder Cone.  Two within a mile of each other!  Just outside of Snow Canyon Parkway on State Route 18 they are not hard to miss.  

The Cinder Cone is just over 500 feet higher than the canyon around it. Its crater is elliptical at top.  It is 616 feet across at its widest, and just under 100 feet deep. There is a trail to walk around the whole thing and you can actually walk down inside.  

Look at this gorgeous view of Snow Canyon once you are at the top.  There are two different ways to get up. Going around and not straight up is a much easier route for families, although my 3 older kids came down the other way.  {sliding on their rear ends the whole way down!}  I hiked with a 3 year old and a 1 year old in a backpack. For me it wasn’t an easy hike, but we had a good time.  I would probably not recommend this hike for little ones, without the help of other adults, because the straight uphill at the end of the hike is pretty strenuous and you are hiking on rocks that make you slide with each step. Once you reach the top though, it makes it all worth it!  

At the top of the mountain we ate lunch and the kids hiked on the trail down into the center of the cone.  It isn’t super dangerous, but keep a close eye on your little kids. 

The hike back down was a little crazy for all these mammas with tiny kids.  We slid a lot of the way down on our rear ends and taught our kids how to serpentine, zigzagging down, so they didn’t just slide down.

All in all it was a fun hike and I would for sure do it again!  I’m excited to tell you about our next adventure!