You don’t have to travel all the way to Peru to see a set of multicolored mountains. You can find them right here in the USA. The Rainbow Mountains of Utah. They are part of the Paria Badlands, and if you’re headed to Southern Utah… you’re probably driving past them.
Have you been to Utah? GO THERE.
Utah has everything you need to enjoy some quality outdoors time.
It is, without a doubt, one of the most majestic places I’ve ever been. I did a road trip through the lower part of the state in order to hit all 5 of the National Parks there, if you want to read about it.
At the tale end of a week long road trip through lower Utah, I was trying to come up with some fun places to stop on the way back home.
I came across Paria.
A small little pitstop in southern Utah, it didn’t have a lot of information online. Most of what I was able to find were over-photoshopped pictures, and some talk about the westerns filmed there. It amazes me that so many people drive past this on their road trips without making a stop! It’s close to so many different popular attractions!
First we’ll talk a bit about the history.
I know history is where most people tend to zone out, but this place has one interesting backstory, that even I wanted to learn more about!
Paria Badlands History
Paria is a small no-longer-really-existing town on the Paria River. It’s located in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
In the 1860s, a Mormon group settled here. If you stop for a visit… you can see why this was a tough place to settle. It was along a river, yes, but the landscape wasn’t really great for farming as it did what most deserts do… would go between flooding and no water at all. A few years later most of the settlers left moved a few miles up and founded the town of Pahreah, where they thought it was more stable.
They did great for a bit, with close to 50 families living there and building town necessities like a store and a church.
It didn’t last long though.
By the 1880s, the Paria River was flooding every year and washing everything downriver with it.
Most families moved on. Some stayed and tried to make it work. (I can see why. These Rainbow mountains in Utah are mind blowingly gorgeous!)
They tried to do some gold mining.
That was wiped out by floods within a year.
ONE single prospector stayed until 1929… making Paria a ghost town after 60 years of struggle.
The location wasn’t forgotten though. In the 40s and 50s it made the perfect backdrop for many Western films. They built up some new buildings to use as sets.
Plenty of famous movies had scenes shot here like Buffalo Bill, Sergeants, The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood movie), and even a few episodes of Gunsmoke.
Though, I guess they forgot about that entire flooding thing… because… you can… uh… guess what happened to the set.
After the flood damage, volunteers tried to replace the wreckage around 2000 and build it back up… but unfortunately the bad luck stayed. While there wasn’t another flood, it was vandalized and set on fire.
Now this area is cared for by the parks system. I spoke to a ranger in the parking lot at the entrance to ask about road quality (some of the reviews I read were iffy, but it was just fine).
Getting There
Paria is off of US-89.
If you’re coming from Kenab, you’ll want to take 89 east for somewhere around 30-35 miles.
You’ll see the sign for the Old Pahreah Townsite and a parking lot off to your left. Stop here and get out and read the signage which tells you a little bit about the place.
From there, you’ll see a dirt road entrance.
As long as it has NOT been raining, a regular vehicle will make it. In the event of rain, I would recommend 4×4. Vincent (my cargo van) does not have 4×4. It was dry. We took this road SLOOOOWWW. It was full of potholes. One so deep I was a little worried lol.
This dirt road is around 6 miles long. It does split off at one point, with the right side getting close to a picnic area and bathrooms they put in. Both sides meet up again, so it doesn’t matter what direction you go.
I would recommend getting out and checking them because the left side was a much smoother drive while I was there, but I’m sure this changes depending on rain and whatnot.
You can see in the above photo the “dip” the road makes at one point. If it rained at all, that would probably be full of water.
There are plenty of places to pull off for photos from time to time.
There’s even an old cemetery still there.
At the bottom, there’s another small parking area where you can stop and walk across the river and look at the (very little) ghost town remains.
Exploring the Rainbow Mountains
Multiple hiking trails are in the area. Make sure you hunt for them on alltrails and download the offline maps BEFORE you get there, because you will not have service while there.
I didn’t get to do any hiking (we only had around 2 hours total in this area before knowing we had to keep moving back home). I want to go back!
Without hiking, there is still plenty of walking around you can do to check out the views.
The deeper into the canyon you go, the better the views get.
The Paria Badlands are part of the Chinle Formation.
This link, which takes you directly to the NPS website, talks a little about the different layers of it. This was tough to pin down. I spent way too long trying to find a good reliable web page which explained all the different colors once I got back home from this trip… and wasn’t really able to find much.
If you have some knowledge, drop me a line over on IG and point me in a better direction that talks about all these colors and the ages/minerals of them all.
On our way in, we could see a camper off in the distance which means there’s probably some good BLM land around for camping.
There were a few vehicles parked at the very bottom, with their owners hiking nearby. There are some overnight hiking trips you can start from this area as well. If it’s been raining recently, the parking lot at the main entrance is large enough to accommodate most rigs so you can park and walk in. (just be aware it will be a long walk if you have to do this.)
I bet it would be fun to bike as well!
On the way back out, we saw a horse trailer unloading near the bathrooms. A quick Google search tells me that there are some local companies that offer horseback tours through the area. They have one that leads you down through this riverbed canyon. Neat!
COLORS OF RAINBOW MOUNTAINS
Let’s talk about the colors. I did not do any massive color edits to these photos. I did a bit of slight enhancing (because I took them with my phone) so they look a little more crisp, but the coloring of the photos is what you will see.
Many people who visit here tend to over-saturate their photos, just like they do for the rainbow mountain in Peru. This leads to those photos going viral, and people not understanding why it doesn’t look anything like that in person.
I want to make sure these photos stay a perfect representation of what you see. YES, they look different. These photos were taken mid afternoon, around 2 or 3 pm.
The ones with the warmer tones were taken when looking east (to the right side of the road while driving down). The ones with a slightly cooler tone were taken when facing the west side of the road.
I’m assuming the change in color/tone is due to the placement of the sun and how it was shining down. These are marvelous looking mountains, filter free, but… it’s still nature, not a box of Crayolas.
As always, leave no trace and please pick up any trash you might come across as you roam.
IN THE AREA
I skimmed past this area because I was very short on time, and had to start the drive back home. I am dying to get back out here though and explore a lot more. There are so many things nearby to do!
Kanab.
This town is known as “little Hollywood”. If you love old Westerns, it looks like the perfect place to stop and wander.
Peek-a-boo slot canyon.
The Wave.
Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park.
Buckskin Gulch.
Lake Powell.
Not to mention, you’re just a few hours from any of the big national parks in the area. You’ve got the Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest to your south, and the Mighty 5 of Utah to your north. Plus Monument Valley, and so much more!
Do you want to read more about Utah?
Here is a list of every post I’ve written about the state so far.
