Sand Springs, near Kanab, Utah

 On our way to and from the South Fork Indian Canyon Pictographs, near Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, we passed a huge hill of sand. This was the northeast side of the sand dunes, a place called Sand Springs. No one was there, and on our way back from the pictographs, we stopped to play in the sand. Desert Boy was the first to leave some tracks up the big hill.

 Old tracks had been blown over. It was quite a steep hill, steep enough that it was easier to go up on all fours than walking.

But once you got to the top, the fun began: running and jumping down the dune.

Desert Boy went really fast, leaping, and bounding.

I guess he went a little too fast!

 Fortunately he was fine and repeated his running down the dunes many more times (with just one more face plant).

To access Sand Springs, you turn off the Hancock Road, which connects US89 near Kanab, Utah to Coral Pink Sand Dunes, and take a 4WD road a couple of miles. The turnoff is not marked, but does have a stop sign. The 4WD road has one part that is really deep sand, right below the big play area. It's best to go fast through here.

The spring of Sand Springs still runs. It's to the north of the big sand hill where the corral is located. The spring has been improved so water runs into a trough all the time.

The kids continued to climb and run while I looked at the spring. At the beginning the hill had no fresh tracks. At the end, it was covered with tracks. I'd say we got our exercise!

The joys of a sand dune! We managed to take home just a little sand with us.

If you have the right vehicle to get to this spot, I highly recommend it. We were lucky not to have anyone else there during the hour we were there, and it was so much fun to have a big dune all to ourselves. Camping is available in the same area, but it's primitive so you need to bring everything.