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Red Cliffs Recreation Area is a small section of the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. It’s located in southwest Utah northeast of St. George and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
Entrance Fees
The entrance fee is US$5 per vehicle (as of September 2023), and free for holders of any interagency pass.
Camping
The Red Cliffs Campground has 11 tent sites at US$15 a night (as of September 2023). Reservations are required.
Dinosaur Tracks
After a quick lunch in the picnic area, we took two trails. The first is the short Dinosaur Tracks Trail, which features dinosaur tracks dating back to the Jurassic period. Interpretive panels point out the tracks and profiles the dinosaurs that made them.
Anasazi Trail
Next, we took the ½ mile Anasazi Trail. It takes you to the Red Cliffs Archaeological Site. It contains the ruins of a small Ancestral Puebloan village used by farmers. The site was occupied intermittently for over 700 years until it was abandoned around 1200.
Interpretive panels at the site point out living quarters, storage rooms, and fire pits, and give visitors a better understanding of how the Ancestral Puebloans lived.
There’s also some great scenery along the trail, and you might even be able to spot more dinosaur tracks.
Orson Adams House
Finally, on our way out of the park we paid a quick visit to the Orson Adams House. The house was built in 1863 by a Mormon pioneer in the abandoned settlement of Harrisburg. The Adams family lived there until 1892 when Orson Adams moved to nearby Leeds after the death of his wife. It’s the last remaining house of the Harrisburg settlement and was rehabilitated in 2006. In addition to the house, there are some great views of the landscape.
