The Scout Cave, with its gaping, odd-shaped entrance, can be seen from Snow Canyon Parkway in
Ivins, Utah up behind The Cliffs of Snow Canyon housing development. Its prominence is obvious even to the casual observer. But, how do you get there? The best way is to head up Snow Canyon Drive, park just before the entrance to the State Park, and then trek out across the Johnson Canyon Trail. Within a few hundred yards you will see a cut-off trail that takes you across fields of jagged lava and sagebrush, down into the wash, and finally up to Scout Cave. At a normal pace this can be accomplished in an hour.
The cave itself is shallow, but once inside you can look straight up hundreds of feet and see the slits of light shining through its chimney. Folk lore has it that the cave is inhabited by bats, but it is visited far too often by humans to make this their haven.
If you have packed enough water and sandwiches and want to make it a day’s hike, continue on from Scout Cave to the top of the Kachina Cliffs (half and hour). From there you can see just about all of
Ivins, Santa Clara, and Saint George. It’s a magnificent site. And, as long as you’re at it, you might just as well stay on the Paradise Rim Trail and walk it all the way out to Highway 18 (another hour). Of course, if you plan ahead you’ll have a second vehicle waiting for you there at the Chuckawalla Trail parking lot so you don’t have to walk all the way back to Snow Canyon State Park.
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