Best Doggie Playground in the American Southwest
The rock formations in the American Southwest are such an embarrassment of riches that rock gardens that would be a state park anywhere else don’t even warrant a turnout in the highway. Some are more special than others, however, and the nominees for best place to open the car door and let your dog out to play are...
Bisti Wilderness Area (New Mexico)
The Bureau of Land Management busies itself more with mining claims and grazing rights than tourism promotion so the Bisti Badlands in the high desert of northwestern New Mexico are barely a blip on the canine hiker’s radar. Thin layers of coal, silt, shale and mudstone in reds, blacks, browns, and tans conspire with more resistant sandstone to create hoodoos, clay hills, balanced rocks and small slot canyons. Petrified wood - sometimes complete stumps - and fossils abound. The alien world unfolds in a wide wash that runs for miles from the parking area.
Fantasy Canyon (Utah)
When you call yourself Fantasy Canyon you had better deliver the goods. This patch of photogenic eroded rocks does just that, with the added bonus that no axle-breaking drive is required to reach this remote slice of Northeast Utah. The canyon is tucked on the north side of a low mesa in the otherwise featureless expanse of the Uinta Basin. The gray-brown sandstone has eroded vertically and horizontally to fill a narrow ravine with fanciful delicate outcroppings. Fantasy Canyon earns its reputation as “nature’s china shop” honestly. Someone has provided a name for 40 of nature’s most intricate clay creations but you are likely to better enjoy seeing your own creatures in the formations.
Goblin Valley State Park (Utah)
The world didn’t learn about this other-worldly place until the early 20th century when cowboys searching for cattle stumbled into the valley of weathered sandstone hoodoos and spires. The bizarre gnome-like rock formations spread out across a barren valley beneath the parking lot. Just point your dog down into Goblin Valley and head in any direction to start exploring this desert playground. Curious dogs will exalt in bounding up and around the orbital stones populating the valley floor. There are probably thousands of “goblins” living here. The edges of the valley feature intricately eroded cliffs and walls. Pushing beyond the main showcase, across intervening ridges, are more collections of hoodoos where the goblins are taller and more complex; you will still be encountering goblins two miles from the parking lot.
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (Utah)
Devil’s Garden
The Devil’s Garden is off the beaten path, but not too far (12.3 miles from UT 12). It requires a trip down the notorious Hole-in-the-Rock Road but is passable by two-wheel vehicles to this point. And it delivers the multi-chromatic hoodoos, rock domes, and natural bridges all found in Utah’s famous national parks, only in miniature. Devil’s Garden has received a federal designation as an American Outstanding Natural Area. Explore the Navajo sandstone slickrock “garden” while keeping on the lookout for two signature arches, the delicate Metate Arch and the slab-like Mano Arch. Continue poking around until there are no more smoothed sandstone figurines and the garden tour is complete.
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (Utah)
Toadstool Trail
Natural wonder and easy access are catnip for the traveling canine hiker. The Toadstool Trail checks both boxes big time. The canine hike starts from a parking lot directly on US 89 - the main road between Kanab, UT and Page, AZ - and leads into some of the most bizarre rock formations your dog will see in the American Southwest. The easy-going trail traces a sandy wash inside a broad canyon of white cliffs highlighted by chocolate brown rocks. In just under one mile you will spot your first “toadstool” - spire-like formations with a boulder perched on top of a pedestal rock. This introductory giant guardian is a poster child for many area travel brochures.
And the Waggie Award for Best Doggie Playground in the American Southwest goes to...Bisti Wilderness Area!
Apparently the four Utah playgrounds cannibalized each other’s votes and the New Mexico wonderland takes the Waggie. But this is no compromise winner as hours of fun await dogs in the Bisti badlands. Canine hiking is always easy across a wide wash creased by tiny arroyos caused by rainwater. For spice, bound up and over the small clay hills that border the wash - and discover more topographical wonders beyond. Keep note of your position as Bisti lures canine explorers ever deeper into its nooks and rock gardens. There is always the feeling that your dog may be the first to sniff hidden discoveries. Roam as you wish - there are no trails. The most common destination is to the southeast where a nursery of rocks that could double as alien space eggs reside about two miles out. Beyond that, logs and stumps of petrified wood begin in earnest. The main wash continues for miles with promises of a must-return visit.