Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

The Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park is a state park in southern Utah's 43, not far from the town of Kanab. The park was established in 1963.

A notch between the Moquith and Moccasin Mountains causes an increase in wind speed, which is strong enough to entrain eroded Navajo sandstone. This phenomenon is known as the Venturi effect. When the wind then the notch reaches the open valley, the speed decreases again and the sand we deposited there.

The park lies at an altitude of around 1,800 m. Thus, there is quite a lot of rainfall, which ensures that some animals and plants in the park are home.

At plants are among other pines, dunes grasses (which can be up to 180 cm tall ) and wild flowers against whose flowering time is in June. The fauna is represented by deer, coyotes, foxes, rabbits and small rodents. By melting snow, small ponds, which form a habitat for salamanders and toads form. A special feature is the Coral -pink tiger beetle, a subspecies of tiger beetles, which occurs exclusively in this State Park. Approximately 107 ha of the park are under special protection in order to preserve the habitat of this beetle.

Additional 485 acres of the park are released for use by ATVs and similar vehicles.

The park was used as a backdrop in the following films: Arabia Nights (1942 ), Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves (1943 ), Timbuktu (1959 ), MacKenna 's Gold (1969 ), One Little Indian ( 1973)