As part of our October 2016 holiday to Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon in the USA, we walked up the classic Angels Landing trail. This trail is one of the must do walks in Zion and I can see why; it combines the beauty of the setting with the Read more…
As part of our October 2016 holiday to Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon in the USA, Kim and I visited Grafton Ghost Town. Grafton is just off the main road between Hurricane and Zion’s western entrance. You leave the highway at a village called Rockville and follow a dirt road for a couple of miles. The road isn’t great, being a little rutted, but we were ok in our two-wheel drive saloon/sedan car. There is a sign though saying don’t try to use the road in wet weather. It’s quite dusty and steep in places so I imagine it can get quite difficult in the wet if you don’t have an appropriate vehicle.
The ghost town itself is a small collection of restored buildings, along with the town’s cemetery. There are a couple of information boards that provide some interesting background information. But in summary, Grafton was first settled in December 1859 as part of the expansion of the cotton growing industry in southern Utah. It was a challenging place to live though, with floods, harsh winters and attacks from Native Americans. After attempts at resettlement, the last residents left in 1945.
The ghost town is pretty small, but if you are the area and have a couple of hours to spare, I’d definitely recommend visiting.
Originally this was intended as a photo visit, and we did take quite a few photos. But, I had a disk corruption that wiped the majority of my DSLR photos from this and several other days in our trip to Utah. We did take a few iPhone photos though, some of which I’ve added below.
This video gives a short tour around the town and cemetery.
In October 2016 we hiked the Kanarra Creek Trail as part of our holiday to Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park and the North Rim – Grand Canyon National Park. The trail is very varied with dusty paths, stream crossing, walking in the stream, slot canyon walking, scrambling up Read more…