This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
You wouldn't normally expect to see Utah's Kane County on a list of travel destinations that includes Ireland, Trinidad, Spain, Tasmania, Malta, the Philippines and Chile.
But the southwestern Utah county on the Utah-Arizona border is listed in National Geographic Traveler magazine's list of top 10 places to visit this spring that also included those exotic locations.
The magazine praised the county for its narrow slot canyons, polychrome cliffs, wavelike buttes and world-class paleontological sites. The county seat of Kanab also received kudos for being located near Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks, the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Coral Pink Sand Dunes and the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.
Authors touted the May 11-17 Amazing Earthfest, a Kanab festival that includes concerts, films, art exhibitions, stargazing, archaeological hikes and backcountry ATV and horseback rides.
The Rocking V Cafe, Quail Park Lodge, Zion Mountain Ranch and Willow Canyon Outdoor earned mentions as did the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, the nation's largest no-kill shelter.
The only other U.S. destinations to make the list were Boston's Patriots Day Weekend celebration and Asheville, N.C.
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