St. George • At first glance, southern Utah’s largest city would seem to have little in common with Saint George, the patron saint of England long eulogized in Christian mythology as a dragonslayer.
After all, St. George was named after Mormon pioneer George A. Smith, an apostle and first counselor to President Brigham Young. And most city residents are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, not Catholics or Protestants.
The closest thing the Washington County seat has to a fire-breathing dragon is the area’s unrelenting summer heat – until recently.
Since the arrival of “the dragon” in St. George nearly four months ago, thousands of fearless city residents and visitors have taken steps to scale the beast before it can slay them. Three hundred and thirty-three of them, to be exact, or 666— the number of the beast — should would-be dragonslayers decide to scale it up and down.
Welcome to “The Stairs,” the official name of the tortuously long and steep staircase at Tech Ridge that has thousands of runners and walkers huffing and puffing.
(Tech Ridge) The Stairs at Tech Ridge illuminated at night in St. George in February 2025.
“It’s a monster, that’s for damn sure,” gasped Utah Tech University student Dylan Johnson whose demeanor was anything but devil-may-care as he surmounted the grueling steps for the third time. “Some say it is the stairway to heaven, but I think it is more like the primrose path to hell.”
Indeed, the hellacious stairs go by many different names, according to Brad Buhanan, community engagement director of Tech Ridge, a 180-acre, mixed-use technology park that overlooks the city atop a butte that once fielded St. George’s airport.
“Everybody has a different nickname for it...,” Buhanan said. “The most known name is ‘The Stairs.’ Others refer to it as the ‘Dragon,’ ‘Dragon’s Tail’ or ‘Tail of the Dragon.’ To keep it simple, we call them ‘The Stairs.’”
Whatever superlative – or expletive – is applied to them, The Stairs have elevated Utah’s standing in steps. It easily outpaces Brigham Young University’s infamous 192-step Heart Attack Hill stairs adjacent the Stephen L. Richards Building. It dwarfs the tall stairs at any of the state’s basketball arenas or football fields, according to Buhanan‘s calculations.
“We have the longest continuous stairs in the state … and one of the top five in the world because of the quality of our steps, " said Buhanan, noting all the cement steps in St. George’s upscale stairs were individually and meticulously poured and molded, whereas some of the longer ones in the world use railroad ties that look downright shoddy or cheap by comparison.
All told, Tech Ridge’s Dragon stretches 630 feet and climbs 171 feet in elevation from the foot to the top of the mesa where the technology park is situated. Buhanan said Isaac Barlow, founder of Tech Ridge, dreamed up “The Stairs” when he was looking to construct infrastructure to drain water off the mesa to the basin below and decided to put a staircase on top of it to hide the scar.
“He wanted to build something that would help the community together and bring value to the people who live, work and visit Tech Ridge,” Buhanan said.
Blood, sweat and tears
Construction on The Stairs began in the summer of 2024. Construction workers started atop the mesa and worked their way down, fitting and fashioning each step by hand. They also installed the riprap, or large rocks, made up of crushed lava on both sides of the staircase. A stainless steel rail with built-in lights divides the stairs from top to bottom and illuminates them at night.
“There’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears that went into [building] these stairs,” he said.
Barlow ultimately shelled out $1 million to build the steps, which perch on municipal land.
The area’s grand staircase premiered on Jan. 25 at St. George’s inaugural Dragon’s Tail Stair Climb Challenge. Scores of entrants showed up to compete and test their speed and endurance. Now, hundreds of exercise buffs of all ages, from Utah and across the country, scale the dragon each day and well into the evening.
For Dammeron Valley resident Ruth Ann Pilney and Francine Maas, a Catholic nun visiting from Vermont, rising to the challenge of the dragon was as exhausting as it was elevating. For the lifelong friends, climbing The Stairs was a high point of their joyous reunion.
“I like physical exercise,” said Maas, a member of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa order. “When I went down the stairs I started to feel my legs [get tired] but my breathing was OK. On the way up, though, I had to stop and breathe every 50 steps. But I’m 79, and I praise the Lord that we can still do this at our age.”
(Tech Ridge) People ascend and descend the Stairs at Tech Ridge in St. George in March 2025.
For his part, St. George paramedic and physician assistant Corbin Allred says the steps help him prep for the summer hikes he enjoys in Utah’s High Uintas and Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains. They also help him cope with the physical demands of caring for a daughter who has spina bifida and is paralyzed from her chest down.
Asked what he calls The Stairs he climbs three times a week, Allred said he doesn’t have a nickname for it.
“All I know,” he said, “is that it is hell every other day.”
