Home Care In Orderville, UT

Orderville, Utah, is about to get busy — really busy. That’s according to Airbnb, which just released a list of the U.S. locations that have received the most reservations for this spring and summer.

A look at Airbnb’s research shows that the most popular destinations are places with — or near — outdoor attractions such as state and national parks. Presumably, that’s because people want to vacation in places where they can be outdoors and practice social distancing while the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

Orderville, which has a population of 600 people and was established under the direction of LDS Church President Brigham Young, is about 200 miles northeast of Las Vegas. So why is the town sixth on Airbnb’s list of most popular destinations? Simple: Utah is home to five national parks, and Orderville is a terrific place to use as a home base while visiting two of them.

Whether you want to brave the potential crowds and go sooner or plan a visit down the line, let’s take a look at the places you can easily visit while staying in Orderville.

Zion National Park

Of all the national parks in Utah, Orderville is closest to Zion National Park. In fact, it’s only about a 20-minute drive from Orderville to Zion, which is known for its bicycling, backpacking, river trips, canyoneering, rock climbing, and fantastic hiking.

Zion Canyon is the most visited part of the park, where you can take easy, moderate, and strenuous hikes. You can even visit the narrowest section of Zion Canyon, called The Narrows, which is a gorge with walls a thousand feet tall.

Editor’s Note: Heading to Orderville so you can brave The Narrows? Read up on these 9 Things You Must Know Before Hiking The Narrows In Zion.

Bryce Canyon National Park

Orderville is just under an hour away from Bryce Canyon National Park, which is also known for its scenic views and fantastic hiking. The park has an 18-mile road running through it from north to south. Along the way, you’ll find four of the park’s most popular scenic overlooks: Bryce Point, Inspiration Point, Sunset Point, and Sunrise Point. Conveniently, these points also serve as trailheads for some of the most popular hiking trails.

For a different way to see the trails, Bryce also offers guided horseback rides. Alternatively, you can bring your own horse, mule, or even llama!

North Rim At Grand Canyon National Park

Orderville is about 100 miles from the Grand Canyon’s North Rim — roughly a two-hour drive. The North Rim, known as the Grand Canyon’s “other side,” is only visited by about 10 percent of all the people traveling to the canyon, so the crowds are significantly smaller.

From the Grand Canyon Lodge’s patio, you can walk on a paved — but steep — trail with steps out to Bright Angel Point for panoramic views that must be seen to be believed. Pictures don’t do it justice.

Know Before You Go

Some other fantastic places to visit that are within a 2-hour drive from Orderville include; Cedar Breaks National Monument, Kolob Canyons, Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, Dixie National Forest, Kodachrome Basin State Park, Cottonwood Canyon Road, Kanab, Utah, and Page, Arizona.

Face masks are required on National Park Service-administered lands when it’s not possible to maintain social distancing. Face masks are also required in all of the parks’ buildings and facilities. For more on enjoying the area, check out Sage Scott’s tips for how to plan a trip to Utah’s national parks here.

Editor’s note: The claims, facts, and information in this sponsored article have not been verified by LDS Living, and LDS Living does not endorse any claim or product herein.

Are you looking for a new adventure in Utah? Look no further than Red Valley Heights, a brand-new development in Orderville backing up to the Red Hollow Slot Canyon trailhead.

While Red Valley Heights may be a modern development, it is situated in a town with a rich history of communal living and cooperation. Orderville is the site where the United Order was first implemented in the late 19th century. The United Order was first introduced by the early Latter-day Saint pioneers. Their goal was to create a society based on principles of equality, cooperation, and sharing. The idea was centered around consecration, where individuals give their property and possessions to the Church, redistributing them according to the needs of its members. It lasted over a decade. During this time, the community was highly organized, with residents working together. While the United Order in Orderville eventually dissolved, its legacy remains in the town today. Many of the original homes and buildings from the United Order era still stand, and the town has a strong sense of community and cooperation still today.

Orderville boasts the highest number of 73-degree weather days in Utah and is situated close to Ponderosa Zion Ranch. The ranch provides an array of activities for tourists, such as horseback riding, zip-lining, rock climbing, and hiking and is nestled amidst the stunning mountains of Zion National Park. Ponderosa is a great option for retirees seeking seasonal part-time work for the busy tourist season.

You'll be thrilled to know there's no shortage of options at Red Valley Heights! But what sets Red Valley Heights apart from other developments?

Separate parking area for hikers. (That way owners don’t have to worry about parking on the street or in front of someone's house)So whether you're looking for a cozy single-family home or a spacious townhome, with stunning views and endless adventures, Red Valley Heights has something for you. Let us help you find the pefect fit in this vibrant community.

Contact Mark Neeleman (801-971-3964) or Pamela Neeleman Clark (435-315-5846) to learn more about making Red Valley Heights for your new home.

Editor’s note: The claims, facts, and information in this sponsored article have not been verified by LDS Living, and LDS Living does not endorse any claim or product herein.

Kanab is one of the best-kept secrets anywhere in the West.

This quaint small town (population 4,692) and seat of surrounding Kane County feels like a Utah version of Mayberry, the fictional setting of “The Andy Griffith Show.”

Center Street, which serves as Kanab’s main street, is lined with the kind of locally owned shops and galleries that have all but disappeared in similarly sized towns and cities with the development of hideous strip malls and big-box stores. There’s even a drug store with an old-school soda fountain.

On each side of the street are commemorative markers featuring the names and photos of stars from the golden age of Hollywood, when dozens of Western films were produced in and around this part of southern Utah. And this being the Beehive State, the local church belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as Mormons prefer to call themselves, occupies a prominent spot that elsewhere might be the location of the county courthouse or a post office built during the New Deal era.

As charming as Kanab is, I imagine the vast majority of visitors come for adventure and discovery in the landscape of high desert and mountains.

Three of the country’s most-visited national parks — Bryce Canyon, Zion and Grand Canyon — are within a hundred miles. The gigantic man-made Lake Powell within Glen Canyon on the Colorado River is an hour away. Closer to Kanab are four national monuments, two state parks and endless stretches of public land with vistas rivaling what can be seen in the ridiculously overcrowded national parks. Put another away, you won’t run out of room to roam.

Dominating much of those vistas are odd and colorful rock formations that look almost too beautiful to be real.

The most spectacular is probably White Pocket.

Located just across Utah’s border with Arizona in Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, the formation features a highly photogenic terrain that admittedly looks otherworldly. While getting there is hardly easy, those who make the long trek into the basically unpopulated wilderness can have it to themselves as the number of visitors seldom gets above low double-digits.

If you go

Visiting Kanab requires a car, as the closest major airport is about three hours away in Las Vegas.

While a high-clearance SUV with four-wheel drive is needed for anything involving sand or trails, the major rental car companies almost always limit driving to marked and maintained roadways. Instead of risking an expensive off-road recovery, book a tour with an experienced guide.

I recommend the Peek-a-Boo Slot Canyon and Great Chamber half-day tour from Roam Outdoor and Dreamland’s all-day White Pocket excursion. Roam also offers off-road Jeep rentals starting at $299 for 10 hours.

Beyond all things outdoors, visitors with an interest in Kanab’s local history, dating back to Latter-day Saint pioneers in the 1800s, should check out the Heritage House Museum and Kanab Museum.

The Holiday Inn Express & Suites has a great location within walking distance of everything downtown. For a non-chain experience, I recommend the Canyons Boutique Hotel.

| Updated: 5:02 p.m.

After spending tens of millions on water development projects, Kane County water officials are looking to spend millions more, mostly from federal sources, in their latest plan to dam the Virgin River upstream of Zion National Park for the benefit of alfalfa growers.

The proposed Cove Reservoir would impound 6,000 acre-feet of water behind a 90-foot-high dam just west of Orderville. The Kane County Water Conservancy District says the project also would provide much needed hydropower and recreation, while enhancing native fish habitat downstream, according to an environmental assessment posted Nov. 23.

The federal Natural Resources Conservation Service, or NRCS, is accepting public comment through December on the $30 million project with a public meeting scheduled Dec. 9.

The stated purpose is to “improve agricultural water management” to increase irrigation on 6,100 acres, mostly in neighboring Washington County, potentially increasing crop yields by 25%, or more than 6,000 tons of alfalfa a year.

Utah Rivers Council Executive Director Zach Frankel derided the 187-acre reservoir as “a project without a purpose” because, he contends, the water district has yet to demonstrate a need for this water or water from other costly projects the district has pushed, such as the Lake Powell pipeline.

“We doubt their claims of [electrical] power needs hold any water. This project exemplifies wasteful government spending,” Frankel said. “The last time the Kane district built a dam, they desecrated scores of Native American gravesites and the federal government turned a blind eye to the tribal concerns.”

The nonprofit accused the district’s general manager, Mike Noel, of repeatedly overstating its future water needs. The district does not serve the entire county but rather two small population clusters miles outside of Kanab. In his scoping comments for the environmental review, Frankel unsuccessfully asked the NRCS to conduct a full, more robust environmental impact statement that would take a hard look at the project’s purpose, potential impacts on archaeological resources that could be inundated, and what effect climate change will have on water availability.

The NRCS is to cover $21 million of the costs, with the rest borne by the Kane and Washington county water districts and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

Since 1995, when Noel took over leadership of the water district, which currently serves 3,000 connections, it has developed $166 million worth of water projects, he told lawmakers at a 2017 hearing. These projects include Utah’s last federally approved reservoir, Jackson Flat, which was built outside Kanab in 2011.

During the Jackson Flat construction, excavators turned up at least 32 sets of human remains dating back 1,000 to 1,200 years, according to then-State Archaeologist Kevin Jones.

“It was a giant can of worms from the get-go,” Jones said. “There were elaborate, culturally meaningful burials in that area, but [the water district] looked at those things as impediments to their development. They saw those as problems to be dealt with, make them go away rather than give them respect.”

One burial appeared to be a spiritual leader with each arm around the bodies of small children.

Jones had been called in to advise how to handle the disinterred remains in accordance with federal law, but his concerns were largely dismissed, he said. As a result, gravesites were damaged, and the human remains may not have been repatriated to the appropriate tribe.

Gov. Gary Herbert fired Jones and Forrest Cuch, the director of the state Division of Indian Affairs, in 2011 after another dust-up over the handling of human remains and archaeological resources at construction sites.

(Photo courtesy of Natural Resources Conservation Service) This basin in Utah’s Long Valley near Orderville would be inundated by a proposed dam on a Virgin River tributary to impound water for alfalfa growers.

The construction plan for Cove Reservoir appears to be designed to avoid the missteps that occurred at Jackson Flat. Work is to stop within a 100-foot radius of any spot where human remains are discovered and the Utah Division of State History and the NRCS would be contacted. The site would be secured while the remains are handled in accordance with the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Construction would not resume until after the appropriate consultations have been completed.

“Construction personnel will be instructed to be observant for cultural/historic objects,” the environmental assessment states. “Training will be conducted by an archaeologist approved by NRCS.”

(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)

Cove Reservoir would store water during the summer months to be used by farmers who routinely experience shortages when flows on the Virgin’s East Fork are depleted.

“Irrigation water demand during this time is not being met by the current systems,” the assessment states. “Existing irrigation facilities have limited capabilities to divert water from the river, and there is currently no capacity for storage during non-use and high-flow periods. As a result, this water is not available to local users.”

The project would also generate power for Orderville and Glendale and would also support new opportunities for water-based recreation, such as fishing, camping and boating.

“This need is particularly evident during spring, summer, and fall,” the assessment explains. “The highly popular national and state parks are overcrowded and do not currently have the capacity to accommodate for the ever-increasing amounts of tourists frequenting the area.”

Downstream from Orderville is a 50-mile stretch on the Virgin River’s main stem that harbors two federally listed fish species, the Virgin River chub and the woundfin. The environmental review concluded the reservoir could help these endangered fish by improving summertime flows. Also benefiting would be the southwestern willow flycatcher, a federally listed migratory bird that relies on streamside habitat.

The plan also seeks to replace the inoperable Glendale hydropower station with a new one located on an existing diversion two miles downstream. It would generate between 200,000 and 540,000 kilowatt hours a year, mostly during the summer, supplementing the output from an existing station. Also proposed is a recreation area with a campground, pavilion and boat ramp.

While the dam would inundate private land acquired by the water district, the 4.3 million cubic yards of fill and riprap would come from borrow pits on federal land. As part of the project, the feds would approve a new 50-acre pit at Black Knoll on the Glendale Bench.

ST. GEORGE — A project proposed by Kane County water officials would see the creation of a new 6,000 acre-foot reservoir west of Orderville that would be filled with water from the Virgin River upstream of Zion National Park.

The proposed Cove Reservoir would be formed behind a 90-foot tall dam on the East Fork of the Virgin River. Mike Noel, general manager of the Kane County Water Conservancy District, told St. George News on Monday that a purpose of the reservoir is to benefit farmers in Kane and Washington counties, as well as provide recreational and wildlife benefits.

“It’s to collect Virgin River water (and) store it at a higher elevation so there’s less evaporation and make it available to farmers in the area and farmers in St. George and the commercial customers in St. George,” Noel said.

The project would provide an additional 1,600 acre-feet in irrigation to farmers, he said, adding that was equivalent to water used by 3,200 households.

An environmental assessment released Monday by the National Resources Conservation Service states that farmers in the Glendale, Orderville and Mt. Carmel areas experience frequent water shortages in irrigation and agriculture use due to a lack of water storage capacity on the East Fork of the Virgin River. The creation of the Cove Reservoir would help remedy this issue, the assessment states.

Approximately 5,000 acres of farmland in Washington County and 1,100 acres of farmland in Kane County are estimated to benefit from stable irrigation flows from the new reservoir.

‘The proposed Cove Reservoir would store spring flood water that could be released into the Virgin River later in the season when flows are low or during drought conditions,” Karry Rathje of the Washington County Water Conservancy District said in an email to St. George News. “Flows released into the Virgin River could be captured by the Washington County Water Conservancy District (WCWCD) via the existing Quail Creek Diversion Dam.”

The county’s level of participation has not yet been determined as details of the project are still being reviewed, Rathje said.

While farmers in both counties would get the benefit of additional irrigation, Kane County would also see additional revenue from recreational use focused around the new reservoir.

“There is currently a high demand for recreation sites in Kane County,” the assessment states. “Local recreation areas often exceed visitation capacity, especially during summer months. Implementation of this project would provide necessary water during the summer months to local water users and provide an additional, developed recreation site in the county.”

The project is also projected to be a benefit to the endangered fish and bird species of the Virgin River, as summertime water releases from the dam would increase water flow on the river by an additional 880 acre-feet, according to the assessment.

As part of the proposal, the Glendale hydroelectric power plant would be relocated to the new reservoir and upgraded. It is projected to produce between 200,000-540,000 kilowatt hours per year. The Orderville hydroelectric plant is also anticipated to produce approximately 440,000 kilowatt hours per year due to increased summer water flow through the plant created by the reservoir.

The reservoir is projected to take three years to build at a cost of $30 million. Federal grants make up the bulk of that at $21.4 million. According to the assessment report, the remainder is potential covered by Washington and Kane counties and the state. However, Rathje said in Tuesday’s email that the district is has not yet committed to any project funding.

“We feel like it’s a good benefit,” Noel said.

However, some parties are unconvinced of the need for the reservoir and see it as just another way people are encouraged to waste water in southwest Utah.

During a scoping period for the project held earlier this year, Nick Schou, of the nonprofit Utah Rivers Council, submitted a list of objections and concerns about the reservoir proposal to the National Resources Conservation Service.

Schou states there is no apparent need for the Cove Reservoir project, and he claimed the county’s water district was exaggerating the need for more water when there was already enough to serve Kane County’s future needs and growth.

“Exaggerating future or existing water use is no different than a government representative intentionally exaggerating the number of constituents needing services, or the amount of services an agency claims to deliver to said constituents,” Schou wrote in his letter to the National Resources Conservation Service.

Schou also states Kane County has extremely high water use compared to other communities in the Southwest, such as the Las Vegas Valley Water District and Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Authority, which use 203 and 127 gallons per capita per day respectively (based on 2015 and 2016 numbers), as opposed to Kane County’s 309 gallons per capita per day (based on 2010 numbers).

Both Kane and Washington County water officials have argued the numbers aren’t exactly reliable, as different states count their water use differently, which they say does not allow for a true and accurate comparison.

Schou also expressed a concern for the impact on potential culturally sensitive sites within the proposed area of the new reservoir.

During the construction of the Jackson Flat Reservoir in Kane County over 10 years ago, “contractors uncovered 54 sets of Native American Indian remains in the area and inside the reservoir footprint,” Schou wrote.

Despite these findings, the Kane County Water Conservancy District “recklessly pushed forward” with the reservoir’s construction, he wrote, and “lost the trust of local tribes.”

“The fact that the KCWCD has embarked on another similar project through the proposed Cove Reservoir should raise eyebrows and requires the greatest level of scrutiny by the USDA as well as a full (environmental impact study) for the project,” Schou wrote.

The Cove Reservoir’s environmental assessment appears to avoid future similar archaeological issues as those seen at Jackson Flat. If human remains are found, all work within 100 feet of the discovery ceases, and local, state and federal authorities are called in.

“The location of the discovery will be secured and monitored to prevent further impacts and the location will be kept confidential,” the assessment states. “The remains will be treated in accordance with the requirements of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.”

Construction will only resume after required consultations are concluded. Construction personnel will also be trained in how to recognize objects of cultural or historic interest, according to the assessment.

The National Resources Conservation Service is holding a virtual public meeting on the proposed reservoir project Dec. 9 from 6-7 p.m.

The meeting can be accessed via Zoom (Enter Meeting ID: 922 7721 9285), or by phone at: 253-215-8782 (Enter Meeting ID)

Public documents related to the project can be found online.

Update Dec. 1, 2:55 p.m. This story has been updated with statements from the Washington County Water Conservancy District received Tuesday following publication.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2020, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mori Kessler serves as a Senior Reporter for St. George News, having previously contributed as a writer and Interim Editor in 2011-12, and an assistant editor from 2012 to mid-2014. He began writing news as a freelancer in 2009 for Today in Dixie, and joined the writing staff of St. George News in mid-2010. He enjoys photography and won an award for photojournalism from the Society of Professional Journalists for a 2018 photo of a bee inspector removing ferals bees from a Washington City home. He is also a shameless nerd and has a bad sense of direction.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @MoriKessler@STGnews

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