After I graduated with an MFA from the University of Wisconsin in 1988 I was offered a job in Provo, UT. We packed up our family of two children and moved back west where we were closer to family and familiar surroundings. I earned my undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University in the mid 1980’s. Utah felt like home to me. This is where we would raise our growing family for the next 30 years. Things were tight with six children and a university salary. We learned to have fun the simple way; hiking, camping, and scenic canyon drives. We were lucky in that Virginia’s grandmother lived in a small rural town in southern Utah. Hurricane was ideally situated to allow us to day trip to Zion National Park and other nearby locations. Madge extended an invitation to us to come visit whenever we wanted. And so, we did. We took every chance we had to pack up the kids and drive four hours; winter, spring, summer, or fall. We saw the desert in every splash of seasonal glory. I collected hiking books to guide us through many adventures. One would think that 30 years would provide ample time to explore every nook and cranny in the region. Now, Virginia and I are empty-nesters and we’re still finding new places to explore. Grandma Madge passed on many years ago, but Virginia’s parents live in the area and we still have the best getaway package one can find. It’s the perfect launching pad for our ongoing excursions. Last year I stumbled across a hike description that piqued my interest. Not far from the town of Silver Reef and below the Pine Valley Mountains, is a trailhead to an area called Yant Flat and the Yant Flat Cliffs, also sometimes referred to as the Candy Cliffs. The write-up described it as similar to Coyote Buttes. The cliffs are composed of Navajo sandstone outcroppings; wild undulating contours of ancient sand dunes. This week we made the drive to Mom’s house and day tripped into the hills west of Leeds and Silver Reef. It was an improved gravel road (FS 031), and mostly smooth driving in my Toyota 4-Runner. We found the trailhead without trouble and hiked 1.1 miles through Utah Juniper and Pinyon Pine forest to the edge of the bluff overlooking the Virgin River Valley and desert stretching to the Zion cliffs on the horizon. Yant Flat Cliffs are a swirl of ice cream colors poured over the rolling petrified sandstone hills. Our decent into the candy bowl proved a little challenging. We took the hard way down, the immediate slope below the end of the trail terminus. I later read that a gentler approach is further to the east, which is where we came out of the sandstone basin. I considered this an exploratory visit to allow me the opportunity to acquire a feel for the terrain. Our afternoon light was harsh. My polarizer helped mitigate the harshness a bit, but soft low-angle light would certainly set the swirling patterns off better. The surface of the Navajo Sandstone is fractured in places with hexagonal patterns that give a tortoise shell appearance. We hiked and explored for over an hour before making our way back to the trailhead. This is definitely an area that warrants further photography.