Make Your Winter Magical – Visit Best Friends Animal Sanctuary!
Southern Utah is gorgeous any time of year, but there’s something really special about visiting in the winter. With fewer tourists and snow on the stunning red rocks, you’ll have more time and space to explore all the fantastic attractions in the area.
At the top of the list is Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, located just outside Kanab, Utah, and in close proximity to Zion and Bryce National Parks. Best Friends cares for about 1,600 animals on any given day and offers free visitor and volunteer experiences at every level. It’s the dogs, cats, horses, bunnies, pigs, goats, and more that attract visitors for the first time. But it’s the sense of community, the beautiful ambiance, and the peaceful energy of the Sanctuary that keep people coming back.
Lodging can be found on-site in one of the Sanctuary’s several cabins and cottages that offer views of horse pastures and starry skies, or at the organization’s hotel the Best Friends Roadhouse & Mercantile, in downtown Kanab, winner of the 2022 and 2023 Best Motel Award and the 2023 Best of the Best Hospitality Trophy from Best of State Utah.
Designed as the most pet-centric hotel in the country, the Roadhouse extends the Sanctuary experience by offering guests sleepovers of Sanctuary dogs, cats, and bunnies or offers a warm welcome to your own pets. What’s more, every stay benefits the lifesaving work of Best Friends Animal Society. Now through February 29, guests can save by staying 3 nights and getting the 4th night free (must mention promo at time of booking).
The Roadhouse is just five miles away from the Sanctuary, where visitors can see and experience Best Friends’ lifesaving work in action, while volunteers have the potential for such activities as socializing puppies or bunnies, feeding popcorn to pigs, taking a cat on a stroller ride, taking a dog for a walk, playing with kittens or taking select pets on a sleepover.
What began as a dream by its co-founders in 1984 to save homeless pets, Best Friends’ Sanctuary has grown from endless acres of rustic land formerly used as dinosaur stomping grounds and a backdrop for Western movies into a national organization that’s working to end of the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters.
However long you plan to visit Kanab – a few hours, days, or even weeks – you won’t want to miss the magic of the Best Friends experience. Visit bestfriends.org or call (435) 688-2327 to learn more about the Sanctuary. To book a stay at the Roadhouse, visit bestfriendsroadhouse.org or call (435) 644-3400.
