Information
Landmark: Big Rock Candy MountainCity: Richfield
Country: USA Utah
Continent: North America
Big Rock Candy Mountain, Richfield, USA Utah, North America
Overview
Just outside Milford in Utah’s southwest, Big Rock Candy Mountain bursts with bands of red, gold, and chalky white, its candy-colored slopes rising in a landscape that feels almost dreamlike.Named after a well-known folk song, the site draws travelers with its striking views-red cliffs glowing in the late sun-deep in Utah’s remote desert.The mountain rises from the desert badlands, where rolling hills fade into wind-carved sandstone towers.Bright streaks of orange, red, yellow, and chalky white stripe its slopes, making the mountain look like an enormous piece of candy.Over millions of years, erosion cut deep ridges, scooped out gullies, and left small cliffs where shadows cling, shaping a rolling, textured landscape.Around the mountain, low sagebrush and tufts of dry desert grass break up the bare ground, making the mountain’s sharp color contrasts stand out even more.At Big Rock Candy Mountain, it’s all about the view-bright sandstone and jagged peaks-reachable by winding roads through quiet backcountry.Many visitors pause to snap photos, take in the view, and wander briefly along the foot of the hills, where the air smells faintly of pine.At sunrise or sunset, the low-slanting light deepens the rock’s reds, oranges, and golds, making its vivid colors flare like embers.Most hiking here is informal, and you’ll need to watch your step-loose rocks shift underfoot, and the soil crumbles easily.The mountain carries a quiet whimsy, its slopes dotted with wind-bent pines that hint at solitude.The colors look almost too vivid, blazing against the washed-out blue of the desert sky.Visitors might spot fine lines of sediment, streaks of mineral color, and now and then a weathered rock with a texture that looks almost like striped candy.In the stillness of the remote desert, every ridge and ripple of stone stands out, letting its raw beauty and layered geology take over your senses.Big Rock Candy Mountain sits within the Black Rock Desert’s volcanic field, surrounded by layers of sunbaked sediment in southwestern Utah.Shifts in mineral content and traces of oxidation form the bands of color, like rust-red streaks running through the rock layers.Its name, drawn from an early 20th-century folk song about a fanciful paradise where the air smelled of wildflowers, carries a cultural resonance that adds a touch of wonder to the unfolding natural spectacle.Big Rock Candy Mountain showcases Utah’s striking desert geology, where cliffs streaked with rust-red minerals rise above the quiet expanse of the high desert.In southwestern Utah, candy-colored hills rise over rugged, textured ground, creating a view travelers and photographers won’t forget-like sunlight catching on red sandstone.
