Crawdad Canyon: A Summer of Pronto Pups and Sunscreen
The scent of summer, coconutty sweet sunscreen and deep-fried corn dogs fondly known as Pronto Pups, wafts through the air in the desert oasis of Veyo, a small resort town in Southern Utah. In the lush, green Crawdad Canyon, aptly named for the non-native species found in the warm waters of the Santa Clara River, temperatures are generally 10-15 degrees cooler than in nearby St. George, 17 miles to the south.
“I remember swimming at the Veyo Pool my entire life, that’s where my grandpa taught me how to dive,” ~ Tasha Braken
“I remember swimming at the Veyo Pool my entire life, that’s where my grandpa taught me how to dive,” said Tasha Braken, who now resides in Enterprise with her husband and two young boys, Rydge, 9, and Sadlyr, 6. She remembers her grandparents driving her and her cousins and sometimes a couple of friends to the Veyo Pool to spend the day. They lived nearby so they never spent the night but packed as much pool time in as they possibly could.
Braken remembers the steep hill leading to the parking lot, “It may as well have been Mount Everest” and how her friends would offer to pull each other up the hill on their pool mattress float they had to used lay out on in the pool which looking back didn’t work well as the plastic floaties would rip and tear on the ground,” she explained with laughter, “or of course there was the occasional piggyback ride which only lasted a few steps.”
To this day, memories of Crawdad Canyon: A Summer of Pronto Pups and Sunscreen and the Veyo Pool always seem to find their way into the casual conversation when spending time with the family. Now, Braken has extended this family tradition to her children and usually spends a couple of days a month relaxing in the cool oasis of the Veyo Pool.
Surrounded by a stunning black-rock outcropping of basalt, the Veyo Pool was founded in 1927 by James and Caroline Cottam, who obtained the land through the Homestead Act. Showing some ingenious foresight, James built a simple cement pool, fed by an 83-degree hot spring. Hot springs are found throughout Utah, but here in the middle swath of Southern Utah known as the Basin and Range and Colorado Plateau transition zone, higher concentrations of geothermal activity occur.
The getaway began as a swimming pool, filtered through an underground basalt cistern, but the Cottams eventually added dressing rooms, an office building, picket fence, even an orchestra pit where people danced for hours to music performed by local musicians. Surrounded by several small towns, the Veyo Pool was soon the happening place to be. It has changed throughout its 93-year history from a simple rectangle swimming pool into a rock-climbing paradise and family fun retreat.
Owned since 2018 by Joe and Sarah Salisbury, the spring is set in an unusually green canyon. Surrounded by tall trees and the canyon walls, the pool is emptied each night and refilled with crystal-clean water for early morning swimmers. The staff uses the smallest amount of chlorine possible to meet environmental regulations to be allowed to empty the pool into the river each night, park manager T.J. Packer said.
In 1953, the second generation of Cottams expanded the dance floor which is still used today on occasion, only now with a D.J. and a fog machine, and built a new redwood orchestra pit and a snack shop. When Jim and Susan Bosse bought Crawdad Canyon in 1995, despite all that the Cottam family had created, the surrounding canyon was relatively untouched.
Jim Bosse, however, was known as a visionary in the community, and he saw what the canyon could become. He teamed up with rock climber Todd Goss, who along with his team transformed the canyon walls into the first, and perhaps only, privately owned outdoor rock-climbing park in the nation.
Goss’s team developed 250 bolted climbing routes in the solid basalt walls, scaling up to 85 feet high. Each route is identified at its base with its name, difficulty rating, and the name of the climber who made the first ascent. The goal was to create a safe climbing experience, said Goss, who owns Paragon Adventures, a St. George company specializing in rock-climbing, canyoneering and hiking. With the bolts already in place, he explained, the canyon is great for beginners. But it’s not for novices.
Darren Edwards shares his thoughts on the canyon as he explains that the “climbs ranging from 5.6 (beginner) to 5.13 (I can only dream about) These routes are found on dark basalt walls that can reach up to nearly eighty feet. For the Red Rocks and Zion group, eighty feet probably sounds like standing on top of an anthill, but for a lot of us ants, that number feels just right.”
Compared with indoor climbing gyms, outdoor climbing adds potential dangers like scorpions and bees, as well as loose and slippery rocks. Goss recommends wannabe climbers take a class before attempting the Veyo course. The park does not rent equipment, and at least one person in the group must have extensive climbing experience.
The routes range in difficulty from 5.6 to 5.13 on the Yosemite scale. In layman’s terms, 5.0 is the easiest route in the world – like a sidewalk – while a 5.4 is something like Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park, with its steep trails, chains, and cliffs. A 5.10 is sheer cliff faces and far more adrenaline “Climbing is about purely existing,” Edwards said, “When you’re climbing, you’re not in your head, you’re not self-conscious and you are always in the present moment.” Darren Edwards is the author of Utah Sport Climbing: Stories and Reflections on the Bolting of the Beehive State, and has a passion for rock-climbing throughout the state.
Braken’s boys spend hours wading in the river, about calf-deep to an adult, catching crawdads. Brought to Utah in the ’50s and ’60s most likely as a food source these non-native crawdads occupy mostly rocky or weedy shorelines where they can seek shelter from predators like raccoons and herons.
How they ended up in Crawdad Canyon is a mystery. The water here is warmer, heated by the nearby hot springs, making it a perfect place for hundreds of these crustaceans to thrive and call home. Crawdads look like miniature Maine lobsters. They can be red, blue, even green. Sometimes, children name them and lug them around in a bucket. There isn’t a limit to how many you may catch in one day, and they can be caught with a traditional fishing pole or trapped by anyone with a valid Utah fishing or combination license.
Several years ago, Elsie and Dexter Sullivan traveled across the country from Louisiana to Salt Lake City, Utah to visit family with their grandkids in tow and decided to stop in Veyo for the day. It didn’t take long before they found the cool waters of the Santa Clara River flowing through Crawdad Canyon. Dexter was a big outdoorsman and while he showed the kids how to be safe when picking up crawdads he accidentally dropped it. The children oooh’d and ahhh’d while taking in this magnificent creature and as it fell toward the ground. In all the excitement Dexter grabbed it just before it hit the ground. It repaid him with a hearty pinch from one of its big pinchers.
Crawdads are generally friendly creatures, but a nip from a claw can be painful so, watch out for those pinchers. The best way to pick them up is with thumb and forefinger placed firmly just behind the claws and don’t hold them in the palm of your hand.
At Crawdad Canyon, you can bring your gear or purchase a Crawdad Catching Kit, with a hand-made pole, bucket, net and bait for 10 bucks.
After a day of climbing, swimming, or catching crawdads – or all three – regulars grab a Pronto Pup, a hand-dipped specialty corn dog (there’s even a honey bacon version); onion rings and a Veyo Pie Shake. The latter consists of a slice of famous Veyo Pie, key lime, raspberry-rhubarb or pumpkin, and plenty of other options blended into your shake. “The shakes are just the best,” said Braken, “but the Pronto Pups are the best.” Not even T.J. the manager at Veyo Pool would give away the 93-year-old family recipe for the corndogs. Not even when I begged. He said, “you will just have to try them for yourself.”
This sweet little oasis nestled in the canyon overlooking the Santa Clara River is truly one of southern Utah’s best-kept secrets. After a day of play, camping beneath the stars, small glowing embers flitter into the night sky from the nearby campfire, s’mores, and tales from an amazing day complete the adventure, along with a Pronto Pup and pie shake only leaves you wanting more. I mean who could get enough of a place like this?
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~This story originally appeared in Utah Life Magazine early 2019.~
~This post may include links to external websites and are linked here for information only. I’m not responsible for the content or policies of those sites.
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