Best Friends Volunteer Tour

It takes a little time to get to our home in Kanab, but it’s so worth it! Your journey will start in Las Vegas, Nevada, where we will pick you up at McCarran International Airport. From Las Vegas, you will be transported to Kanab, Utah, watching the scenery change from glitzy lights to serene scapes. The drive delivers the perfect opportunity to meet and get acquainted with your fellow guests who’ll be on tour with you!

As we get near our destination, you’ll find the busy, hectic world falls further and further away, and your view opens up to the colors and calm majesty of the desert.
We will arrive at The Gathering Place by early evening, where you can unpack and unwind. A light meal will be served that evening, and your guide will orient you on the week’s events.

Meals included this day: light dinner.

Start the day by getting to know the beauty and history of the Kanab area with a tour through Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, located just 5 miles away. A representative at the sanctuary will take you on a morning tour of the facility. You’ll learn about the fantastic work that gets done at Best Friends, which extends beyond their large facility, housing over 1,600 animals! This non-profit facility is nestled in the wondrous Angel Canyon.

Lunch will be served at the Angel Canyon Cafeteria, where fantastic vegetarian and vegan dishes are on the menu. You may dine inside or on the patio, overlooking the splendor of the canyon.
In the afternoon, you’ll have the opportunity to volunteer in an area of Best Friends, choose from Dogtown, Catworld, Horse Haven, Wild Friends, Bunny House, Parrot Garden or the gift shop, where all proceeds benefit the sanctuary!

If you make a special bond with a furry canine friend, you’ll have the option to take him or her on an overnight excursion to stay with you and your group.
Your guide will then bring you back to the bed and breakfast for a rest and refresh before dinner. If you have brought home an overnight friend, you may take the dog on a walk or two around the peaceful neighborhood that surrounds the Grand Circle.
Dinner will be at Wild Thyme Cafe which specializes in farm-to-table options, complete with outdoor, pet-friendly seating.

Meals included this day: breakfast, lunch & dinner.

Your guide will pick you up at 8:00 am after a delicious breakfast and transport you to Best Friends for your morning volunteer experience.
After a busy morning spending time with the animals, we’ll travel east to the lovely Lake Powell. For lunch, we’ll enjoy individual box lunches from Kanab Creek Bakery, renowned for their delicious breads and salads.

We’ll board a boat and experience the sparkling blue waters of Lake Powell in the best way possible, with towering red rock formations surrounding us and continuing as far as the eye can see. Be sure to have your camera ready to capture the undulating shoreline and slot canyons!
Following our excursion on the water, we can choose between visiting either Horseshoe Bend, a jaw-dropping overlook of a 2,000 foot monolithic butte wrapped by the Colorado River, or the Glen Canyon Dam and Museum, where you learn about the history of the area, including how Lake Powell was created.

To finish the day nicely, we’ll head for a tasty dinner together at the Rainbow Room Restaurant.

Meals included this day: breakfast, lunch & dinner.

Our morning begins once again with a visit to Best Friends to continue your fun and fulfilling volunteer experience.
As soon as you finish up at the sanctuary, we’ll head north to the incredible Bryce Canyon. The scenic drive takes about 1.5 hours, but fret not… we’ll have lunch when we arrive at Ruby’s Inn, a location famous for its buffet lunch.

After lunch, we’ll set off to see one of the most unique national parks in the U.S. Only in the Bryce Canyon area can you find limestone structures like these, known as “hoodoos”! The bright orange hues and vast amphitheaters will mesmerize you. Your guide will bring you to several viewpoints and guide you on short hikes that will lead you down into the canyon.
After our afternoon in Bryce, we will journey back to Kanab, where we will dine at Peekaboo Wood Fired Kitchen, a vegetarian restaurant that serves an amazing margarita pizza!

Meals included this day: breakfast, lunch & dinner.

After another busy morning at the sanctuary, we once again have lunch at the Angel Canyon Cafeteria. From there, your guide will drive you a few short miles to the launch spot for our open-air, off-road experience!

You’ll have the option to drive or ride in a multi-seat off highway vehicle over sand trails and small sand dunes. As you journey over the sand through the beautiful southern Utah desert landscape, you’ll see a formation of Navajo Sandstone cliffs in the distance. This is a thrilling ride yet has been proven to be safe for hundreds of guests.

Afterwards, we’ll visit the nearby Peek-A-Boo Slot Canyon, a magical place created by wind and water rushing through it over thousands of years. This sanctuary of stone is secluded and quiet, a perfect break from the more crowded and busier parks. We’ll easily stroll through a slender rock passage that will enchant any photographer, hiker or adventurer. The warm red, cool brown and hot orange spectrum of colors is meticulously layered by Mother Nature into the sandstone walls. The hike through the canyon is around half a mile, comfortable for almost any hiker.

After drinking in the beauty of Peek-A-Boo, we’ll finish off the evening with a visit to Moqui Cave to learn more about the ancient history of Kanab. Moqui Cave is a unique museum located in a natural sandstone cave, carved over millions of years of erosion. Inside, you’ll find fascinating displays of the Native American people who lived in this region, including pottery and other interesting artifacts. Venturing even further back in time, the museum also houses an impressive range of dinosaur tracks, fossils and prehistoric rock collections!

A picnic dinner that evening will be served in a special spot on the sanctuary grounds. There will be tables and chairs, and a light meal of salads, rotisserie chicken, locally made breads and assorted desserts, all set in a natural alcove. This will be your last evening in Kanab, and we want to make it a memorable one!

Meals included this day: breakfast, lunch & dinner.

On our last day, we’ll cry a bit, because it is time to check out of The Gathering Place. Your guide will be prepared to load your luggage into the van early that morning. You will be transported to the sanctuary for your final volunteer session, where you will enjoy spending time with the animals one last time. It is never easy to leave Best Friends, but you will take a great feeling with you, having contributed in a meaningful way to a great mission (and chances are, you’ll be back!).

The sanctuary is just 45 minutes from Zion National Park, our adventure destination for the day.
We’ll park the van and then hop on the canyon shuttle, where all visitors find their way to points within Zion. One of our first stops will be at the lodge within the park, where we will enjoy lunch in a beautiful, tranquil setting, surrounded by the nature of the park.

After lunch, we’ll take the shuttle all the way through the canyon, getting out at a few points of interest for some short guided hikes. Saving the best for last, we’ll arrive at the Virgin River for a river walk in the cool, clear waters that are magically enclosed within towering rock formations and scattered with gem-like pebbles. This is truly an experience like no other!

After an afternoon of exploring the park, it’s sadly time to head home. We’ll bring you to St. George where your guide will bid you farewell and make sure that you catch the shuttle back to Las Vegas Airport, arriving at 6:40 p.m.

Kanab is located in the very Southern Region of the State of Utah. Most guests fly into Las Vegas, NV or St. George, UT. We will pick you up in Las Vegas, NV and bring you to Kanab (3.5-hour ground shuttle) If you choose to drive to Kanab on your own, or to fly into St. George, Utah instead of Las Vegas, we can accommodate! Check out our How To Find Us Page for more arrival details.

At National Park Tourz our specialty is multi-day, all-inclusive tours. These tours include lodging, 3 meals per day, trail snacks, bottled water, entrance fees, activities, tour transportation and your friendly and experienced tour guide! You may want to bring some extra cash to buy souvenirs or to tip the adventure guides.

We suggest you bring clothing for each day (light layers), shoes and socks appropriate for hiking on rocks, sand, gravel, pavement, and in water. We’d also recommend a rain poncho or similar light rain gear, sunscreen, a hat and/or sunglasses, and a camera. National Park Tourz provides 3 meals a day, as well as bottled water, daytime trail snacks and a backpack to keep your belongings. If you have special dietary needs or preferences, you may want to bring a few of your own snacks.

For this tour, you will enjoy the excellent home comforts of The Kanab Gathering Place. We strive to accommodate the special requests and needs of our clients. Four of the rooms in this home have king beds, and two of the rooms have two double beds. The accommodations have two ground floor rooms and four rooms that require using stairs.
In the event that a guest needs an ADA room, we will arrange accommodations at a nearby hotel (for an additional $50 per day).

The longest hike we do is 2-mile round trip. Very easy, slow pace and the trail is paved. We do our best to customize your experience. Please let us know what you are comfortable with.

Gratuity or tipping is a personal option and is completely up to you. You may request to have it added into your tour balance or tip your guide directly at the end of your tour. Customary gratuity is between 10-15% of your tour price.

There is one local company, Xpress Car Rental. You can reach them by phone at 435-644-3408.

In Kanab, the summers are hot and mostly clear, the winters are very cold and partly cloudy, and it is dry year round, with the exception of our incredible monsoon season in August. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 22°F to 92°F and is rarely below 10°F or above 99°F. We schedule our tours in line with the best time of year to visit Kanab for warm-weather activities, which is from April to mid October.