Adventure in Sand Hollow State Park

By: Sam Kanongataa

Southwest Utah is popularized by an exceeding amount of tourists year-round. Sand Hollow, one of the four state parks in Washington County, admitted more visitors than any other state park in 2021 with over 1.4 million. This analysis characterizes the beauty and attractiveness that so many visitors share and return to experience.

Amusingly, sand and water are frequent symbols used to illustrate its beautiful-orange sand beaches and deep blue water. Sand Hollow embodies a gorgeous and unique story promoted by its beauty and endless recreational activity, and its features can prove it. 

Sand Hollow's uniqueness comes from the ability to enjoy recreational activities by land and sea. Its activities alter from summer to winter. Not only can visitors go ATV riding or simply reside on the ground campsites, they can also go boating, rafting, paddle boarding, jet skiing, etc. Additionally, Sand Hollow offers friendly services: toilets, showers, running water, picnic tables, fire rings, full hookups for RV's, decontamination stations, dump stations, and so  much more! Sand Hollow is extremely accommodating and is a great place for visitors to stay for several days. 

Sand Hollow Information Visualization

Figure 1


In the development of analyzing data related to my topic, I composed a research combining recurring texts and themes from different websites and documents utilizing Voyant Tools. After applying substantial amounts of texts (10,467 words) from stateparks.utah.gov, watertemperature.net, and greaterzion.com into Voyant Tools, I gathered the top 10 utilized words in the entirety of the corpus: state (217), parks (181), park (107), sand (103), hollow (92), water (85), visitors (67), county (53), Utah (52), and temperature (41). Above in Figure 1 is a visualization illustrating recurring texts from those websites. Words like "state," "park," "hol low," and other obvious texts alike had already portrayed my ideal perspective of Sand Hollow except for the word "temperature". Because "temperature" arose into the top 10, a word that I did not expect, I returned to read it's context. I found that "temperature" made its reference to Sand Hollow’s water and the different swimming conditions throughout the year. It made sense that Sand Hollow, a water reservoir, would include data on acceptable swimming conditions for its hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.


Correspondingly, I generated a table using data from watertempature.net illustrating the different water temperatures throughout the year, shown below in Figure 2. It's not uncommon for temperatures to rise above 86 degrees F during July and August. January and February tend to be the coldest months at the park with average daily highs of 42 degrees F and daily lows of 39 degrees F.

Sand Hollow Reservoir Temperature by Month

Figure 2

Month

Highest

Regular

Lowest

January

41.5

40.5

39.9

February

42.1

40.8

40.1

March

50.4

45.1

41.7

April

60.8

53.6

48.6

May

71.6

63.1

56.5

June

82

72.5

66.9

July

86

80.2

75.7

August

85.6

80.2

77

September

82.8

75

69.3

October

73

65.5

59

November

61.9

54.7

48.6

December

49.3

44.8

41.4

 

Furthermore, I gathered additional recurring texts from stateparks.utah.gov, apart from the most obvious texts, these were the most frequent words from its literature: OHV (off-highway vehicle), camping, and campground. Due to my own experience with the park and being an out of state resident, I had originally thought that Sand Hollow was a water park, but as I continued to read it's context from the website, I was wrong. "OHV," "camping," and "campground" complimented Sand Hollow's unique style of recreational activity.

What makes Sand Hollow so special is its feature of a "double edged sword". Sand Hollow offers all recreational activities by land and water. As shown in Figure 2, on the assumption that the water is too cold, during the winter, one can simply join the campgrounds, and when it becomes too hot, one can cool down in it's refreshing water.

Sand Hollow features two campgrounds; the Sandpit Campground, and the Westside Campground. The Sandpit Campground is the closest to ATV trails, where visitors could enjoy the red sand dunes riding OHV's. The Sandpit Campground consists of 19 campsites, 6 power sites and 5 group sites. The Westside Campground consists of 50 campsites with full RV hook-ups. All campsites have restrooms, showers, picnic tables, and fire rings.

Sand Hollow State Park GIS Map

Figure 3 


Above in Figure 3 is a GIS map of Sand Hollow showing each location of every recreational activity site, campsite, dump site, parking lot, restroom, and shower. 

This GIS map has three layers. The first layer is labeled the Westside Campgrounds. This layer labels all of the camp sites, bathrooms, dump stations, parking lots, and showers in the Westside Campground. The second layer is called the Sandpit Campgrounds. This layer labels all of the campsites, bathrooms, and parking lots in that campground. The third layer is named the Recreational Activity Sites. This layer labels the eastside campground, parking lots, restrooms, and all of the activity site locations in its region.  

Below in Figure 4 is a legend that describes each highlight by color and shape as depicted in Figure 3. 

Figure 4

Westside Campgrounds

      

Sandpit Campgrounds




Recreational Activity Sites










Conclusion

Sand Hollow's beauty and unique ability to enjoy all kinds of recreational activity tells a story of adventure. Despite how vastly a season may affect water temperature, Sand Hollow has something for everyone, no matter the time or place. The visuals of the Voyant map, table chart, GIS map, and legend serve as proof as to why Sand Hollow is best state park in southern Utah, and why so many visitors return  to stay. 

As there are many other state parks in Utah, this analysis could promote the exploration of other state parks and their features. Though I was able to explore Sand Hollow through the scope of digital humanities, this research leaves an opportunity for future study through distinctive procedures regarding other state parks, the possibilities are boundless.   

Works Cited 

“Sand Hollow State Park.” Greater Zion, 8 Mar. 2022, https://greaterzion.com/outfitters/sand-hollow-state-park/ 

“Sand Hollow State Park.” SeeMyCampsite.com - Find Out Before You Head Out, 9 Aug. 2022, https://seemycampsite.com/sandhollow/ 

“Sand Hollow State Park.” Utah State Parks. Web. Accessed 10 Oct 2022. https://stateparks.utah.gov/parks/sand-hollow/ 

“Sand Hollow Reservoir Water Temperature.” Watertemperature.net. Web. Accessed 10 Oct 2022. www.watertemperature.net/united-states/sand-hollow-reservoir.html  

"Sand Hollow State Park.” Visit Utah, Accessed 11 Nov https://www.visitutah.com/places-to-go/parks-outdoors/sand-hollow-state-park  

Sinclair, Stéfan and Geoffrey Rockwell. "Cirrus." Voyant Tools. Web. Accessed 10 Oct 2022. <https://voyant-tools.org/?corpus=565dede5778960d172e7870316104548&view=Cirrus


Teare, Ammon. “Washington County State Parks Saw More Visitors than Ever in 2020.” St George News, 2 Mar. 2021, https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2021/03/02/ajt-washington-county-state-parks-saw-more-visitors-than-ever-in-2020/#.Y4RXP3bMJPY 


Weitz, Ryan. “Sand Hollow State Park.” Zion Trailer Rentals, 1 Feb. 2021, https://ziontrailerrentals.com/sand-hollow-state-park/ 


Williams, Carter. “Utah's State Parks Shattered All Visitation Records in 2020. These Were the Parks Visitors Fled To.” KSL.com, 22 Feb. 2021, https://www.ksl.com/article/50112147/utahs-state-parks-shattered-all-visitation-records-in-2020-these-were-the-parks-visitors-fled-to#:~:text=Sand%20Hollow%20State%20Park%20in,according%20to%20State%20Parks%20data 



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