Sunset Point

Sunset Point is an exposed overlook above the Waterpocket Fold, reached by a short trail from a dirt parking area at the end of Panorama Point Road. It gives you a wide look across the Fold’s east-facing cliffs and ridges. The walk is easy, so I’d keep it on the list if you have time to watch the light change across the landscape.

From UT 24, follow Panorama Point Road for about a mile on dirt to the shared parking area for Sunset Point and Goosenecks Overlook. The Sunset Point trail is 0.4 mile one way, with less than 50 feet of elevation gain. That’s the National Park Service distance; some visitor accounts round it shorter. The path has some uneven, rocky footing, and the overlook is exposed. Pets aren’t allowed on the hiking trail.

Sunset is the draw, but arrive with enough time to walk out and settle in before the last light. The east-facing cliffs of the Fold pick up warm color as the sun goes down. The shared dirt lot can be busy around sunset. Bring a headlamp if you stay until dark, since the return walk is after the light has gone.

Look across the Fold for Chimney Rock and Ferns Nipple, with Boulder Mountain and Mount Ellen farther out. Mount Ellen is the high point of the Henry Mountains. A wide frame that holds the ridged Fold and the distant mountains gives the view its scale; zooming in on one cliff brings out the bands of color.

The Waterpocket Fold is a nearly 100-mile bend in the rock layers. It formed about 50 to 70 million years ago, when movement along a buried fault tilted and lifted the layers, raising the western side by more than 7,000 feet relative to the east. Erosion has since cut cliffs, domes, and canyons through the uplift.

Water also wears shallow pockets into the sandstone. Those waterpockets are the reason for the Fold’s name, and they’re part of the same slow process still shaping the ridges you see from the point.