36 Best Sights in Southwestern Utah, Utah

Set in a striking modern building that opened in 2016 and was designed to resemble the region's canyons and rock formations, this excellent regional art museum with a peaceful sculpture garden is part of Southern Utah University's cultural compound, along with the Utah Shakespeare Festival theaters. The galleries feature selections from the museum's permanent collection of some 2,000 works—including pieces by Renoir, Dalí, Picasso, and Thomas Hart Benton—along with rotating shows that shine a light on emerging regional artists as well as students and faculty.

The downtown centerpiece of St. George's growing art scene occupies an attractively reimagined former sugar-beet warehouse. The permanent collection celebrates the works of mostly regionally based potters, photographers, and painters, many of them depicting the region's spectacular landscapes. Rotating exhibits highlight local history and lore and showcase emerging contemporary talents. There's also a Family Discovery Center, with materials for kids to create their own works.

Next to Town Square Park and the downtown library and set inside a former school building with a striking red-stone exterior, this well-designed museum contains two floors of touch-friendly exhibits, including an earthquake-simulation table, a science discovery lab, a transportation center with planes and an auto shop, and a miniature version of St. George's red-rock–framed Tuacahn Amphitheatre.

Unearthed in 2000 by property developers, this site preserves and exhibits ancient footprints left by dinosaurs from the Jurassic Period millions of years ago. A modern museum displays dinosaur fossils and replicas and presents several short informative videos about the Jurassic era. There's an interactive area for children and a Dino Park outside the museum with shaded picnic tables and a "Walk Through Time" exhibit.

This is one of the best-preserved pioneer buildings in the entire state, and it's still used for public meetings and community events. Mormon settlers began work on the tabernacle just a few months after the city of St. George was established in 1863. Upon completion of the sandstone building's 140-foot clock tower 13 years later, Brigham Young formally dedicated the site. Visits are by guided tour.

The red-sandstone temple, plastered over with white stucco, was completed in 1877 and was the first Mormon temple in southwest Utah. It has served as a meeting place for both Mormons and other congregations over the decades. Today, only members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can enter the temple, but a visitor center next door offers guided tours of the visitor center and grounds. The temple reopened in late 2023 after being closed for several years of renovations that have made it more accessible and energy-efficient and restored the exterior and interior to better replicate the original temple.