Sun Tunnels, Land art installation in Box Elder County, United States
Sun Tunnels is an art installation featuring four massive concrete cylinders positioned in an X pattern across the Great Basin Desert. The tunnels stretch approximately 86 feet in length, with perforations running through them that frame views of the sky above.
Artist Nancy Holt created Sun Tunnels between 1973 and 1976 as a monumental work in Utah's remote desert. The work emerged from an artistic movement exploring how large structures could frame both time and landscape for human experience.
The concrete cylinders feature perforations arranged to match star constellations: Draco, Perseus, Columba, and Capricorn. Visitors experience a direct link between the structures and the night sky when looking through these openings.
Reaching the site requires a vehicle suitable for rough dirt roads, and only high-clearance or four-wheel-drive vehicles are recommended for safe travel. Visitors should bring ample water, food, and fuel, as no services exist nearby and the drive from town takes roughly an hour each way.
During summer and winter solstices, the rising and setting sun sends light through the tunnel perforations to create temporary patterns on the ground below. These annual moments reveal how the static concrete structure interacts with the sun's seasonal movement.
Location: Box Elder County
Inception: 1976
Creator: Nancy Holt
Made from material: concrete
GPS coordinates: 41.30349,-113.86380
Latest update: December 6, 2025 17:44
Utah preserves thousands of years of human history alongside some of North America's most varied geological landscapes. The region contains extensive rock art panels and Ancestral Pueblo ruins, including the 13th-century stone structures at Bears Ears National Monument and the 650-plus petroglyphs carved into Newspaper Rock over two millennia. Fremont Indian State Park displays more than 1,000 artifacts from the indigenous peoples who inhabited these lands, while fossilized dinosaur tracks near Moab record the passage of Allosaurus and Diplodocus across ancient mudflats 150 million years ago. The natural environment ranges from the sculpted sandstone formations of Goblin Valley, where erosion has created mushroom-shaped rocks rising 20 feet (6 meters) from the desert floor, to the narrow passages of Kanarra Creek Canyon with its red walls and cascading waterfalls. The Wedge Overlook reveals 1,000-foot (300-meter) cliffs above the San Rafael River, while Monroe's thermal springs emerge from the ground at 110°F (43°C). Whether exploring slot canyons, examining ancient handprints on rock walls, or walking among eroded sandstone formations, visitors encounter landscapes that document both geological processes spanning millions of years and the enduring presence of human cultures in this high desert region.
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