On Friday, Sept. 7th, we drove through another mountain pass to Cedar Breaks National Monument high in the mountains of Utah, and I do mean high! Dad is getting quite good at not showing his aversion to heights as he drives up these steep winding roads, many of which have no guardrails and drop-offs of hundreds of feet.
The visitors center at Point Supreme is at an elevation on 10,350 feet, overlooking a natural amphitheater with numerous spires and hoodoos.
After checking in at the visitor's center we took a nice 2-mile long hike to Sunset View Overlook.
We stopped and ate lunch at some picnic tables in the park. Then left to drive down the other side of the mountain to Cedar City where we did some grocery shopping at Walmart. The scenery on the other side of the mountain was nearly as spectacular as in the park.
A large portion of central and southern Utah is either, National Park, National Monument or National Forest, and there are numerous State Parks as well. Much of it is an uninhabitable high desert and couldn't be used for farming or ranching either because it is nearly impenetrable as well.
On Sunday, Sept. 8th, we drove 60 miles to Kodachrome Basin State Park near Cannonvile, Utah.
The park is filled with limestone spires that have been created by the erosion of the materials surrounding them that could not stand up to the elements of wind and water.
Many of these spires are as much as one hundred feet tall and some are that big around as well.
Here is a lonely little spire at the top of a huge cliff several hundred feet high.
Mom and Dad and I took a nice hike out into the desert to see some more features, hoping to get back before the temperature rose to 90 degrees or above.
One of the only trees that can survive out in this environment are juniper trees. This one found a perch on top of a large monolith.
There was also a small nature trail not far away that Dad and I walked on while Mom went off to take more pictures from a higher point.
Who would have thought we would find a quote from Thoreau in the middle of a high desert in Utah?
Well, there it was.
On the way back to the parking lot I met some nice people who I made friends with. One of them was a retired IRS agent and happy not to be the "bad guy" anymore.
In the afternoon we tried to drive eleven miles out further into the desert to see the Grosvenor Arch on a very bad unimproved road that proved to be little more than a dry creek bed with monster ruts in loose red clay and sand. There was a warning sign at the beginning of the road stating that "THIS ROAD IS IMPASSABLE DURING A STORM". A park ranger told us that's because the red sand and clay turn into a bottomless paste when it rains, and we had to pull seven cars out of there the last time it rained.
Parts of it weren't so dry either, and we finally gave up and turned back rather than damage the car or worse still, get stranded in the desert with no cell service in 90-degree weather.
Tomorrow we are going for a hike in Red Canyon in the morning. In the afternoon Mom and Dad are going hiking in Bryce Canyon NP on a trail called the "Queen's Garden" while I take a nap at home. (Dogs, even cute ones, aren't allowed on National Park trails. What's wrong with those people?)😞
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