Utah Vacation-Colorado River

The focus for today was the Colorado River. We planned a loop that included Lee’s Ferry, Horseshoe Bend, and the Glen Canyon Dam. There was one other place along the route that we also had to stop and revisit.

The other day, when returning from the North Rim, we stopped at Jacob’s Lake Inn for dinner. This place is known for its cookies and thick shakes. Being early, we skipped the shakes, but did not skip the cookies. We bought two chocolate chip cookies and two chocolate parfait cookies. The latter is a special cookie that does not use baking soda. It is more dense than a normal cookie, and had special Belgium chocolate chunks. The hard part was waiting for lunch to try them.

We continued on to our next stop at Lee’s Ferry. Lee’s Ferry is one of the few spots along the Grand Canyon that you can actually reach the river. It is the spot where all river expeditions begin. According to the signs, once you enter the river here, there is no turning back until reaching the other end of the canyon.

Boat launch at Lee's Ferry

We found a picnic area near the launch ramp and had lunch. As I ate, I thought about all the people on all the expeditions that passed through this spot. I wonder how many of those people loved it and how many regretted it. Today, we saw many people take a motor boat up river to the Glen Canyon Dam, then float back downstream in kayaks and canoes. That sounds like something I would totally enjoy. Oh, and I also ate one of the cookies… and it was fantastic.

Before the dam was build, the Colorado River was described as “Too thick to drink and too thin to plow”. It was full of red sediment from all the tributaries flowing into it. Now, it is an emerald green and looks quite inviting. Just down the river from the launch ramp, the river sees its first set of rapids. It amazes me that there is so much water in the river, while for many many miles, there is nothing but desert.

Next on the agenda was Horseshoe Bend. This bend in the river is very popular and is visited by many people. It is so popular, I saw a large, framed photograph of it going for $1000 at a gift shop. It is between the dam and Lee’s Ferry, so floaters pass through here on their way downstream. As the crow flies, the bend is very near to Lee’s Ferry. As the car drives, however, is quite a different story. Getting up out of the canyon takes many miles, and a very cool bridge.

Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River

The Navajo Bridge crosses Glen Canyon downstream of Horseshoe Bend and Lee’s Ferry. The bridge was complete in 1928. It is 467 feet above the river and spans 834 feet. There are actually two bridges – one for traffic and one for pedestrians. We also noticed that the bridges, along with holes in the nearby cliffs, are used by California Condors. Pretty cool.

Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River

Our next stop was the Glen Canyon Dam Visitor Center. We passed by here earlier in the week and made a point of revisiting. The Visitor Center itself was closed, but we were able to walk around the premises and read about the exhibits.

Andrew and a turbine blade at Glen Canyon Dam

Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell

Our final stop was Lone Rock. It is a solitary rock formation in Lake Powell. There is a campground nearby that was full of everything I find bad about camping, all in one place. I won’t go into details, but I felt sad for the poor rock, out there all by itself, surrounded by humans with all of their noisy power toys.

Lone Rock in Lake Powell

Then it was back to the condo. As you may know, I have been participating in running events and I recently bought a Garmin fitness tracking watch. I am following a running plan and Sunday is my long run day. Rather than skip it, I decided I had time to do it today. Susan and I walked to the nearby park, then I ran/walked 3.5 miles. After my first uphill run, my lungs started to get irritated and I started coughing. I don’t know if it was the dry air, the dust from passing cars, or the altitude, but whatever it was, I removed the hill from my following laps and started to feel better. While running, I passed by several people out enjoying the evening and they were all very nice and interactive. I like small town people.

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Utah Vacation-Zion Kolob Terrace Road

Today started very early for us. Andrew read that the International Space Station and several Starlink satellites were flying over Kanab this morning. We all got up and drove a few miles North to a place we expected would be dark enough to see them. When we arrived, it was chilly and difficult to stand outside to wait. But I’m glad we did. Right on schedule, a very distinct object appeared in the Northwest sky and continued on to the Southeast. It was brighter than any star in the sky. It was clearly the space station. The Starlink satellites weren’t as visible. I think we may have seen two or three flash briefly before finally giving up and heading back to the condo. I was thinking, wouldn’t it be nice if SpaceX could make them shinier, then after a few months in orbit, they could fade and no longer be reflective? I’d like that, but the astronomers wouldn’t.

The plan for the day was to explore the Kolob Terrace Road. This road passes in and out of Zion and travels about 16 miles before reaching a reservoir high in the mountains. On our way, we passed through Zion again. While stopped for tunnel passage, I heard a hiker who hadn’t even reached the trailhead say, “And there’s stairs, too?” I laughed out loud to that one.

On the Northwest side of Zion, we got off the main road and took the Kolob Terrace Road. We passed by the Kolob Marketplace and I was curious what they had, so I turned around and stopped. They were very small and had just the basics that campers and fishermen needed, but they also had something very unique. Behind the cashier, a video was playing showing hikers clinging to cliff walls while wearing harnesses that were attached to cables. It was very intriguing, and intimidating. I asked about it and the cashier said that the Marketplace runs a tour down to the canyon, where they guide guests along this precarious path. She handed me a brochure with all the details. I told her I’d think about it. It didn’t take too long to rule that one out; at least for this trip.

Eventually we arrived at Kolob Reservoir. I was surprised to see RVs lining the shore of the lake. It wasn’t obvious that there was anyone in charge. I think the RVers just pulled in and set up camp for free. Now that I think of it, I have seen many RVs parked off dirt roads. I think it is a common thing around here.

Another thing that interested me was the property ownership. In some places, we were in Zion. In others, we were in a National Forest. And in others, we were passing through private land. In any case, I was surprised to see cows in free roam, in yards, along the road, on the road. It was crazy. And they have no fear. They will just look at you as you wait for them to move along. In one case, we came across about a dozen cows, two dogs, and four cowboys; all on the road. We patiently waited for them to all carry on to the other side.

We stopped at Lava Point Overlook to see the view and to have lunch. Like most places, we could see for many miles, even into Zion Canyon.

Looking Southeast towards Zion Canyon from Lava Point Overlook

Back on the road, we headed back to the Zion Springdale entrance. Just outside of town, we once again found ourselves slowing down for a surprise. This time, there was a group of about six horses with riders taking what I presume was a guided tour. You just don’t know what you’ll see around the next bend.

Back in the main part of Zion, we climbed the mountain and passed through the tunnel to the East side again. There were many Bighorn sheep along the side of the road. As usual, there were too many things to see and not enough pull offs along the side of the road. 

Outside the park is a farm with Bison. Every evening that we passed, the herd has been grouped near a pond and windmill, near the highway. Today, we stopped and took some pictures. One Bison decided to cool off in the pond while we stood by the fence and watched.

A Bison enters the pond for a cool drink of water

With dusk quickly approaching, we thought we’d give Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park another visit and fly the drone. Andrew got all set up in the back as I drove to a spot just outside the park. When Andrew tried to connect his phone to the controller, it wouldn’t connect. Then we realized that he had just updated his phone to Android 11 and the drone app was incompatible. Grr.

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Utah Vacation-St. George

Today, Susan needed to pick up a prescription from Amazon and the nearest drop location was in St. George, so we planned the day around that. There are two ways to get to St. George from here. The first way is faster and involves driving through Arizona. The second way is a little slower, but involves driving through Zion. We chose the latter.

Zion National Park East entrance

Driving through Zion is just spectacular. I don’t know what else to say about it. Heading West this time, we did see things from a different angle, and it was morning this time, so things were lit differently, but otherwise, it was one awe-inspiring view after another all the way through. The tunnel is amazing in itself, but what is even more amazing is that it has holes cut in the side to let in air and light. While driving through, passengers can get a glimpse of what is about to be revealed by looking through these giant windows.

View through a window in the Zion tunnel

Once out the other side, the scene is unbelievably dramatic. Photos can’t grasp the enormity of the site. Andrew captured a few shots with the highway winding down to try to give the scene some perspective.

Mountains viewed from the highway after leaving the tunnel

On the other side, we drove through Springdale again, and this time it seemed different. The crowds were gone and the town seemed inviting. Maybe we’ll stop and explore it later.

Susan’s prescription was at a drop box in a drug store in St. George. It just so happened that the St. George Visitor Center was literally next door. While Susan checked on her order, Andrew and I walked next door. The Visitor Center had lots of good information about the area and plenty of stuffed animals to help identify the wildlife that one may encounter. Meanwhile, two other visitors were getting the scoop from the employee working the desk. We casually eavesdropped on the conversation and decided that we wanted to do the same thing.

We decided to explore Snow Canyon. Snow Canyon is a State Park just outside St. George. We drove over and entered the park. The park is about five miles long and has many sites and pull outs. We traveled from one end to the other, then decided which stops to visit.

Our first stop was Jenny’s Canyon and Overlook. This was a short hike through soft sand and a short climb up an embankment. The canyon was a short slot canyon and the overlook provided a nice view from about 50 feet above the floor below.

David in Jenny's Canyon

Next came lunch in a picnic area, followed by the Lava Flow Trail. This trail took us over an old lava flow, including three lava tube entrances. Susan and Andrew surprised me when they climbed down into the tube entrance and disappeared from sight. They were down there for a few minutes before Susan returned. Andrew was nowhere to be seen. A few minutes later, he popped out of the rocks about 10 feet away. He found another entrance that I hadn’t seen.

Further along the trail, we found the mother of lava tube entrances. We all climbed down the hard, sharp lava rock and into the cave below. It was nice and cool, and extremely dark. We explored for awhile using our phone lights to see where we were going. I was the first to leave and as expected, Andrew was the last.

Susan in a lava tube on the Lava Flow Trail

The trail continued a little further to a large rock outcropping near the edge of a steep hill leading into a long valley. We all climbed to the top and had a great view of the valley and most of the park.

Panoramic view from an outcropping on the Lava Flow Trail

On the way back to the car, I spotted my first Jack Rabbit of the trip and it reminded me of someone. I had been looking for one at each stop. I pursued it for a time, but it was very elusive, hiding behind the sage brush, so I didn’t get a picture, and I eventually let it go.

After the park, we headed back to town to pick up the prescription, then started heading back to Kanab. We stopped briefly at the Natural Food Store, then continued along the Arizona route.

Along the way, Andrew wanted to fly his drone. The sun was about an hour from setting and the magic light was making everything glow. We came across a particularly amazing mountain outside Hurricane and decided to stop at the Gem Trailhead. The trailhead included both hiking and biking trails. I asked a rider where the trail went, expecting that it went up into the mountains, but he said it went out in the desert at the base of the mountain. I was hoping Andrew might get some video of some bikers flying down the slopes.

Andrew got his drone ready for flight and started the long climb to the top of the mountain. It took a while, but eventually he reached the top and got some great pictures and video of the mountain and the distant mountains.

Drone's eye view from the top of the mountain on Gem Trail

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Utah Vacation-Grand Canyon North Rim

Today we planned to go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We got a bit of a late start, stopped to get gas, then headed south into Arizona. The drive was about an hour and a half long; first through desert, then up onto a forested (and in some cases burned forest) plateau, then over wide open meadows, and finally through forests again.

Our first stop was the North Rim Visitor Center. We parked, then headed for the Bright Angel Point Trail. This trail followed a path along the ridge that extended into the Grand Canyon. In some places the path was very narrow and in one or two places, the path disappeared and we had to cross a narrow bridge across a gap. This was not the place to be if heights intimidate you. The view was pretty amazing; it could only be better if there was less haze in the air. On the way back, we took a fork in the trail that passed below the Lodge to other overlooks.

View from the Bright Angel Point Trail

After the hike, we walked around the lodge, but didn’t enter. I was surprised by the number of cabins available to rent. I stopped at a restroom, which was basically just an outhouse. I walked away thinking that the Grand Canyon is deep, but followed closely by the depth of the outhouse. I’m pretty sure I heard nothing until after I washed my hands and opened the door, at which point I heard the very faint and distant sound of water hitting water.

Susan at the North Rim Visitor Center (Happy Anniversary)

We returned to the car and started thinking about lunch. We saw a bunch of picnic tables on the way in and stopped at one. It was near the edge of the canyon and it was quite chilly in the shade. We ate quickly, the drove out to Cape Royal.

One the way to Cape Royal, we passed the North Kaibab Trail. This trail drops into Roaring Springs Canyon and extends several miles. I wanted to walk to the Coconino Overlook, which was only seven tenths of a mile away, but with a change of elevation of almost 800 feet. We pulled off at the parking lot and drove around, looking for an open parking space, but it turned out that there were no “suitable” spaces, even though there were three available spaces. I guess that was our way of saying, “That’s too many vertical feet!”

At Cape Royal, we hiked the Cape Royal Trail. Along the trail, we had a clear view of the Angels Window natural bridge and ended up walking across it to the overlook.

Angels Window on the Cape Royal Trail

Next, we took the road to Point Imperial, which is the highest overlook in the North Rim side of the Grand Canyon. We also stopped at a few other overlooks on our way back out of the park.

Panoramic view from Cape Royal Trail

Once outside the park, we decided to have dinner at Jacob’s Lake Inn, which is famous for its cookies and thick shakes – my kind of place. Along the way, we saw bison and deer in the meadows along the highway. Dinner was great, and both the cookies and the shakes lived up to their reputation.

Finally, we headed back to Kanab. As we started our descent into the desert part of the drive, we found ourselves behind a loaded 18-wheeler. Before long, I started to smell brakes. A few moments later, I could see smoke coming off the trailer brakes. And another few minutes later, I could see smoke coming off all the brakes. Considering the windiness of the road, we were forced to follow. The smoke quickly filled the car and it was getting difficult to breath. Luckily for us, the driver realized the situation and found a spot to pull off the highway. I think it took another ten minutes before the smell was gone.

Once past the truck, we noticed that the sun was nearly set. We thought it was interesting how quickly it actually set. Because we were descending rapidly off the plateau, the sun appeared to set more quickly.

After we got home, we decided to go out to witness the night sky in all of its glorious darkness. We drove about sixteen miles East of Kanab and found a pull off. When we got out of the car, our jaws dropped in amazement. I have never before seen so many stars. I could even see the Milky Way stretching North to South across the sky. The most peculiar thing was that it was hard to find familiar constellations. There were so many stars, the constellations just vanished into the background.

We set up the tripod and camera and started experimenting with different settings. It was pretty cold, so it was a struggle making the adjustments. We quickly determined that we need a wider angle lens to capture more sky.

Milky Way captured with Google Pixel Night Sight

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Utah Vacation-Zion Kolob Canyons

Today started off cool, with the cold front still affecting temperatures. We decided to go to Kolob Canyons, which is in the Northwest corner of Zion National Park. We left around 10:00 AM and arrived around 11:30. The Visitor Center was closed and they were not collecting a fee to drive in; not that it mattered since we now have an Annual Pass. We were told by the Park Ranger that the arch on the Taylor Creek trail is still forming. If we want to see it when its complete and free-standing, we’ll need to come back in a million years.

The road through the canyon is only five miles long. It quickly climbs out of the valley and into the mountains. The best part about it is that it doesn’t keep you waiting very long. After a few minutes of climbing and turning, we came around a turn and had our first “Wow” moment. We were staring face to face with an enormous mountain of red stone.

Awe-inspiring mountain near the entrance to Kolob Canyons

We followed the road to Kolob Canyons Viewpoint, which is the end of the road. From there, we took the Timber Creek Overlook Trail. This was a short, easy trail along the spine of a ridge that ended with a fantastic view of the mountains forming the canyon and the Wasatch Mountains to the East.

Panoramic view of Kolob Canyons

After the hike, we stopped for lunch. We carried our cooler and dry supplies up to a picnic area along the trail. Usually, we would have hunted for a shady spot, but today was pretty chilly, so we took the table in the sun. We had to eat quickly because the bees were very interested in what was on our menu.

Next up was the Taylor Creek Trail to the Double Arch Alcove. This trail is 2.5 miles long with a 450 foot elevation change; most of it at the beginning. The trail started by dropping from the parking lot to the creek – which actually had water flowing in it – via about 50 log steps. I asked someone coming up how strenuous it was and she said that the steps up were the hardest part.

The trail followed the creek into a canyon, crossing it many times along the way. As we continued, the views become more and more awe inspiring. At one point, I quipped that this trail put the “Ah” in Utah. Andrew wanted to feel how cold, or warm, the water was, but didn’t want to touch it. I suggested that he should have brought one water shoe so he could walk in the creek with one foot and on the trail with the other.

About two miles in, Susan was ready for a break. She found a nice spot to sit down and Andrew and I continued quickly to the end of the trail. We were both amazed when we reached the end. First, it is so large that it is impossible to capture without wider angle lenses. The bottom is a giant arch that is also the base of a part-time waterfall. It has dark streaks and the cutout is filled with small plants. High above this arch is a second arch. I nearly had to hold on to something when looking up to the top of the cliff; it is a dizzying sight. Directly across the valley is another red cliff, stained with white streaks that reminded me of giant icicles.

Double arch alcove on the Taylor Creek Trail

"Icicles" on the high cliff wall

After about twenty minutes, we had our fill. We raced back down the trail to the spot we had left Susan, then continued together back to the parking lot. As predicted, those steps at the end were the most strenuous part of the hike.

We left the Kolob Canyons feeling somewhat exhausted, and fully satisfied. Our next challenge was to decided how to get back to the condo. We could either take the fast way, or take the slightly longer route through Zion National Park. We chose the latter.

Before entering Zion, one must pass through the town of Springdale. Being the week of Labor Day, we expected to see some large crowds. Springdale delivered. My first thought was that this town could survive purely on parking fees from visiting tourists. Everywhere I looked, I saw paid parking kiosks. My second thought was that this town wouldn’t exist without tourists. It reminded me a little of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, but not to the same extent. There were restaurants and gift shops everywhere.

We entered the park, showed our Annual Pass, and started our unforgettable journey. The road from one entrance to the other is only eleven miles, but it is the most incredible eleven miles of highway that one can imagine. In the first two miles, the road switches back on itself six times to gain about twelve hundred feet of elevation. During this time, you are presented with awe-inspiring views and the largest natural arch bridge I’ve ever seen. Also, the valley side of the road has extreme drop-offs that conjure terrifying thoughts of what would happen if one drove off the edge. After the last switchback, the road enters a tunnel that is not tall or wide enough for large trucks or trailers to pass. As a result, these vehicles must pay extra and Park Rangers have to block traffic in the opposite direction while they pass. Once out of the tunnel, the road continues to weave amongst amazing white cliffs. If you’re lucky, you may see a Bighorn Sheep standing on a cliff.

Once out of the park, we all sighed with wonder and amazement. The drive home, however, was not completely without surprises. At one point, we came to a section of highway with a “Road Damage” sign. We wondered what that meant until we came around a turn and noticed the road ahead had rising, falling, and twisting sections, similar to a roller coaster. It was quite the little thrill driving over it.

Finally, we made it back to the condo. What a fantastic day.

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Utah Vacation-Cold Front Arrives

Today the big cold front was expected to arrive. Last week, a typhoon in the Pacific caused a change in the jet stream that caused it to pull cold air from Canada down into the states. The forecast called for a dramatic drop in temperatures. Our plan was to do things that are normally too hot to do while the temperatures are cool.

Susan was still recuperating from Cedar Breaks and wanted to stay home, so Andrew and I headed out on our own. Our first stop was near a place called Hidden Lake. We drove along a dirt and sand road until we reached a steep, climbing turn with deep ruts caused by erosion. I slowed to determine the best path, but I slowed too much. The Mazda started to lose traction and we started sliding backward. I hit the brakes and stopped the slide, then slowly backed back down the hill. I ended up parking in a small pull out. It was on foot from here on out.

We could see a place labeled Hidden Lake on the map; now we just had to find it. Maps can be very helpful when it comes to finding places. I’m pretty sure that is why they were invented in the first place. Maps work very well in places like Florida - not so much in places like Utah. From the map, we could tell the direction to the lake, but from where we were standing, we weren’t sure which way to go. We were half way out of the valley. Should we continue up, or go back down? Google Maps provides a terrain layer, which could have come in very handy, had we had Internet access at the time. Given the name, I assumed that the lake was hidden, up on the plateau, so up we went.

We walked up the hill that had just defeated our SUV. We continued along until we reached the summit, then continued along until the map showed the lake off to our right. We found what we agreed might be interpreted as a trail and started following it. In reality, I think we were in a cow pasture. I just hoped that there wasn’t a territorial bull in the pasture with us.

We followed the path into a dry wash, then followed that downhill. If there was a lake up there, surely this wash would lead to it. As we walked, the wash got steeper and eventually ended with a steep drop. We were standing at the top of a dry, 30 foot tall waterfall. While we admired the rocks and the view, I heard voices coming from below. Then I saw four ATVs drive away. So, there was clearly a road to here, and we just spent the last 20 minutes hiking through a desert cow pasture. Well, maybe the road was only for ATVs.

Working my way down the dry waterfall

We climbed down the waterfall and walked over to where the ATVs were parked. In the parking lot, there it was – a sign for Hidden Lake. We found it! We followed a very short path to what appeared to be a largish, arched cave entrance. When I say “largish” I mean it was maybe 20 feet wide and 10 feet tall. In Utah terms, the entrance was actually small, when compared to other entrances. Anyways, we walked inside into complete darkness, so it seemed. I removed my sunglasses, but still couldn’t see anything, except for a few rocks on the cave floor. Where was the lake? Andrew turned on his phone light, but it didn’t reveal anything. Clearly there was light in the cave, but our eyes were not adjusted yet. It was then that Andrew realized that there was water just beyond the rocks on the cave floor!

Andrew standing at the entrance to the Hidden Lake

After our eyes adjusted, we could finally see the walls of the cave meeting the water line. The lake extended into the cave as far as we could see. Andrew used his Google Night Sight camera feature to capture a few shots.

The Hidden Lake, taken with Google Night Sight

After getting our pictures, we returned to the car. Before we left, a group of women showed up. We wondered how they got there. We could see from their footprints that they walked up the road that the ATVs had came on. So, we did too. We followed the road for about 10 minutes. The road was like any other dirt road. It was easily passable and did not require an ATV. Turns out it lead us right back to where we parked. If I had turned right and followed the low road, we would have went straight to the lake. Oh well, then we would have missed the pasture, dry wash, and waterfall.

Next up on Andrew’s list was the Kanab Creek Dam. We found a dirt road upstream of the dam and followed it to a trailhead. We crossed an ATV-only bridge over Kanab Creek and followed the trail for about a half mile. We then came to a split in the trail and followed the low road. We could see the lake in the distance and followed the trail to it. There was a small dam at the end, but no water was getting past it. We climbed over the dam and followed the downstream channel for a short distance until it dropped away sharply. We found another dry waterfall. This time, there was water at the base of the falls. How was it getting there? Andrew needed an answer. We followed the channel back to the dam, then back to the split in the trail. We continued on the other trail for a while, but could not find any path for the water to get from the lake to below the dry waterfall. We decided to leave the mystery unsolved. We returned to the car and returned to the condo for lunch.

The dam on Kanab Creek and the channel below

After lunch, Susan felt rejuvenated, so we decided to go see the Toadstools. The Toadstools entrance is less than an hour East of Kanab, right off the main highway - no long drive along a dirt and sand road through the desert to get to this one. At the trailhead, we followed the path along a dry wash into a valley. Eventually, we left the dry wash and started climbing up to the hoodoos and toadstools. The hillsides were either dark red or glaring white. We noticed that most of the toadstools had a dark rock on top. Where did the dark rock come from? We didn’t bother to find out. I’ll leave that as a task for the reader.

A toadstool hoodoo at the Toadstools

After walking past many hoodoos and toadstools, we reached the white cliff walls. The cliffs were cut from numerous waterfalls and abrasion from the wind. The wind today was periodically gusting strongly. In some cases, I was too scared to walk along the high, narrow path while the wind was gusting. I didn’t like the idea of tumbling to the bottom and having to limp all the way back up to the top. We stayed and explored for over an hour before heading back down the trail to the car.

All week, we’ve talked about capturing a time lapse of the sun setting on the big K over Kanab. While cooking dinner tonight, we set up my camera on the tripod with the auto shutter set to shoot an image every two seconds. We let this run until after sunset, then edited the images together to make a time lapse video.

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Utah Vacation-Cedar Breaks

Today, the sky was a little different that usual. The sunrise had more color and the color spanned a greater width of the sky. At the time, I didn’t give it much thought.

The plan for the day was to drive up to Cedar Breaks National Monument. Cedar Breaks is known for its hoodoos, fins, windows, and colorful layers of rock. We ate and were on our way before 10:00 AM. The drive was less than two hours and climbed from about 5000 feet in Kanab all to way up to over 10,000 feet at the park. On the way, we noticed that the clarity of the scenery was not as sharp as it had been on our previous drives. We also noticed that there were a lot of RV’ers on the road, presumably heading home after the long Labor Day weekend.

We arrived at Cedar Breaks after 11:00. We noted that it was only 71 degrees, which was a pretty big drop from what we were feeling up to this point. We checked in at the payment booth and were able to use our receipt from Lake Mead and upgrade to a full annual National Park pass. No more park fees for a year. We walked along the path for a little way and came to an information center. We talked to a Park Ranger and she told us that the haze was due to all the wild fires burning in California. Later, Andrew found a sky view app that clearly showed the smoke moving East from California into Utah. This explained the colorful sunrise, but it also dampened my enthusiasm for seeing the sights in their best light.

We explored the area and walked over to the Point Supreme Overlook. I was amazed at the view. It’s mind boggling trying to imagine what this place must have once looked like and what forces were in action to create the current scene. That said, I still wished that the sky was clear and that we could see all the details in the distance.

The view from the Point Supreme Overlook

Next, we followed the Ramparts Trail to Spectra Point and Ramparts Overlook. The trail rose and fell for a total elevation change of 400 feet over two miles. The views along the way were amazing, but just not as nice as I knew they would be on a clear day. The hike back up was pretty tough on Andrew and Susan and we stopped many times to take a break. Eventually, we made it back to the top and headed for the car to grab lunch.

The view from Spectra Point

We grabbed our cooler and food from the car and walked to the picnic tables near the Visitor Center. We shared a table with a man who once lived in Tukwila, Washington. He worked for Boeing back in the heyday when the 747 was first developed.

After lunch, we drove along the park highway and stopped at all the overlooks. As the day proceeded, the winds started picking up and by the time we reached the last overlook, I felt like I was going to be blown over as I walked to the viewpoint. Luckily, the wind was blowing away from the drop off.

At this point, we had seen everything and were too tired to tackle the Rattlesnake Creek Trail, so we headed for home. We decided to go back the long way. We first drove North to the town of Brian Head. It has a ski area and there were lots of people there taking their mountain bikes up the lift and riding back down. We also passed the trail head of the Twisted Forest hike that some reviewers described as the best in the world and others say to add it to your bucket list. Given the amount of haze, the crazy wind, and the attraction of the best hike in the world, I plan to go back on a clear, sunny day.

Back in Kanab, Susan wanted to get some groceries, so we stopped at Honey’s Market. While Susan shopped, Andrew and I walked a few blocks to Big Al’s Burgers. The place was pretty busy and we were told that it would be a 30 minute wait for food. I said that was fine, we just want shakes. We got our shakes and walked back to the grocery store to wait for Susan. Back at the condo, we noticed that the sun was red. There was no visible sunset tonight.

Red sun hours before sunset

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