Day 5:
Saturday was a travel day from Pocatello, ID to Cedar City, UT, over 400 miles of driving. We didn't have any place in particular planned to stop at, so we just went until we needed to stop for gas, which put us in Ogden, UT, north of Salt Lake City. After a quick pit stop. we continued south on I-15, which had far more traffic than my mom was comfortable with, even though she wasn't the one driving! We looked up quilt shops in the area for her and that led us to Provo, home of Brigham Young University. We had some trouble finding a place to park at first because there was some kind of festival going on, maybe around the 4th, but we finally found a residential street with what looked like college housing. It was a 5-6 block walk to the quilt store, Harmony, and that was the first exposure we had to high temperatures so far - it was 97 degrees, but only 15% humidity, which is a far cry from what it feels like at home when it's 97 degrees and 95% humidity! I didn't actually think it was that bad - you know, "It's a dry heat." She didn't find anything she really liked at that store so we drove about 15 minutes south on route 89 to Springville, UT and found an amazing shop called the Corn Wagon Quilt Co. This store was 3 floors of fabric and other quilting essentials, so of course she found at least 3 different fabrics she liked. From there, it was a straight shot down I-15 to Cedar City and we got into the Cedar Breaks RV park around 6:30.
Day 6:
Happy 4th! Today we drove about half an hour to Cedar Breaks National Monument, near Brian Head, UT. When I first started planning this trip two years ago (canceled last year because of covid) my dad had recommended Cedar Breaks as an alternative to the often overcrowded Zion and Bryce Canyon parks. It was an excellent choice, as it was not crowded and can stand in as a smaller version of Bryce Canyon. Cedar Breaks is a natural amphitheater carved by erosion out of limestone, sandstone, and siltstone, with a little manganese thrown in to give some layers a purplish color. The array of oranges, whites, reds, and purples is stunning, as are the hoodoos, fins, and arches formed by the actions of water and frost wedging over time. The amphitheater is over 3 miles wide and 2000 feet deep and is at an elevation over 10,000 feet. Our first stop was at the Chessman Ridge overlook, which is roughly at the middle of the monument. From there we could see down into the amphitheater and observe all of the colorful rock formations, and as an added bonus, 2 American pika made an appearance out on the rocks. From there, we went to the picnic area to meet a park ranger intern for a wildflower walk - the Cedar Breaks Wildflower Festival is happening now, July 2-11. On this 45 minute walk on the Sunset Trail, we got to see a lovely collection of wildflowers, including elkweed, columbine, larkspur, Aspen bluebells, silvery lupine, little sunflowers, fireweed, scarlet paintbrush, and markagunt penstemon. After our walk concluded, we headed for the north view overlook for a short geology presentation, also by a ranger intern. On the way back south, we stopped again at Chessman Ridge so Margo and I could walk the alpine pond trail. It was 2 miles round-trip, but at 10,467 feet it was a little strenuous. Our last stop was the makeshift visitor's center (the regular one is under construction at the Point Supreme lookout) and the small gift shop, before heading back to Cedar City to do laundry, as we are now halfway through our trip. Tomorrow we will head further south to Kanab, UT to visit Best Friends Animal Sanctuary before continuing on to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.
No comments:
Post a Comment