July 4, 1994: A Day in Las Vegas
	July 2, 1994: Bryce Canyon National Park
	Return to the Index for Our Western Trip

We got up early the this morning, July 3, struck the tent and went over to the lodge to get cleaned up and have breakfast. We ate in the dining room again- a treat from just donuts or something out of the cooler. While we ate, we mapped out the day's hiking. We planned to do the Navajo Loop and the Queen's Garden trails, one moderate and one easy hike totalling about four miles (compared to yesterday's strenuous hike of eight miles plus).

Hiking in Bryce Canyon NP: The Navajo Loop Trail

We drove over to the parking area at Sunset Point where we'd been last night. The beginning of the Navajo Loop trail was just a hundred feet from the parking area near the canyon rim.

The diagram at right will show you the trail we will be following for our first hike this morning- the Navajo Loop trail. You can go either way around the loop, but we chose to go down through the Wall Street formations to the intersection with the Queen's Garden trail. Then, as it turned out, we completed the Navajo Loop trail by coming back up to the west of Thor's Hammer.

We got all our camera stuff together- including Fred's panoramic camera, made sure we had some water, and set off to the trailhead for the descent on the Navajo Loop trail.

In the picture at left, taken from the top of the trail, you can see the switchbacks on Navajo Loop trail leading down to the area known as "Wall Street". The train actually began with a paved ramp down to a point from which you can go either way around the loop; we chose to go directly down to Wall Street. As you can see, the trail is descending rapidly towards the canyon floor.

There were actually three sections of switchbacks as we descended the trail, and it was neat that between the first two there was a place where the trail went through a tunnel in the rock. The upper switchback set ends (or goes through) this tunnel, and then you are on the other side of a fin formation and the switchbacks continue downward to Wall Street. Here I am taking advantage of a bit of shade on the trail down.

Going down was not very strenuous, since you have gravity to do most of the work for you, but we'll have to balance the account when we come back up the other side of the loop. The colors of the rock were simply amazing (though I hadn't seen anything yet). It may look as if I have "pumped up" the color, but the photograph is unretouched.

Even up at Sunset Point, where the trail started, the colors were spectacular. You saw some of the pictures that we took from that overlook on yesterday's page. But this morning, the hoodoos and rocks were a deep orange or red- colors that look almost too magical to be real. Here are two amazing pictures we took on the switchbacks heading down; click on the little thumbnails to see the full-size picture:

This picture shows Fred and some of the continuing switchbacks along the middle portion of the Navajo loop trail at Bryce Canyon. After we came through the tunnel from the uphill side of the fin formation, the colors changed dramatically, perhaps because the morning sun is not shining directly on the rocks, but is being reflected down. Here you can see Fred, two switchbacks below me, and you can see the continuing trail that leads all the way into the dark area below. I didn't know what to expect when we got down there, but it certainly looked interesting from up here.

Here you can see some of the hikers on the lowest set of switchbacks and the entrance to Wall Street. The length of each switchback trail segment got less and less as we moved downward, as if we were being funneled into a small opening, which, of course, we were. Here, the dark shadows and the reflected light combine to set off the iron deposits in the sediments to make rock that was, in places, very red- kind of like lava. I don't think I have seen such colors before. They make the spectacular colors of the Grand Canyon look muted by contrast. At first, I thought Wall Street would refer to a formation of hoodoos that would look like the buildings of Wall Street, but now I can see that the reference is to the narrow street between two sheer walls of rock. From this angle, since you can't see the sky, it looks as if you are about to descend into the very bowels of the earth.

After taking the last couple of pictures, I caught up with Fred on the switchbacks and we continued down, going back and forth, until we came to a point where the vertical walls on either side of us were only about forty feet apart. I stopped just before entering the crevasse proper so I could take a picture looking further down the trail.

I had to adjust the lighting on the picture at the far left that I took of Wall Street here on the Navajo Loop trail. If I had not, the floor of the crevasse would not have been light enough to make out detail. This was just an amazing experience, walking through this slot canyon. At times, it seemed that the walls of the canyon were only ten feet wide, but that was an illusion since the walls were so high.

Walking through the crevasse was an amazing experience. We found, when we got to the end of the crevasse, a very, very tall Douglas fir growing all by itself. It was also a very large tree, but what made it odd were two things.

First, it was absolutely straight. It looked for all the world like an overgrown telephone pole that had been placed here. It was both regular and straight up. I guess that was because the only appreciable sunlight came from directly above it, and heliotropism might be enough to cause it to grow straight up to the light.

The other odd thing was that the tree had absolutely no branches and no leaves on 90% of its lower height. The only foliage was right at the very top, like a stalk of broccoli. I tried to get the whole tree in a picture, but couldn't get far enough away to do so, so I settled for this shot, which I took looking straight up at the tree and the sky. My guess would be that the tree is 200-300 feet high.

Years from now, taking panoramic pictures with a digital camera will be routine, but now, the only way to do it is to have a dedicated panoramic camera. Fortunately, they aren't expensive and Fred had his with him. So each of us took a panoramic picture of these trees. Since they are so tall, I have put them in the scrollable windows below; scroll down to the bottom of each picture to see one of us:

After going through Wall Street, the trail evens out somewhat and wound through the tall red rock formations. We found more of the trees that we'd seen coming through Wall Street, and they provided an interesting perspective.

We passed much beautiful scenery, including the view at left, which looks back up a different side canyon- not the one we came down. I just thought that the contrast of the green of the ponderosa pines, the dark red of the rocks that are in shadow, and the bright colors of the rocks in sunlight, all against the deep blue of the sky made a wonderful picture. We also found more tall, straight trees, and Fred did another vertical panorama, which you can look at using the scrollable window below:

Unlike our hike yesterday along the Fairyland Loop, this hike has so far been through narrow, shaded canyons at the base of huge rock pillars or fins, and so it is a much different experience. And then we came to a really, really neat formation:

A Natural Bridge on the Navajo Loop

(Picture at left) At the bottom of the trail, there is a short side trail that leads to this rock bridge across a small side canyon. Here you can see that there are some trees that have apparently lost their support, and have toppled over against one of the canyon walls. Some other tree trunks lie on the bottom of the small canyon.   (Picture at right) Here is the same picture, with only differences being that I am in it and that Fred took it with his camera using some different film. Notice how his film has brought out the red in the rocks. I have looked at the two pictures in detail and, from my memory, it seems that the actual coloring was less red than this, and more like the previous picture. It may be that Fred just set the exposure a bit higher and got a bit more sunlight- I'm not sure. In any event, the scenery, whether it was this red or not, was just as spectacular nonetheless.

A Natural Bridge on the Navajo Loop

As I said earlier, we have walked up a side canyon off the main Navajo Loop trail to see this natural bridge, and we took a couple more photos up here by the bridge among the red, red rocks.

At the far right is a fairly artistic shot that Fred took of me when I scrambled up beyond the natural bridge and Fred got his camera right under it.

At right is a really good picture of the natural rock bridge here in the side canyon off the Navajo Loop trail. I had decided to climb up close and look at the underside of the rock bridge, and I was impressed by how thin the actual rock was. Comparing it to me, you can see that it is only about two feet thick, which is not very thick for so heavy a piece of rock.

Secondly, you can see that the rock is actually in the shape of a "Y", as it forks in the middle and there are two separate supports pressing against the canyon wall to the right of the picture. Looking underneath the bridge, I could see some deep cracks in it, and I imagined that it would choose that particular time to give way and injure me severely, but it didn't.

I am again impressed when I look at this and other pictures, how the rocks seem to glow like coals in a fire, heated from the inside and glowing with that heat. It's almost as if Hollywood wanted to simulate a lava flow.

From where I was standing in Fred's "artistic" shot, I took a picture of him back down this side canyon. The rocks are at their reddest when the sun hits them; since there's no sunlight in the canyon, the rocks are not nearly so spectacular.

I went back down through the canyon to rejoin Fred, and together we walked down to the southernmost point on the Navajo Loop trail (you can refer to the trail map near the top of this page to see about where we are. Here, where the Navajo Loop and Queen's Garden trails intersect, we had a decision to make.

These two trails are kind of like a figure eight, with both of them using the same ascent trail to get back to the canyon rim. We could have continued ahead onto the Queen's Garden trail and returned to the Rim that way, but we wanted to both go to the west of Thor's Hammer to get pictures of it looking out across the valley, and we wanted to go back up the Navajo Loop through Wall Street for a different perspective.

The best solution was to continue on the Navajo Loop trail back up to the Rim, passing west of Thor's Hammer. Then we could go to Sunrise Point to the trailhead for the Queen's Garden trail and descend back into the Amphitheatre, eventually reaching this point again. Then, we continue back the way we have just come, returning to the Rim once more via Wall Street.

This plan would repeat only one section of trail- exactly the section we wanted to repeat, so we followed our plan and began to ascend the Navajo Loop trail back to the Rim. As we rose, there were good views of the Amphitheatre, but we already had quite a few of them. It wasn't until we reached Thor's Hammer and the final switchbacks to the Rim that we took some more pictures.

Thor's Hammer and the Sentinel As the trail goes up, the views of the formations change, and I decided to record this with a series of pictures as we ascended. Of course, it was also true that every time I took what I thought was a great picture, there was another one even greater waiting around the bend. From my memory, the colors in this shot are about as close to the actuals as I can imagine.

Thor's Hammer and the Paria Valley With the dramatic hammer formation right in the center, and the contrast of the red rocks of Bryce Canyon and the verdant green of the Paria River valley and Paunsaugunt plateau in the background, you see all the best of the scenery at Bryce Canyon (I am a bit jealous that Fred took it). I think that Bryce Canyon is quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever been.

From almost the top of the Navajo Loop trail's return switchbacks, two more vistas beckoned:

The Queen's Garden Trail from the Navajo Loop Trail From almost the top of the Navajo Loop trail, this is the trail that we would hike next. In the distance, across the Paria River valley, you can see the Paunsaugunt plateau and the Pink Cliffs. Of course, with the sunlight coming from the east, the cliffs are not lit up like they will be later in the day. Look carefully along the canyon floor, and you can see the unmistakable markings of a trail.

The Descent Portion of the Navajo Loop Trail I think it is dramatic how the trail disappears into the darkness of the lower portion of the Navajo loop. We went down on a trail that is out of the picture to the right, two or three fins away from the trail you can see here. This also gives you an idea of how steep the trail is, that we have come up so much from such a short distance away. The formations remind me of Parliament or Westminster Abbey.

A short distance further on brought us back to the canyon rim.

Hiking in Bryce Canyon NP: The Queen's Garden Trail

Since we were back up here near the car, I decided to go leave my shirt there as it was warming up rapidly, and also to drop off some exposed film. On the way to the car, I passed a little girl who was feeding this ground squirrel (quite against the admonitions of the park rangers, of course). I was able to get close enough (actually they seemed quite unafraid of people) to get this shot. Yesterday it was the deer that had come to the picnic area to get a handout, and now this squirrel. I understand why we shouldn't feed them, but try telling that to a little child who never gets the chance to get this close to any kind of wildlife (although I find a deer much more interesting that an squirrel).

We walked up to Sunrise Point to find the descent trailhead for the Queen's Garden trail. It descends into the Amphitheatre to the east, then zig-zags south to the intersection with the Navajo Loop trail. As I mentioned above, we'll be returning to the rim via Wall Street- to get a different perspective of that beautiful canyon.

Before we began our descent on the Queen's Garden trail, Fred got out his panoramic camera and took this panoramic shot of me looking out across the Amphitheatre; you can see Thor's Hammer behind me:

There were some switchbacks as we descended 320 feet into the Amphitheatre on the Queen's Garden trail, but they were not so steep as on the Navajo Loop. The trail was fun to walk, with excellent scenery, and we soon came to one of the unusual features on the trail-a tunnel.

(Picture at left) Fred, about to enter one of the many short tunnels on the Queen's Garden trail at Bryce Canyon. This last trail that we hiked was the easiest of them all, and indeed we passed many more people on this one than on many of the others. Supposedly, there are formations that look like Queen Victoria, but I didn't see any.     (Picture at right) Fred, on the other side of one of the tunnels on the Queen's Garden trail at Bryce Canyon. I thought that this trail was interesting because of the way it wound through the various small canyons, passing through the fin formations whenever necessary. The trail, as you can see, was well-kept and easy to hike. The only steep parts were the original descent and the ascent the same way or on one of the other trails.

There were actually two or three tunnels on this enjoyable, easy hike, and when we came through the last of them we were treated to an iconic view of Thor's Hammer:

Me on the Queen's Garden Trail Behind me are some of the hoodoo formations along this particular trail. As you can see, this portion of the trail is not very far below the canyon rim, making it more accessible for everyone. If you decide to take the connecting trail back to the Navajo loop, as we were going to do, then you go down a considerably greater distance, making the ascent at that end more difficult.

Thor's Hammer and The Sentinel Here is an excellent view of Thor's Hammer, this time looking from the Amphitheatre towards the Rim. Thor's Hammer is one of the most recognized formations at Bryce Canyon. You can see again in the morning light how the rocks look more reddish than they do late in the day, which is the opposite of what you might expect.

As I said earlier, when we got back to the intersection with the Navajo Loop trail, we found a few people (not all from the United States) trying to decide which way to go. They had arrived at that point from various routes, and were trying to decide how to continue. Since we had by this time gone along all three routes, we were much in demand as tour guides trying to tell people what was in store along each particular path. We had to tell people over and over again that what we found interesting they might not, so we just restricted our explanations to the facts about how steep the trails were, what we thought of the scenery, and so on. For ourselves, we had already decided to get back to the rim by going again through Wall Street- looking for a different perspective on that canyon.

A Side Canyon off Wall Street

(Picture at left) After playing tour guide, we decided ourselves to go back to the top through Wall Street. On the way to the base of that trail, where the tall tree was, we passed this side canyon. I had taken a picture of another canyon much like it earlier in the morning.     (Picture at right) This is what the Wall Street trail looks like just above the lone Douglas fir that you saw earlier. The first descent we made was in the lighted area at the back of the picture, and that is where we are headed now. It looks as if we are in an oven, with the rocks glowing with heat, but it is just the minerals in the sediments that makes them so red.

Wall Street

And now for the last two pictures we took in Bryce Canyon proper:

The view at left looks up from Wall Street to Sunset Point. The Point is way up where the trees are, so you can see how far down we came on the first part of our hike today. You can also see people on various levels of the switchbacks. It looked like one of those marble games where the marbles go back and forth along inclined rails to the bottom.

At left, I am standing near the top of the Navajo Loop trail at Bryce Canyon. We have climbed most of the way up the switchbacks now, and are approaching our starting point. Fred took this last picture of me with the hoodoo formations in the background.

We returned to the car, and decided that our next stop would be Mossy Cave and Water Canyon, these attractions being northeast of the Amphitheatre along the road to Tropic, Utah. They don't get nearly the visitation that the Amphitheatre area gets. Before heading out there, we returned to the same picnic area that we had been at the day before, and had our last meal in Bryce Canyon. Bryce Canyon is another of those places that you really can't do justice to in a single trip; there were many trails we would like to have taken, but there wasn't time. I suspect that we will return there at some time in the future, and hike some of those trails. (NOTE: As of 2015, we haven't done that yet, there have been so many other new places to visit!)

Mossy Cave in Water Canyon

After having our picnic lunch, we drove out of the main entrance to Bryce Canyon, and turned right on Utah 12, and went about five miles to the parking area for Mossy Cave and Water Canyon. Many years previously, the town of Tropic diverted part of the east fork of the Sevier River to irrigate the Paria Valley, as the Paria River itself was not enough. This aqueduct is known as the Tropic Ditch, and runs for about twenty miles. As it descends east of Bryce Canyon, it has created a small canyon of its own. We parked and took our cameras to hike up to the cave itself.

Above I have put a small map to show you where Mossy Cave is in relation to Bryce Canyon, and to the right of it I have put an aerial view of the portion of the Tropic Ditch that lies west of Highway 12. (It actually extends to the east boundary of the amphitheatre area, but that is a good ways out of the aerial view to the left.)

From the parking area, we hiked along the path that led along Tropic Ditch and then up the hillside from the watercourse to the cave. The little creek doesn't really have a name other than Tropic Ditch, because it is an artificial stream, created when irrigation water was brought to the Paria Valley from the East Fork of the Sevier River, some fifteen miles away to the northwest.

It took us about twenty minutes to walk to Mossy Cave (picture at left). Actually, it isn't much of a cave as it doesn't go back farther than you can see. It is really a large hollow in the rock wall. Water is seeping all over the face of the rock that you can see here, and, as a result, a thick carpet of moss has grown up. Most of the cave floor is just loose pebbles and small rocks. The footing was a little uneasy because of the wet, loose gravel.

At right is another view of Mossy Cave. In this one, I have scrambled up the hillside to get further into the "cave", and as a result, I am getting dripped and sprayed on. Here at Mossy Cave, the water just seeps out of the rock and flows down into Tropic Ditch. You can't see the seepage very well; it was a light spray. But you can see the dark green of the moss on the walls where the water seeps.

The cave was a bit of a disappointment; we had no idea what to expect and naturally thought we might even find a cave that we could go into. But the walk along the water was certainly pleasant enough, and shortly after we left the cave which was up on the hillside, we walked further west along the watercourse and then eventually back to the car. Along the way, we took some interesting pictures, and I have put many of them here in the album. To look at any of them, just click on the little thumbnail:

This is a picture of part of Water Canyon below Mossy Cave. At the entrance to Mossy Cave, we turned to look back towards the highway and the parking area. As you can see, the stream is not very large, but it flows quickly, and I imagine carries quite a bit of water into the valley. Notice the same reddish soil as in Bryce Canyon. Perhaps, over time, this area will develop the same formations. You can see the trail back to the highway if you look closely.

Here I am, sampling some of the water from a small tributary that runs from up in the hills down to Water Canyon. There were two or three of these very small streams feeding into Water Canyon that we encountered during our walk, and the water in this one was clear, cold and inviting. At least the taste I got was good. I guess you are always taking a chance that upstream there is some kind of pollution; out in this wilderness it is more likely to be a dead animal than anything else, but I suffered no ill-effects.

This is a small waterfall along Tropic Ditch in Water Canyon. As you hike upstream a bit, you come to this very pretty waterfall. This is where the trail goes to, and there were five or six people already at the falls. I tried to keep from getting any of them in the pictures that I took here. The water is slowly carving its own canyon, I suppose, but there is not enough of it to do much. I think that the water probably wore that depression in the rock dam; I hardly think that it was carved like that. So the water is having some effect.

This picture was taken upstream from the falls in Water Canyon. When we got to the falls, I went a bit upstream to see what Tropic Ditch looked like, and this is it. I think this is a very pretty picture. Actually, when you think about it, the watercourse does have the appearance of being artificially created, although I have no idea whether any digging was required on the downslope to get the water to the right place in the valley. Nevertheless, this is certainly an inviting shot.

Here I am at the falls in Water Canyon; Fred took this shot of me on the upper level of the falls. The water falls twice- first to the pool that you see here, and then from that pool in free fall down to the riverbed to continue its flow. Right at this point, the water is flowing rapidly and with some force, of course, and you can see that the rock has been eaten away by it. I guess that this represents about 75 to 100 years of erosion. It doesn't seem like much, but if the rate remained constant over many thousands of years, you could get quite a canyon here. Unfortunately, the water flow would have to increase, since as the canyon was dug deeper it would get wider and soon the water would not flow with enough force to carry away the debris left from erosion, nor would it have the force to erode rock.

Here I am overlooking the main part of the falls in Water Canyon. Notice that the water is cascading out a good ways. I wanted to go down to the base of the falls to see if I could get behind it, but Fred wanted to get another picture first. As I have said many times, Fred enjoys water features a great deal, and he thought Water Canyon was just great.

These are the falls in Water Canyon and some of the mountain scenery in the background. I have climbed down to the base of the falls while Fred has moved back along the trail to get a wider view of the falls and the areas surrounding them. Notice the lone formations at the top of the hills behind the falls. You can see me standing on a gravel bar below the falls. I did try to get behind the falls, but there was too much spray to let me get through it and stay reasonably dry. At this moment, I am looking for my lens cap, which I dropped in the gravel somewhere. I did find it, but it took a few minutes.

Here is Fred on one of the trail bridges over Water Canyon. I walked down the riverbed to the bridge, while Fred had been near it while taking the last shot. I asked him to go out on the bridge so I could get this neat picture. Then I climbed up out of the riverbed and back onto the trail.

The Falls in Water Canyon This shot had originally been spoiled by my finger in front of my lens; it angled across the picture at the upper left. I didn't have the ability to fix it then, but I do now.

The Watercourse in Water Canyon Meanwhile, Fred went to the other side of the bridge and got this close-up shot of the water flowing in the river. We both wondered how that tree trunk got into the river. (Either it grew here and fell, which was unlikely, or it was washed down from upstream, which would have meant a lot more water than we are seeing today.)

We hiked back to the car, had a drink, and then set off back along Utah 12 to US 89, where we headed south, heading for Interstate 15- the route to Las Vegas.

Cedar Breaks National Monument

To get to the Interstate, we had intended to take Utah 15 through Zion, a road we had traveled before, but when we stopped for some ice at US 89, our plans changed.

We happened to chat with the woman running the little store; when we asked for directions, she advised that we try Utah 14 instead, as it would go near Cedar Breaks National Monument. Since either road would do, we decided to take the one we hadn't driven before.

The drive along Utah 14 was extremely scenic, and when we reached Utah Highway 148, the turn off for Cedar Breaks National Monument, we decided to go on up and see what it was like.

The road up to the park climbed continuously, and when we got to the visitor center to pay the admission, we found that we were over 10,000 feet high, easily as high as the two of us have been on any trip.

Cedar Breaks National Monument is a natural amphitheater, stretching across 3 miles, with a depth of over 2,000 feet; the elevation of the rim of the amphitheater is over 10,000 feet above sea level. The eroded rock of the amphitheater is more eroded than, but otherwise similar to formations at Bryce Canyon National Park, Red Canyon in Dixie National Forest and select areas of Cedar Mountain. Because of its elevation, snow often makes parts of the park inaccessible to vehicles from October through May. The rim visitor center is open from June through October. Several hundred thousand people visit the monument annually. The monument area is the headwaters of Mammoth Creek, a tributary of the Sevier River.

From the Visitor Center, we took a short walk out to the Point Supreme Overlook, and the picture at left is the view from that overlook. Cedar Breaks has formations much like Bryce Canyon, but the ones at Bryce are more numerous and more spectacular. What sets Cedar Breaks apart is the altitude and the views from the park. Early Indians called the area "The Circle of Painted Cliffs." Many years later, early southern Utah settlers renamed the amphitheater "Cedar Breaks": "cedar" for the cedar, or juniper, trees that grew nearby, and "breaks," which is another word for "badlands." In 1933, Cedar Breaks National Monument was established, calling nationwide attention to the spectacular amphitheater.

There is nothing subtle about the great natural rock amphitheater of Cedar Breaks. It is a spectacle of gigantic dimensions full of extraordinary forms wrapped in bold and brilliant colors. Once you see it, you may agree with the observer who said, "If Cedar Breaks were anywhere but in this region, it would be picked as one of the world's greatest scenic wonders."

Here I am at the Point Supreme Overlook at Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah. The Cedar Breaks amphitheater is a product of many of the same forces that created the Southwest's other great landscapes, including the Grand Canyon, Zion Canyon, and the Bryce Canyon (which is another amphitheater like Cedar Breaks). It is, however, an original work of nature not quite like any other.

The amphitheater, located near the west end of the Colorado Plateau, covers the west side of the Markagunt Plateau, the same plateau that forms parts of Zion National Park. Uplift and erosion formed the canyon over millions of years, raising and then wearing away the shale, limestone, and sandstone that was deposited at the bottom of an ancient 70 by 250 mile lake, known as Lake Claron about 60 million years ago. It continues to erode at a pace of about 2 inches every 5 years. Atop the plateau, volcanic rock known as rhyolitic tuff covers much of the area, formed during cataclysmic eruptions around 28 million years ago.

From the Point Supreme Overlook, we drove up Highway 148 to the Chessman Ridge Overlook, where we found terrain more like what we had seen over in Bryce Canyon.

A View from Chessman Ridge

(Picture at left) Although the rocks look the same, the scenery here is much different than Bryce Canyon, since you have the heavily-wooded mountains as a backdrop, rather than the drop to the Paria River valley. Also, the formations are in a well-defined area, almost as if this is an artist's work in progress. Exhibited like statues inside this natural gallery are stone spires, columns, arches and canyons of intricate design and seemingly infinite variety.   (Picture at right) Atop the Markagunt Plateau is the high country of Cedar Breaks. It is a world every bit as rich in color and as delicate in form as the rock amphitheater below, yet it is a very different place. Here you can immerse yourself in the lushness of the scenery, breathe in the intoxicating fragrance of spruce-fir forests, and tread softly through subalpine meadows of grasses and seasonal wildflowers, of which we saw many.

A View from Chessman Ridge

In this sanctuary of clean, cool air, abundant rainfall, full sunlight, and fertile soil, nature exhibits its full irrepressible potential. In late June through mid-August, the fields are ablaze with wildflowers, such as bluebell, spring beauty, fleabane, beardtongue, larkspur, lupine, penstemon, columbine, Indian paintbrush and many others. In contrast to the flowers is the bristlecone pine. This native of the Cedar Breaks high country is the Methuselah of trees; we saw one at Spectra Point that is over 1600 years old. That the bristlecone pine lives at all is something of a miracle, since it grows only in spots where water is scarce, soil is thin, and winds blow unchecked. You really don't know what natural beauty is until you see places like Cedar Breaks.

As we drove back south on Highway 148, we stopped at the Sunset Point overlook and then, further south, took a short hike out to Spectra Point, where I got the picture at left.

The rocks of the eroded canyon contain iron and manganese in various combinations, providing brilliant colors that led Indians to call it "the Circle of Painted Cliffs". Iron oxides provide the reds, oranges and yellows, while manganese oxides provide shades of purple. The color of rock is soft and subtle compared to the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon.

The area is a form of badlands—canyons, spires, walls, and cliffs so steep and confusing that the lands, while of great aesthetic value, are of little utilitarian worth. Early settlers called them badlands or breaks and created its current name by combining breaks with cedar for the many juniper trees (often incorrectly called cedars) that grow in the area.

Cedar Breaks National Monument was established in 1933. A small lodge, designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood and built and operated by the Utah Parks Company once existed near the south end of the monument, but it was razed in 1972. The Cedar Breaks Lodge was the smallest of the park lodges in the Southwest. It was deemed "uneconomical to operate" by the Park Service, but protests associated with its demolition caused the Park Service to re-examine its policies concerning lodges in other parks, contributing to their preservation.

All told, we spent about three hours at Cedar Breaks; during our last short hike, Fred's foot (he has a bad bunion) began to bother him, so we stopped our walking, got in the car, and headed off for Cedar City and I-15.

When we reached there after driving down off the Colorado Plateau, we headed south on I-15 to St. George, Utah. In St. George, I found a new Baskin-Robbins store when we stopped for gas, and then we continued to Las Vegas. We arrived there about six o'clock, and checked into the La Quinta. (I would show you an aerial view of the La Quinta, but it is no longer there, the MGM Grand having expanded into the space for a new convention center around 2005.) We had thought it would be out in the sticks somewhere, but it turned out to be right across the street from the new MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, and right next to everything else.

We had a swim in the pool, and then went off to see the sights. It was too late for pictures, so we just wandered through the MGM Grand, and then had dinner at the Excalibur. We went by the Luxor to watch the evening laser display, and wandered through that hotel too. Right in the lobby they have a water ride that circles the inside, and it is just like something at Six Flags Over Texas.

We had had a long day, but saw many amazing things- Bryce Canyon, Mossy Cave and Cedar Breaks- all natural wonders. Tomorrow, before we head back to Phoenix, we'll see some other amazing sights- but these will be man-made.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	July 4, 1994: A Day in Las Vegas
	July 2, 1994: Bryce Canyon National Park
	Return to the Index for Our Western Trip