Canyons and Hoodoos and Snow!

After seeing the snow on whatever mountain that was in the Dixie National Forest, I was excited.  I've wanted to see Bryce Canyon with snow on the hoodoos, but I thought it would always be too late when we came through.  Now, I'm thinking it may not be too late after all!  We gathered all of our stuff and left Kanab, heading to Bryce Canyon.  

Before you get to Bryce from this direction, you have to go through Red Canyon, which is part of the Dixie National Forest.  (Who wuda figured?)  They say the best part of Red Canyon is along the road, so we didn't bother turning in to see other parts.  It looks a lot like a small Bryce, but it's really pretty, especially with a little dusting of snow on the hoodoos!

There are two arches carved out.  These are not natural.  They were carved for the road to go through instead of blasting off all of the rock.

It wasn't long before we made it to Bryce Canyon.  There wasn't snow everywhere, but enough to have lovely pictures.

This guy was just hanging out sunning himself.  I tried to get him to look at me without scaring him, but he was just ignoring everybody.  Of course, there were very few people that even noticed him.

From this viewpoint, there is a top to bottom view of the Grand Staircase.  Because it's top to bottom instead of bottom to top, the parts aren't very well defined, like they are from the Arizona side of the monument, that looks bottom to top.

This is where they had not melted snow for the tourists.  There's a lot left for Mother Nature to melt!

Natural Bridge arch

Found this heart-shaped formation in the middle of the trees

Bryce Canyon City down in the valley

After the park, we had lunch in town at the Cowboy's Buffet, then headed up Utah State Route 12, also called Scenic Byway 12.  This is a designated All-American Scenic Byway, and oh, is it magnificent! As we were making our way up toward Torrey, I was starting to get disappointed.  I could have sworn the magnificent parts started right around Escalante, but there really wasn't anything extraordinary.  But it started later.  I was hoping there would be snow on Razorback Ridge, but there wasn't.  It was still an amazing stretch of road!

I didn't get a good shot of the dropoff on both sides of Razorback Ridge, but both sides look like this.

After we left the canyon part of SR 12 and were on Boulder Mountain (one of the highest mountains in the Dixie National Forest), we came across these two little deer.  They weren't afraid of us, so I got a few good pictures of each of them.

Turns out, the Dixie National Forest is HUGE!  We came in and out of it several times before we got to Salt Lake City.  So, I had to look it up.  The forest is about two million acres, taking up about 170 miles throughout southern Utah!  Color me impressed!  I now understand why we kept running into the Dixie National Forest!  It's everywhere!

Our initial plan was to do Capitol Reef National Park this afternoon, but we spent so much time on all the rest of this, that we just didn't have time.  So, we decided to do Capitol Reef tomorrow and then take a day of rest before heading on up to Washington.

Zion Was a Little Disappointing, But The Dixie National Forest!!

I was excited to check out Zion National Park this morning.  I have heard such wonderful things about it.  I set the GPS to the Visitor Center, and off we went.  Our GPS is set to the fastest way.  Bruce is beginning to think I'm doing this on purpose!  At least this dirt road had recently been graded!

The veiws on the way were outstanding!

When we got there, we learned that the Scenic Drive could only be accessed by shuttle.  No regular vehicles were allowed except by special permit, granted only for specific reasons (such as being an artist in residence or having certain other permits, like Angel's Landing).  I'm getting better, but I'm not in good enough shape to do either of the hikes I would want to do in Zion (The Narrows and Angel's Landing), and Bruce is in worse shape than me now.  We would have liked to see the park where I could take pictures through open windows or get out at the pullouts and scenic views along the way.  But, that's not how the Scenic Drive works in Zion.  You must take a shuttle, and even as early as we got there, the windows were dirty and had terrible reflections from the sunroof windows.  I did the best I could, but some of those reflections and imperfections couldn't be removed.  The shuttle stops weren't even at good viewpoints, only at trailheads.

We finally got back to the Visitor Center and got back in our car.  We did the museum and then exited the park through the Mt. Carmel road (the way I thought we were going to come in to begin with).  This part of the park was much better.  Limited turn outs, but at least I could take pictures through lowered windows where there was good view and no turnout.  The scenery was breathtaking.  I never got a good view in the Scenic Drive.  I also had boring skies and the sun was not always my friend.

There was a park ranger stopping traffic before the tunnel.  We thought it was a one-way tunnel, but when we got there, it was two ways.  There was no park ranger on the other end.  I'm not sure why traffic was stopped on our side.

These natural formations looked like little buildings.

There was a pullout and sign for Checkerboard Mesa.  I didn't think it was one of the better formations, but apparently somebody did.

When we left Zion, we headed toward the Parowan Gap Petroglyphs.  To get there, we had to drive through part of the Dixie National Forest by Duck Creek Village.  I didn't know anything about Dixie National Forest or Duck Creek Village.  There are apparently several peaks above 10,000 feet in the forest.  In this section, we crested at just under that.  It was a beautiful drive!

I loved this sign at one of the pullouts!

We did, indeed, enjoy that view!

It had been a while since I had trudged through a snowy slush!

We stopped for lunch in Cedar City.  I took this picture, but didn't see the sign that said there was a restaurant in there, too.  Boomer's Bloomers and Candy Factory would have been right up our alley, but I didn't see the sign for the restaurant until doing these pictures!  Instead, we ate at the Sizzler.  It was good, but we definitely missed out not eating at Boomer's Bloomers!

The petroglyphs are actually a pull out with no visitor center or any person for assistance.  There is very good signage, though, that you can read if you go.  These petroglyps are some of the better preserved ones that I've seen anywhere except those that have been excavated from their sites and preserved indoors.

The signage explains what the experts think the drawings mean.  Keep in mind that this is just their thoughts.  They could be wrong, but there does appear to be consensus.

If you're in the area, I would highly recommend a drive through the forest and out to see the petroglyphs.  If it's summer, there may be a faster route to Parowan.  We saw a sign, but weren't willing to risk driving on unplowed, snow covered roads.  To get back to Kanab, we had to backtrack over the forest.  I put all the Dixie National Forest pictures together, though some of them were taken on the way back through.  I did like this shot between Cedar City and Parowan.

Back in Kanab, we had balogna sandwiches and hit the sack.  Tomorrow's another big day!