2015 - Charleston's Trailer Tripping: Day 59

Scenic BIWAY 12

We traveled Utah State Route 12 from Torrey to Cannonville. It was a beautiful drive through rolling hills of white sandstone. We made one stop on this route to visit the Anasazi State Park Museum.

Looking back on the road we just traveled on.

Anasazi State Park Museum shows you what is left of an Anasazi Pueblo in A.D. 1160.

There was a food cart in the parking lot near this grassy field with picnic tables. It was run by a young couple with a baby. We shared a very good burrito. As we sat at the picnic table to eat it. This very friendly black lab kept bringing us small pine cones. He wanted us to toss it. We did and he would bring it back for some more tossing. Sometimes he would catch it in mid air. We think he might have belonged to the food cart couple or another group of people who had another dog. This lab never tired of catching the pine cones. But we finally tired of tossing it. It was a fun break on our drive to Cannonville.

CANNONVILLE

At one time Cannonville was called Gun Shot by it’s residents because the town was too small to qualify as a cannon. In 2013 it had a population of 162. Cannonville is one of several villages along State Route 12. We stayed here for four nights. We will be visiting BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK, CEDAR BREAKS NATIONAL MONUMENT and KODACHROME BASIN STATE PARK.

May 1 – 4^th: We stayed at the Cannonville KOA. This is a nice, comfortable RV park. We had nice views of surrounding sandstone formations. Our site was level and spacious and we had a good WiFi connection.

BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK

Bryce Canyon is not a true canyon, but a series of horseshoe shaped amphitheaters carved in the edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau by the Paria River. An Indian name for the area translates into “red rocks standing like men in a bowl-shaped canyon”. The park includes some of the most colorful rocks which have been sculpted by erosion into pillars called “hoodoos”.

Interesting story on how Bryce Canyon came to be.

h Ebenezer and Mary Bryce

Sunset Point – we did a very short hike on the Navajo Loop Trail.

Views from Sunset Point

That is the Queens Garden trail that connects to the Navajo Loop Trail. You can combine both to make a 2.9 mile loop.

We only had time for a very short hike on Navajo Loop.

The whole loop is 1.8 miles.

Hiking views

h Okay, this is where we turn back.

Me taking a break. It’s all uphill going back.

h Bryce Point – Elv 8300

Grottoes at Bryce Point

I call this formation “Dancing Turtles”. I see turtles standing up and dancing together. Use your imagination. h

h Inspiration Point- Elv 8100

h Pronghorn

h Ponderosa Point- Elv 8904

Swamp Canyon - Elv 7998 - Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel

CEDAR BREAKS NATIONAL MONUMENT

Cedar Breaks is a 5-mile wide natural limestone amphitheater eroded to a depth of nearly 2,500 feet. Settles mistook the junipers at the base of the rock layers for cedars, thus the name. Unfortunately, as we climbed the mountain to Cedar Breaks it started raining which soon turned into sleet. Snow covered the ground when we reached the monument entrance and found the gate “closed for the season”. We did find a viewpoint before the entrance and got some pictures.

We decided to continue driving forward to Cedar City and find a place to have lunch.

h You drive through two rock tunnels. This is the second one.

hThis is looking back to the first tunnel.

h This is looking back trying to get both tunnels.

But the curve to the first one prevents you seeing it.

We stayed her long enough to eat lunch.

KODACHROME BASIN STATE PARK

This 2,240-acre park contains colorful, unusual rock formations that change colors (depending on the time of day and weather conditions) from gray and white to various shades of red. Before it was a state park, National Geographic named the area Kodachrome Flats after the name of Kodak’s color film when they took pictures of the area for the September 1949 issue of their magazine.