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| Mesquite |
| Prickly Pear |
| Desert Sunflower |
| Bryce Canyon, etc. After the boat tour, we headed west then turned north on the Cottonwood Canyon Road. This is a fantastic graded dirt road that heads straight up through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. I'd been on it once before, back in the fall of 2000, and enjoyed it even more this 2nd time. There are so many interesting rock formations along the road, including many that look like slices of cake and bits of toffee and other types of candy. One area I refer to as Candyland is so amazing, it's definitely one of the coolest places I've ever seen! We stopped at Kodachrome Basin just as night was falling and set up our tent for a 2-night stay. On Sunday we headed into Bryce Canyon National Park. Due to rock and mud slides many of the trails were closed, but we hiked on the Queen's Garden Trail and drove to all the viewpoints. I let Mindi drive my truck a bit, she's still learning to drive a stick, but she's getting better! At the Bryce Viewpoint we were treated to some magnificent views as the sun sank lower in the sky and created many shadows behind the hoodoos. After Bryce we headed back to Kodachrome Basin and hiked on the Panorama Trail, a 3-mile loop that passes some fantastic hoodoos. It was a pleasant trail to do that afternoon and we had it completely to ourselves. |
| On Monday we packed up our stuff and had the entire day to make the drive back to Vegas and to make sure Mindi got to the airport by 8:30 pm or so. So we took the scenic route over Hwy 14 which climbs to over 10,000 feet and passes by Cedar Breaks National Monument. We drove into the little-visited part of Zion, the Kolob Canyons, and ate a tail-gate lunch there at a fantastic viewpoint of the very red canyons. We then got back on I-15 and drove through the beautiful Virgin River Canyon and then took Hwy 169 east to Lake Mead. There the highway turns to follow the lake and this turned out to be a fantastic side trip! The desert was blooming, we found at least 8 different kinds of flowers including brilliant magenta prickly pear which was definitely the highlight. The afternoon light gave the hills and canyons mysterious shadows and the drive was just magnificent. We stopped at Hoover Dam and joined the tourons walking across the dam. Then it was back towards Vegas. We stopped in Boulder City and had a fantastic dinner at a Mexican Restaurant called Toto's. Man, they had great food! Then it was into the city at nightfall where I dropped Mindi off then headed on to Barstow for the night. On Tuesday morning I woke up and headed the rest of the way home. So, despite a few incidences of bad luck, we had a fantastic time. Click here for a panoramic shot of the Kolob Canyons! |
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| There are a lot of strange hoodoos in Kodachrome Basin! |
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| Desert Mallow |
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