Today was a rest day with no planned "gotta get there" in the schedule. We are camped at the Country Aire RV Park at the north end of Cedar City, so we checked out what we could do in the area. A visit to Cedar Breaks National Monument seemed to be in order, since we had never been up that way.
Utah's SR14 leaves town and follows the course of Cedar Creek for a ways. A flashing sign explained that the road was open but would be closed tomorrow morning. The dry hills with their growth of juniper bush-trees grew into near-mountains, and there were several outcrops of the limestone and red Permian sandstone.
About 8 miles in we found the reason for the closure. Last October 8 a landslide estimated to be between 2 and 3 million cubic yards of rock and dirt occurred during the night and covered the road over a stretch of a mile or so and blocked it entirely. The road was opened to controlled traffic last month, but will not be repaired for several more months. This area has experienced slide like this several times in the past. This is a commonly used road from Cedar City over to highway 89 and the Zion and Bryce Canyon areas.
On the weekends they open the road to traffic, so we made it by the slide and continued up toward the top. The temperature dropped from the 90s into the 70s as the elevation increased. We and the dogs enjoyed the change.
We could see the red and orange slash of the breaks as we climbed, but it was not all that spectacular -- just a large cliff of colorful bare rock in the distance.
We reached the plateau at the top and drove across some beautiful meadows. I missed the turn onto SR148, but did a quick U-turn and continued across the meadows. On the surrounding hills the number of beetle-killed pines was awesome. It looked like 80% of the trees were dead. Some trees had fallen, but most were still standing, waiting to become torches in some future wild-fire.
We pulled in at the visitor center and checked out our Golden Age cards (still good for free admittance). Alice found the bookstore and bought a tee-shirt.
We walked out the trail to the view point and saw the spectacular landscape from the top. It was not so wild as Bryce or Zion, but it was still beautiful and well worth the drive.
After checking the other viewpoints and taking some flower pictures, we continued over to Brian Head, a winter sports community with lots of condominiums. With no snow during the summer, they are today into ATVs.
From there we headed down SR143 to Parowan. That was an exciting 15 miles of 13% grade. There was a sign that "trailers are not advised," and I wondered how a trailer could get to the top in the first place. I kept busy watching the road so did not see much of the scenery.
Once we were back into Parowan, I found I-15 and headed back to our rig. I did not try to match the 80mph speed limit as suggested by the signs.
So, it was a fun trip and we saw some great scenery. The dogs like the trip and handled the change in elevation well. So did I.
sam
That is very good and I have heard that it can get about to 15 feet if snow during the winter months.
Posted by: Lifestyle & Accessory Design Course | September 10, 2012 at 01:50 AM