ZION-CEDAR BREAKS

We started our little hiatus in Las Vegas. After meeting at the airport we spent 20 minutes trying to find our rental car, which I had parked on the 2^nd floor of the garage. We were then told by a nice young man that there were two 2^nd floors in the garage . They say that "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas", including buildings with two 2^nd floors I guess. Whatever! We then went to dinner, checked in at the motel, and called it a night.
On Saturday we started out with breakfast and Craig decided to entertain the guests by sharing his new breakfast concoction, wafflettas. They were a great hit. We set out, with our first goal the Kolob Canyon area of Zion National Park. This is a rarely visited area, is a long way from the main part of the Park, and not all that well known. There is a five mile road that snakes its way up the canyon, two large parking areas for hikers (both were full), and a picnic/rest area at the end of the road. The scenery is superb but I suspect that we’ll see much more of the same in a few days, when we visit the main area. Decided not to send thirty pictures of red cliffs until next week.
 I am putting in a picture of two gentlemen who never completely grew up, and still carry on the way they did in our travels decades ago.

We had planned to take the scenic road through Cedar Breaks National Monument, but it will not be snow plowed until the middle of June, so that called for plan B. We approached the Park from the north, past Brian Head ski area, to an observation point that looks out on a part of the Park. WOW. I’ll have to let these next two pictures speak for themselves. This is the top end of a miles long canyon of hoodoos and all sorts of colorful things. The white stuff you see laying around is you know what. I have no idea of how many feet of snow are still on the Park road.

We thought that we would interrupt the pictures of this sublime area with something that would warm the hearts of Ethel, Heidi, and Tracey. It shows their guys freezing at 10,500 feet altitude at the end of the month of May.

Moving right along, there was a particular hoodoo down in the canyon that really caught my eye. I zoomed in on it and the final result has become one of my favorite pictures. This is a treasure.

Finally I'll leave Cedar Breaks with this picture. It was zoomed a bit and the colors are just superb. There is still a bit of snow on the tops of some of the formations, which adds to the overall scene.

On Sunday we'll be heading over to the Red Canyon and to Bryce Canyon. More, much more of the same.