Cedar City environs

Our final days camping near Cedar City brought us lots of variety, from hiking historic roads to putting the boats in the water to an unexpected jaunt in fabulous Zion National Park (no, not the one in which hordes of humanity swarm).

Our campground is above town at a pleasant elevation, weather wise, in Cedar Canyon.  Coal Creek flows - actually more like rushes downward pell-mell due to its steep descent - through the narrow winding gorge.  Not a particularly attractive stream, its floods have created a rock-jumbled bed, now moderated some by check dams.

Interestingly, the municipality of Cedar City has installed a paved trail system throughout town that actually reaches up into Cedar Canyon, paralleling the 1852 roadway that connected the high country above to the flatlands.  It has been designated a "historic" road and allows public access through private property.

We walked a portion of the old road, but wee doggy, it was steep!  I guess it had to be because of the terrain; however, that doesn't mean I had to continue overlong on that route.  It gave us some cardio exercise, anyway, and I can say that I've walked part of the lower trail and part of its upper end, so there's that.  I do think it's pretty cool that the historic route has been preserved.

There must be a story here . . . there were several trees decorated with scores of shoe pairs.  One assumes that those with velcro closures cannot participate.

A tragedy and mystery solved . . .

As often happens, we were on our way to a destination, but found a reason to sidetrack, in this case, it was to discover what was up with a nearby "Graham monument". 

A marker partially related the tragic tale of Captain Maurice Graham, an accomplished World War I pilot who was downed by a 1930 winter storm while on a mail delivery route.  Despite being unable to land at Cedar City, he incredibly landed successfully on a mountaintop in the blinding snow at night, but later succumbed to weather-related conditions miles from there, still carrying an important mail pouch.  Graham's disappearance was a national news item; his plane and his body were only found much later.  There are many online articles about his feat, the tragedy of his loss and the mystery surrounding his disappearance.  This link is to one of them: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=74002.

There was an actual destination . . .

. . . and we actually did arrive at it: Kolob Reservoir, at which we proved to ourselves that it wasn't all that difficult to get the boats off the truck, into the water, and back onto the truck.  I didn't take the camera onto the water with me, so had to settle for a photo after we returned.

The lake is lovely; we had it nearly to ourselves.  Fishing was fine, catching not as much, but we did hook one very fine rainbow trout, and had a sublime time despite breezes that made it challenging to remain where one wanted to remain.

Zion . . .

We've been there and done that, and determined not to return.  Yes, it's amazing, but so are the multitudes of people - far too crowded for my taste; however, there are less popular sections of that huge attraction, and we had a wonderful sampling on this trip.

Traveling the back way from the lake to Cedar City wound us through part of the Kolob section of Zion, where we stopped for a couple of photo shoots, but the real treat was when we entered the Kolob Canyon area of the national park.

A mere five-mile in-and-out drive, but the scenery was spectacular, and the bonus was a mile-long hike to an overlook, again with few other sightseers.  

A few samples:

 

 

As we savored the rugged distant vistas at the overlook and appreciated the wind whistling through overhead tree branches, I thought it was the perfect time for a selfie.  As I clicked on my phone, it died an instant death due to battery needing a charge, so we decided to use the camera for individual proof that we had been there.  Thirty seconds later, we heard voices; Chris said, "Someone's coming (duh!) . . .", and the approaching fellow responded, . . . "to take your picture", so he did.

 

Pretty bizarre . . . 

. . . that we were the only ones at a fuel station that advertised 3 cents cheaper gas than the one across the street!  The clerk said they had been slammed all morning and it was just a fluke that no one else was there.

 

Who would think you would add a California gull to the bird list at a fuel station in the middle of Utah, but there it is.

  

 Others added to the bird list are: ring-necked duck, mallard, Canada goose and two osprey soaring above us at Kolob Lake.

It's on wheels and it has a hitch and it's in an RV park, but I have my doubts . . .