We left Escalante and the wind and dust behind and drove to Kodachrome Basin State Park in Utah. This was the only stop on our southern Utah trip where we had a reservation and paid to camp!
Kodachrome Basin lives up to its name -- its wonderful scenery
practically cries out to be photographed. Named for the classic Kodak
color slide film by the National Geographic Society after an expedition
there in 1948, the park is chock-full of tall stone chimneys and
pink-and-white sandstone cliffs, all set among the contrasting greens of
sagebrush and piñon and juniper trees.
Our first hike was to Chimney Rock
Then we did the Shakespeare Arch/Sentinel Trail although the Arch collapsed in April 2019. The trail was just a 1.6 mile loop trail but gave us a chance to see the basin.
Even without the arch this hike was nice.
Another day we set out early for a 7.3 mile hike on the Cool Cave, Mammoth Spire, and Panorama Point Loop.
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| Ballerina Spire |
A favorite part of this trail was Cool Cave. It's hard to tell the depth of the cave from photos but it was "cool."
Since we were so close, we made a visit to Bryce Canyon National Park on our "down" day. We purposely didn't wear our hiking boots so we didn't get tempted to hike. Bryce is just so beautiful!
Our last top on our way back to Prescott Valley, AZ, was for a couple of nights on BLM land north of Jacob Lake. We found a nice and quiet site to relax among the trees.
Our southern Utah trip yielded me five new Junior Ranger badges: Canyonlands, Dead Horse Point, Capital Reef, Arches, and Kodachrome.
Here were our stops on our Southern Utah trip visiting 4 of the "Big 5" parks and a couple of State Parks (we didn't visit Zion on this trip). We did this route in a counter clockwise direction starting and ending in Prescott Valley, AZ.
We enjoyed our month in southern Utah visiting some awesome national and state parks. Next up was some water skiing.
Spectacular! You guys definitely find explorations that you love. Thanks for sharing!
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ReplyDeleteThis was a good place to just disconnect from the world. There is no cell or WIFI service. It gave us time to do more hikes and read some books.
ReplyDeleteSee those arches do collapse … please be careful!!!
ReplyDeleteHat Shop looked like a huge termite mound … yikes.
Oh wow, the photos from the cave are cool!
And of course, I had to download the picture of Bryce Canyon … just stunning!
You are moving right along in your progression to becoming a true Junior Ranger!
With this visit, I think I am now back with you!
Thanks for letting me ride along!