Kodachrome Basin State Park in Utah and Wrap Up our Southern Utah Trip

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. 

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.

Grand Staircase Escalante National Park - Escalante, Utah

With pies in the fridge from Capital Reef, we headed on to Escalante, Utah.  Along the way we encountered some steep roads.

 

 

We found our way to Hole in the Rock Road just east of Escalante and looked for our next boondocking site. 

We got set up in a site despite the wind and blowing dust!

 

 

We sure had some nice scenery from our site! 

 

 

 

 

The one really nice activity we did while in the area was a hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls.  It was hard to believe such a beautiful waterfall could be found in this area.  Some friends told us to be sure to arrive early to the trailhead to get parking and we were glad we did!  (Thanks Jeff!)  This is a very popular hike in the area!  It was an easy 6 miles round trip with no elevation gain.

I didn't take any photos on the way to the waterfall so I started to get some photos of the trail on our way back.

We didn't get to do much more while in the area but we did eat some yummy sandwiches at a restaurant in the very small town of Esclalante.  

Unfortunately the weather was mostly windy during our stay in the area.  The blowing dirt got into every crevice of our trailer and truck!  We're still cleaning out the dirt!  We were happy when it was time to head to our next destination, Kodachrome State Park.