Kodachrome Basin State Park

We moved the trailer Monday (March 13th) from Panguitch to Kodachrome State Park (about an hour away) so the cats could work off some energy. We dry camped in the canyon bottom and it was smoking hot during the afternoon (as a matter of fact, too hot for the fuzzy kitties) and cold when the sun went behind the canyon walls. With DST, it doesn't get dark until 8 pm, so we had the cats out after dinner for a  long walk in the coolness of the evening.  John and I had our shorts on (John with his shirt off) and we were drinking wine spritzers this afternoon!  It felt like summer!  March 13th!!

Before we left Panguitch, we stopped to see the memorial to the 7 fellows who did a "quilt walk" in order to survive in 1864.  They were Mormon settlers who were faced with the ferocity of the elements in an immense blizzard.  The snow was too deep to trudge through. They all had quilts with them, and they survived by laying down their quilts, walking to the end of them, and then tossing them another quilt-length and walking across them, until they got to somewhere that they could walk without aid of the quilts.  These men became known as "The Quilt Walkers".

Tawny, underneath a Utah Juniper tree

We got to Kodachrome, got set up and BBQ'd salmon and foil pack vegs on our Hibachi, and if we had firewood, we would have had a campfire.   It really felt like a summer camping day. What a difference 1,000 ft elevation makes!  There was frost on the ground in Panguitch this morning!  We really enjoyed our walks with the kitties through the formations at Kodachrome.

Sam, following a dry creek bed

We took our bikes out for a ride along one one of the hiking trails. It was great to be out on our bikes!  That lasted long enough for my tire to blow...  So that was the third time this trip that our plans were dashed. We believe all things happen in threes, so that's it!! The last abort! We limped my bike back to our camping spot, patched the tire and discovered that the tires are really shot... so I guess we'll shop for bike tires at the next town we come to that has more than 350 people.  That will be a while!!

Tuesday morning (March 14th)  we had the cats out before it got too hot, and they had another nice long walk then hung out in the shade of the Utah Junipers (which are really trees in these parts!) beside our campsite.  John and I ate our breakfast outside!  Another first of our trip!  Pretty awesome! It's spring in Utah.

John, with both kitties at Kodachrome State Park

Blue Mountains, along Hwy 12

We moved the trailer from Kodachrome State Park to Escalante, UT (again, about an hour away) so we can explore the Capital Reef National Park and surrounding area.  The drive between was still part of the Hwy 12 Scenic Byway, and we saw the "Blue Mountains" between Henrieville and Escalante.

It's really warm in Escalante.  We got the trailer set up and the cats out (again!) and had to turn on the air conditioner in the trailer.  Kinda weird as we had the furnace on in the trailer this morning in the State Park. It was 9 deg C in the trailer when we awoke (which is a bit cool for me) and then we had the A/C on about 6 hrs later.  Tawny was appreciative...