Sunday
morning (March 5th) we were a bit late getting up. It’s QUIET here at the KOA! No planes, no dirt bikes! We made breakfast,
a (picnic) lunch, and set up the slow cooler for pork roast dinner (wow! 3
meals made before we started our day!), then we were off on our first Utah
sight-seeing adventure. We drove one of the scenic byways from our new Utah
book and it took us firstly to Snow Canyon State Park, where the scenery
changed every 10 minutes. John said it
was so cool that the State Park included
lots of different things to see in such a small area.
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| We're parked under this snow-capped mtn; it's our daily view! |
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| Red and white sandstone; very cool stratagraphic striping. |
Interestingly, the name “Snow Canyon” came, not because the elevation is high enough for snow, but in fact, was named for prominent settlers (the “Snows”) that first came to settle the St. George area.
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| John with our first Joshua Tree of the day. |
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| The red and white sandstone that makes Snow Canyon special |
We did two hikes: the first one through some black lava
flows that led to 2 lava tubes, created when the inner hot lava flowed quickly thought
the cooling outer layers, leaving a hollow “tube” behind. We were able to hike
down inside a couple of the tubes, which are essentially caves now that the
tubes have collapsed over time.
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| John & I in font of a lava flow, leading to a tube. |
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| Notice the people bottom left and top of the hill... majestic!! |
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| John, hiking down into a Lava Tube |
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| Dawn, inside a lava tube cave |
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| We could get quite deep into some of the caves... should have our flashlights! |
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| One of the mouths of the lava tube caves |
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| "Are you about ready to come out of there??" |
The second hike was out to some petrified sand dunes. How cool is that? They look wind-blown but
they’re rock!
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| John, on one of the petrified sand dunes. |
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| Miles of petrified dunes. Easy to hike and gorgeous to look at. |
We aborted the third hike, which was out to a canyon. The wind
had picked up to near Lethbridge-gale force!
The sand was being blown about and creating such a dust cloud (and dirt
storm) that we stayed in the truck for the rest of the “scenic byway”. But the scenery was amazing! The topography changed every 10 minutes! We loved that the sandstone was both white
and red (that’s Canadian!) and the addition of the black lava rock made for
dramatic landscapes.
We continued our drive along the scenic byway… through “Gunlock’
which was named for the brother of a prominent Morman settler who was also a
valued negotiator with the Indian tribes. The brother was known as somewhat of
a gun freak who was “fastidious with his gun safety procedures”, hence “Gunlock”…
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| Gunlock reservoir |
We headed south to almost the Arizona border in order to
connect with the Joshua Tree National Landmark roadway. The paved highway had some really pretty sights,
but it wasn’t until we turned off on to the dirt/gravel highway that we really
got to experience the Mohave Desert at its finest… and the up close and
personal experiences with the Joshua Trees.
Neither John nor I had ever seen them before, and we were in awe… they
are so beautiful, and part of the Agave family (that’s related to tequila, so
what’s not to like??)
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| Joshua Tree with desert in background |
The road back to Hurricane/St. George was absolutely awe-inspiring. John commented on how different it was from what we had seen in Snow Canyon.
We were thrilled with our day... we don't think we could have seen such different scenery in one day anywhere else. What a great contrast.
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