Tag: Southern Utah

Bryce Canyon and other Adventures

While checking out Southern Utah for a winter get-a-way, Hubby, Mikey, Nia, and I did some exploring. One day, we drove to Bryce Canyon.

On the way, we had some beautiful views of snowy bluffs, freezing waterfalls, and snow.

snowy cliffs
freezing waterfalls
snow alongside the road

After the snowy drive, we came to Red Canyon. It’s on Highway 12 in Utah’s Dixie National Forest. It was a pretty drive with varying colors of red on the rocks and various types of rocks. It has hiking trails but we didn’t get off the road as we were focused on getting to Bryce Canyon. Here are some of the pretty sights of Red Canyon.

tunnel entering Red Canyon
The rock colors went from white to pink to red
The different textures of the rocks fascinated me.

At Bryce Canyon, we came in the north entrance and drove to the 1st/last? overlook. We were disappointed to see that dogs were only allowed on the upper concrete/asphalt walkways. We took photos and walked the dogs out to the point and back.

Viewpoint at the end

We drove to another viewpoint where you could actually walk down through the spires, but dogs weren’t allowed. We left them in the vehicle and walked along the edge, eyeballing the trail down into the canyon. I was willing to give it a try, but hubby wasn’t excited about the climb back out.

View at the top of the trail.

I decided to go partway down to get better photos. It only lasted three of the hairpin turns. I went around the third one looking in the distance at the spires and not watching where I placed my feet and the next thing I know, my right foot is sliding down the path on pebbles, making me do the splits, while my left foot is planted, and finally gives into the weight pulling on it and I skinned my left shin and bent the nail of my big toe backward.

View around one corner of the trail.

I pulled my extremities back together and slowly rose, brushing the dust off. I looked up and hubby waved at me. A quick look around, showed no one else had seen my splits. Making my way back up the trail, my toe throbbed, and my legs were wobbly. At the top, I asked if Hubby had seen me go down. He said, “No, only me standing there, brushing dirt off.”

As far as I got before doing the splits.

After Bryce Canyon we headed back a different way and came across a large field with Bison.

We also found a place that had a trail we could take the dogs when we were closer to Hurricane.

It was a fun trip, and we’re looking forward to going back next winter.

Hurricane Utah

Hubby and I as well as Nia and Mikey, our dogs, are in Hurricane, Utah for the week. It was Hubby’s idea to see if we liked the area during the winter to get away from cold and snow in Oregon. So far, in Oregon we haven’t had hardly any snow but the temperatures have been cold. We learned from people who live here you don’t say it hurricane, you say her-kin.

We were looking for an Airbnb around St. George where one of his friends lives. After looking for a dog friendly place and one that didn’t cost too much we settled on a house in what we thought was the outskirts of Hurricane. When we used the pinpoint you get when you first pick a house it looked like the house was on the edge of town near a cliff. We found out it was on the corner of a street at an interstection to a major highway and a well used street. The first night the traffic kept me from sleeping very well. Luckily, the traffic died down the next few nights.

OHV Sand Hollow

Our first day here, we drove around checking the area out. We saw signs to Sand Hollow State Park. But when we arrived and saw how much it cost to get in, we turned around and went up to an OHV area where there were about 20 Jeeps lined up and they people were having a meeting. We visited with a man there with an ATV and he said he’d been coming to those sand dunes since he was 12. He looked to be in his seventies. We walked out about the the dunes a little ways and then loaded back up into the car. We drove to St. George, bought some groceries, and returned to put the groceries away, then went out driving around looking for more places to explore.

Our second day we drove to Zion Park. First we drove up through the tunnel which was interesting. We couldn’t figure out why we saw what looked like a tunnel entrance in the side of a cliff with nothing leading up to it. After going through the tunnel, we realized it was a “window” in the tunnel to “light” the tunnel. After going through the tunnel we saw a small herd of Mountain goats. half a dozen people were parked or standing by the road taking photos of them.

Window to the tunnel.

It is the off-season so we didn’t have to take a shuttle and could drive our own vehicle up the Zion Canyon. The views were breathtaking but we were disappointed that all buy one trail didn’t allow dogs. Which meant we couldn’t get out and explore with the dogs.

Stream and cliff at Temple of Sinawava.
cliff in Zion Canyon

We saw deer on the drive as well as wild turkeys and of course the mountain goats.

The next day we spent the morning looking for Three Falls in the Hurricane area. We found the trailhead and had a short nice hike up Gould’s Wash, but we never did find the falls. When we followed the trail we discovered leveled tiers in the side of the hill where they had built an asphalt road and were putting in houses. So either we didn’t find the right trail or they covered the trail that led to the falls.

Entering the wash.

What looked like caves in the wash.
Walking through the wash.

End of the wash

That is one thing I don’t like down here. You see hundreds of houses that look a like in clusters all over in the valleys. They are building on farm ground. How are they going to feed all of these people moving in if they cover up the good farm ground with houses?

After that hike we came back to the house and walked to a historical museum down the street but even though the sign said open the doors were locked. so we wandered down to the Bonrue Bakery and had lunch then around the block and back to the house. We sat in the sun in the backyard watching the dogs until it was time to head to St. George to hang out with Hubby’s friend and his wife. They took us up Snow Canyon, then to check out Kayante, a community of houses that are four feet below ground level and keep the natural landscape. It was interesting but the houses felt claustrophobic to me. After that we had dinner in their community restaurant. The food was delicious.

Snow Canyon outside of St. George, Utah.

Today we are headed up to se Bryce Canyons. I’ll have photos of that in the next travel installment. So far this has been a fun mini vacation and we will definitely be back next winter.