From Canyon to Meadow to Basin

On the morning of Thursday, June 6th, we got up early and headed into Bryce Canyon National Park to the Sunset Point trailhead to beat both the crowds and heat. We only beat one of those two as we could hardly find a spot to park. Once we did find a parking spot, we hit the trails and did the Peek-a-boo and Navajo loop trails through the numerous colorful hoodoos that make up Bryce Canyon. We trekked up and down through the canyon and got both our steps and stairs in the for the day before we began the climb out. If you didn’t know, Bryce Canyon is at a fairly high altitude, over 9000 feet, which makes the sun intense and breathing difficult. This lovely fact made the climb back to the rim quite the undertaking beneath the intensifying sun. A few miles and numerous short stops later, we reached the top and got back to our van quite coated in fine dust from the trail. It was time to start work again, so we made our way to the visitor center in hopes of finding a quiet corner with passwordless wifi. We arrived to find masses of tourists, foreign and domestic, crowding every corner. Needless to say, this was not the place to work, so we got back in the van and drove a little ways down the road to a lodge where we got coffee then found a corner to mooch wifi for the afternoon. I got several hours of solid work in, and Faith got quality beading time in. Once done for the day, we drove down the main park road and stopped at several pull offs and the final stop, Rainbow Point, to see the spectacular views of Bryce Canyon and the whole Grand Staircase. Once we had had our fill, we drove out of the park towards Cedar Breaks National Monument. I had seen on the map that we were headed past a lake, so we were both hoping to get a nice swim in to wash off some of the dust we had collected from the day’s activities. We drove through some beautiful mountain areas and soon found ourselves on the shores of Panguitch Lake. We were so excited to swim that we dipped our toes into the lake in spite of signs warning of possible algal blooms, the muddy shore, and dirty water. However, we quickly came to our senses and extricated ourselves from the water with both dismay and disgust: there was to be no evening swim. Instead, we made some dinner then started poking around the beach. What should have not been surprising in hindsight but was in the moment was the amount of fishing line we found along the shore. I have been to a lot of lakes and rivers in my life, but never have I seen so much discarded fishing line in a lake. We spent the next hour-ish making our way along a rather short portion of the shore and picking up every piece of line and garbage we could find. We found a discarded plastic bag and filled it most of the way up with what we found. While making our way back to the van, we came across, not one, not two, but six dead trout decaying along the shoreline. Yuck. We made sure to use Lysol wipes thoroughly on everything below our knees and got out of there. Shortly thereafter, we came across a lovely pull off a few minutes outside of Cedar Breaks National Monument and set up camp for the night at just a bit under 10,000 feet elevation.

The next morning, we opted to drive to the top of Brian Head Peak (No, not Brian‘s Head, just Brian Head) and have breakfast on top of a mountain. Our van is many things, but it is not prepared to drive through the several feet of snow that blocked our path part way up to the peak. Undeterred, we pulled out our hiking gear and made quick work of the last couple miles to the top at just over 11,300 feet. The view from the top was awesome and offered a sneak peek of the breaks just down the way. We made our way back down the mountain and split ways when I realized that I had a meeting in about three minutes. Oops! I knew I didn’t have service back at the van but did way up the mountain, so I sat down and took the meeting while Faith went back and beaded. Meeting over, we continued into the national monument, saw the sights, stopped at the visitor center, and kept going down the road. Cedar Breaks is a smaller, much less traveled, and higher altitude version of Bryce Canyon that scratches the itch for colorful canyons, forests, and alpine meadows all in one. It isn’t quite as grand as Bryce, but it is certainly worth a stop. We had more plans for the day, namely work and errands, so we made our way down out of the mountains into Cedar City, UT. Faith dropped me off at the local library to work while she did laundry, had an oil change, and got groceries. Apparently laundromats cost a bit more than college as instead of what I remember costing about $1.25 we spent $11 to wash and dry our clothes. This wasn’t the end of the expenses, though, as after our time at the library we got a shower at a Love’s for a whopping $17. For that much it should’ve included a free massage, complimentary gold-flake shampoo, and an embroidered towel. There was none of that, but at least we got to stay in the hot water as long as we wanted. We were feeling fresh and new after thoroughly cleaning several days of dust and sweat out of our pores as we headed towards our next destination: Great Basin National Park in Nevada.

Nevada is in the Great Basin, an area characterized by mountain ranges separating large valleys from each other called “basin and range” topography. This area extends beyond the borders of Nevada into southwestern Utah where we got our first tastes of it. Personally, I loved the areas we went through: ranges of heavily forested and alpine tundra-capped mountains rise from great wide basins filled with sagebrush, grasses, and the occasional farm. A few thousand feet make all the difference between marmots, streams, and breezes or pronghorn, dry lakebeds, and 60 mph gusts. We crossed several ranges and basins before coming to the hopping town of Baker, NV (population: 21) just outside the park. Night was approaching quickly, so we found a spit of BLM land and went to sleep with plans to summit Wheeler Peak, the highest peak in the park and the second highest in Nevada, the next day.

Animals Seen

• Pika
• Yellow-bellied Marmot
• Black Rosy-Finch
• Deer
• Three-toed Woodpecker
• Rainbow Trout (all dead)

Stats

• ~300 miles of driving
• 0 missed meetings
• 1 expensive shower