Little Sahara Recreation Area | Utah

This area is set aside for people who take four wheelers into the desert for fun and to climb sand  hills.  I decided it would be a good place for a quick stop over to decide where to go next.

Strangely enough the dunes have ripples in them caused by wind very similar to the ripples in the sand bottom of  the ocean caused by what wave action.

This has been a nice little stop over and the scenery is quite striking.  There are three different campgrounds and Oasis seems to be the best of them.

Kolob Canyons | Zion National Park | Utah

 

The other day I took a ride to Kolob Canyons, which is the northwest part of Zion National Park, and not accessible from the other part of Zion Park.  This is a short drive of about 6 miles through some rugged terrain.  Unfortunately, I picked a day where the clouds moved in, so I didn't get much good lighting for the photos.  Hope you enjoy the ones that did get some light!

 

 

 

Just when I think I've seen all the wildflowers in one area, I find another one.  These were great!

 

 

This last one shows how gigantic some of these rock mountains are.  This was a smaller one, but it still dwarfs my truck.

Camping near Yankee Meadows Campground | Dixie National Forest | Parowan, Utah

 

We were on the way to the Yankee Meadows Campground in the Dixie National Forest off Route 143 in Utah, just outside of Parowan. The road was steep with lots of twists and turns, as well as amazing bright red rock formations on each side of the road. The road turns to a dirt road for a short way. Along that part of the road, about a mile before reaching the actual campground, there are two camping areas that have designated camping on each side of the road. 

The camping areas had large sites that provided enough space from your neighbor so you didn't feel crowded. There are no facilities in these camping areas, so there is no fee. We did check out Yankee Meadows Campground and found that they had a restroom, water spigots in a few places, picnic tables and steel fire rings. For these features, you'd be paying a small fee.

My traveling friend and I decided we liked free better, so we chose one of the camping areas we had first checked out. The roads in were fine and the scenery is terrific, with a little stream at the far side of the campground, complete with a little bridge so you can walk over the stream to explore the area.

Down the road past the actual Yankee Meadow Campground there is a beautiful lake with a mountain view - snow still on the peaks in June.

I was able to catch a shot of a deer at dusk way over in a grove of aspens.

More scenery in the surrounding area.....

 

 



Cedar Breaks National Monument | Utah

Cedar Breaks is a small national monument near Cedar City, Utah. It's up over 10,000' and on the drive up, we went on a winding, steep road that led us to areas that still had piles of snow on the ground (this is June!).


I'm not sure why this sign is parallel to the road.....

If you look closely at the photo below, you can see snow in the crevasses.

There was a furry little critter running around. We later talked to a ranger and she told us it's a marmot and they just started coming out from hibernation. She said they look a little skinny, but we thought they looked chubby.

More photos of the scenery....

 

Photos of the drive back to the camp from the monument. These were taken through the windshield.
 

 

I put together a short video of Cedar Breaks at - https://youtu.be/wBSEqd5YShw

Zion National Park | Utah

 

Zion National Park is a canyon with the Virgin River at the bottom and lined with these red rock formations.  In order to get full light on them, it has to be at least 10 AM, and by the time 2 PM comes along, you'll start to get shadows on the other side. 

 

 

  

 

To imagine the size of some of these rock mountains, check out about halfway down the face of this next one, you'll see a line of green trees.  They are actually tall pine trees, so it will give you a reference on size.

 

This is a little house wren, according to the ranger who was there when I got this shot.

 

On another day, I took a hike to The Narrows.  The Narrows is where the canyon becomes less wide and in order to continue the hike (which could last a couple days, round trip), you need to walk in the river.  I elected not to do this, for multiple reasons, such as really cold water, wet hiking boots and time constraints.   

 

 

The squirrels are not afraid of humans at all, they possibly think we're just large animals, such as the deer seen in the park. 

 

 

 

The trail has ferns and delicate wildflowers growing and reminded me of a rain forest.