Continued from the previous page.
The lighter sandstone crowning some of the red
cliffs through Long Canyon is called Diadem:
The Visit Utah
website notes that these canyons are
so spectacular auto manufacturers often film their commercials here.
I can see why!
Rabbitbrush and red Indian
paintbrush
FANTASY WORLD
About 17 miles from Boulder there is an overlook
that just took my breath away as much for the beautiful burgundy,
purple, and gray colors of the rocks in the gulch right below us
as for the grand tableau stretching for many miles in front of us:
We were awestruck, mesmerized by the fantasy of rock
colors and the grandeur of the entire scene in our field of vision. We admired the
labyrinthine canyons with a couple from Germany who, like us, was seeing
all this for the first
time and a man from Colorado who's been on this road several times.
I can see why he keeps coming back. You can't
possibly see everything from this road the first time.
We dropped lower into the next canyon and I got these
photos of the unbelievable rock colors as we drove out and back on this
section of the road:
SINGING CANYON
On the way back through Long Canyon we saw some cars parked at the
entrance to a short slot canyon.
We didn't even know
about the slot before our day drive and we missed it going outbound because
there is no sign or obvious path to the entrance. It is at a wide spot
in the road near this ground-level striped alcove:
We went in just as half a dozen other folks were about to leave. A
narrow path drops down to this wide, shady opening:
It was cool, literally and figuratively. We could go back only about 200
yards until it closed off.
That's the shortest slot canyon we've found, but interesting and just
a few yards off the road.
FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT GSENM
What a fantastic day trip! We're sure glad someone told us about the
Burr Trail so we "paid it forward" by letting other folks know about it
while we were in the area.
Although we didn't find a particular place within the national monument
where we wanted to return this
fall, we definitely want to explore more of this area in the future and
visit Capitol Reef National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
(See the 2016 journal for photos from Capitol Reef.)
Now let's go
west from our campground at Red Canyon and see what's in that
direction.
Next entry: photos from scenic UT 14 up and over
the Markagunt Plateau to Cedar City
Happy trails,
Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil,
Cody the ultra Lab, and Casey-pup
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© 2015 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil