Here we were on our final day of the 6 day trip. The plan was to head out from Escalante and gradually make our way back to Cedar City. Before leaving the town, we drove around a bit. Escalante was homesteaded in 1875, and the oldest houses in town were from that era. They were built with a very distinctive red brick that the residents made from a local clay. What a cute town with a lot of original architecture. In fact, one of the ladles on the trip traced her ancestry back to the first people who settled the town. As we drove around, she pointed out houses where her relatives used to or still live.
On the outskirts of town is the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, not to be confused with the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The state park is a cute place on a lake with a visitor’s center, picnic tables and hiking trails. The main hiking trail is a somewhat steep affair that accesses the high mesa ancient flood plain where most of the petrified wood is located. This wood is mainly composed of agate in colors of red, black, white and a mustard color.
Of course, I was really interested in hiking the trail to the petrified wood. As soon as we arrived, I set out with fellow traveler Richard to do just that. We could see some of the other people following far behind, but it turned out that they all turned back because of the steepness of the trail. Here is the lake.
Further out of town is a pictograph named the “Circle of Friends”. How appropriate for our group! Its location is somewhat hidden and the trail had some steep parts, but the effort to get there was well worth it.
From there we drove west past Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument before arriving home in Cedar City. I was so surprised to see how many of the aspen trees at the higher elevations had already turned yellow and orange. A few days ago, I drove back up there to photograph the glowing fall colors. Here are some photos.
No comments:
Post a Comment