Following
advice from our landlady we set of and visited Kodachrome Basin State
Park and then the Devil's Garden.
Now much to my surprise I was up to see the sunrise!
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| Sunrise over the Grand Staircase |
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| Early morning rays catching a canyon wall in Bryce Canyon |
Kodachrome
Basin State Park was named such as the result of a National
Geographic Society expedition to Utah in the 1949s which on reaching
the location which was then known as Tulley's Pasture exclaimed that
with the color and contrast in evidence it should be called
Kodachrome Flats. After various to and froing with Kodak on the name
they agreed to let Utah call the park by its current name. There are
nearly 70 monolithic spires ranging from 6ft to 170ft in the park.
The park is located in the Colorado Plateau and displays rock formed
by the presence of inland seas 180 to 95 million years ago.
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| View from the road to the park |
While
in the park we hiked the Grand Parade Trail and visited Chimney Rock
and hiked out to Shakespeare's Arch.
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| Shakespeare's Arch |
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| Chimney Rock |
Devil's
Garden was described to us by our landlady as an “Adult's
Playground” similar to Bryce Canyon, but where you can climb on the
rocks. The only problem with getting to it is that it's 12 miles down
a gravel road, Hole in the Rock Road, with quite a few deep gullies
to maneuver through where the recent heavy rains on Utah have washed
away the road. One in particular almost made us turn back until I saw
a Ford Mustang negotiate it in the other direction so I though if he
can do it so can I! It was well worth the effort and there are some
amazing rock structures there and you can clamber over them to your
heart's content. An interesting aside is that if you follow Hole in
the Rock Road for its full 56 miles you arrive at Glen Canyon NP
which is off course closed, so about 8 miles down the road we were
stopped by a Park Ranger wanting to know where we were going! As we
replied Devil's Garden we were allowed to continue!
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| Hole in the Rock Road |
The
drive to Devil's Garden, before the gravel road was along Hwy 12, which
is a designated US Scenic Highway and it is stunning. We'll get to
drive more of it on Friday when we move onto Torrey, UT.
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| One of the many views from Hwy 12 |
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