May 26 – Cottonwood Road

While it takes me about 3 hours every night to create these blog entries, I am really glad that we take all these pictures and do the blog. With all the thing we seem to do every day, we feel like we are getting overwhelmed with memories and I don’t want to forget any of this.

Today was another clear deep blue sky day but it was hot. The high was in the 30s and most of the places we went had no shade.

We stopped at three main places on Cottonwood Road, which heads south from Cannonville into Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.

About 10 miles south and at the end of the pavement is Kodachrome Basin State Park.

We paid our $8 fee and decided to first do the 2.5 km Angel’s Palace Trail because the description said it was good for photographers.

While I wait for Jennie.

I had a visitor.

Another new flower that we have not seen anywhere else and that are everywhere here.

You first climb up a bit and then do a loop around a plateau.

We got up high enough to see the cliffs of Bryce Canyon off in the distance.

There was a side trail out to every narrow point.

There are standalone pillars everywhere.

The campground in the basin looked good but it would have been hot today. There was almost no wind.

These guys still startle us.

Heading back down.

Some people were out on one of the viewpoints.

Since there was no shade we decided to try and find a picnic area for lunch. We found one but the tables were not in the shade either. So we sat on the wooden edging of the picnic area in the shade of a small tree. Two other couples came and did the same thing. I forgot to take a picture.

Next we drove on a short bumpy road out to Chimney Rock, still in the state park.

It is a huge pillar standing by itself in the middle of a plain. One picture was enough.

There were some interesting cliffs behind it.

Next was a a short, 1 km each way, hike, also still in the park, to Shakespeare Arch and The Sentinel.

Another side trail.

Looking back to Chimney Rock.

A nice but not terribly impressive arch.

And around the corner from it was the Sentinel. I guess they need to give you some reason to do the hike.

We headed out of the park and continued on to the dirt section of the Cottonwood Road.

It was rough in places but had some interesting hills to go over.

And good views.

We stopped to check out Grosvenor Arch. You take a 1 mile side road to a parking area and then there is a short PAVED pathway to the arch.

We both think that this is the best arch we have been to. Others might have nicer settings but this one just seemed grander.

I think it is due to the height towering over you and the pillars up the sides. The deep blue sky doesn’t hurt either.

We continued a few more miles down the road to the Cottonwood Narrows Trail.

Down a very steep hill to the pullout parking area.

There a deep narrow canyon right beside the road. It took us a few tries to find the way down. This was a dead end. There was a drop of about 5 feet at the end.

We eventually found our way down.

The nice thing about this hike was that with the steep, tall sides we were in the shade almost all the time. Taking pictures was harder with all the shadows but we were much cooler. This is a very easy hike. It is almost flat and you are on firm sand most of the time.

I had read on a website that, from the entry, you go upstream a few hundred yards because that is the narrowest section. Then you turn around and can go about 1 mile downstream. We only went a kilometer before turning around.

A few rough spots.

 

We got to this spot and turned around to head back downstream.

Downstream was a bit wider but still awe inspiring as the walls were even taller.

One side crevasse had this house sized boulder that had fallen down. You can’t see it until you are right below it and it sure surprised us just perched there.

Jennie got her Zion Narrows Hike without the water.

By about 4:30 we turned around because we knew it would take us a while to get back home and we were starting to get hungry. We may have to start bring dinner as well as lunch.

A great view, just before we got back to Cannonville and Highway 12.