Oh my gosh, it’s been so long since I actually sat down and wrote a blog! There’s really no excuse, but a lot of things have been slipping my mind lately, like a few weeks ago when I accidentally erased all of the pictures from my trip to Napa County! Well, there must have been something in the air, because my good friend, Kyle, just did the same thing, only his slip was much more serious: he deleted his interview with his ailing grandpa back in Salt Lake City! Yikes! So, an adventure was born!
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We ended up taking MEGABUS to Las Vegas, a generally comfortable approach, until we got stuck in traffic for two hours outside of Baker because a mobile home had exploded all over the freeway! By the time we got there, there was not enough time before midnight to make it all the way to Salt Lake City, so we stayed over in St. George, called Utah’s “Dixie” for its cotton-growing climate, which Mormon President, Brigham Young, felt would be important at the onset of the Civil War!
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Being a very persuasive beaver (you have to be when you’re only 6 inches tall!) I convinced Kyle to make a detour on the way home. After all, his grandpa probably wouldn’t be up and at ’em until the afternoon. There was surely time to visit Cedar Breaks National Monument! So, we ended up winding our way into the gorgeous mountains east of Cedar City, a terrifying drive, but not as you might think! My fear didn’t come from the winding road but the state of the forest; there were so many dead trees, murdered by bark beetles! They are sweeping across the western United States, devouring whole forests in their path, and this one is no exception!
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There wasn’t much time to fret, because before we knew it, we were there: out to Point Supreme to watch the marmots bask in the morning sun. That was where we caught our first glimpse of the breathtaking amphitheater below! Made from colored limestone, the amphitheater came from the bottom of a lake called Lake Claron, which dried up at the tail end of the Cretaceous and was subjected to uplift from the Hurricane Fault and erosion from wind, water, and freezing!
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With little time to lose (a recurring pattern on my adventures) we trekked the one mile to Spectra Point, positioned on a white rock “conductor’s platform” overlooking the “orchestra” below! From here, the view was simply stunning with light accents of bluebells and Indian paintbrush, coupled with wonderfully fresh air to make the sensory feast complete!
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At the end of the Spectra Point Trail, there stood an ancient bristlecone pine, at least as old as any had ever been in Cedar Breaks! This one is estimated to be 1,700 years old, while bristlecones have been known to live over 5,000 years! I guess that makes this one a youngster! The key to bristlecone longevity? They can kill off whole sections of their bodies to save the fresher ones! That way, they can live through incredible weather fluctuations! I really want to check out some more when I visit Great Basin National Park, which will hopefully be soon!
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On the way back, we stopped off at one of the last ranger stations left from the early development of the monument. It was originally linked to the Cedar Breaks Lodge, beloved by the locals but not very easy to finance! When it was torn down in 1972, there were so many protests that the National Park Service decided it would be best not to repeat this mistake in the other parks! For that reason, you can still enjoy park lodging in a number of other national parks!
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Kyle had to pull me from a bluebell frolic, because the day was wearing on. We blazed out of there and up I-15. I waved to Woodchuck as we passed Beaver, but I’ll have to see him another time. The long drive got us into Salt Lake City around 4:00 PM, and Kyle managed to successfully re-record his interview! That was good, because his grandpa is a great fellow with lots of important stories to preserve! We stayed for a spell with his family before heading back the next morning, a long drive back to Las Vegas, then back to Megabus for even more traffic!
Never again do I hope to make a road trip from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City in one weekend, but for the sights seen and mistakes corrected, this one was worth it!
Taking a break!