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Bryce Canyon, Red Canyon, Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Kolob Canyons - In Snow
Thought I throw down a quick writeup of a trip my wife and I took last weekend (March 4-6, 2011). My wife is 6.5 months pregnant and so we wanted to get a trip in before our little bundle of dependency arrived. We weren't planning on anything too specific but had some thoughts in mind.
We left at noon on Friday and after stopping at One Man Band diner (always good) in Nephi, continued on to Bryce Canyon. I had wanted to hit Bryce because I knew it had snowed at least 15 inches the week prior and I have always wanted to see it in the snow. We arrived in plenty of time but after dinner I made it a little late for any good sunset photos. It at least gave me a good scout for sunrise. I (solo) Made it to Sunset Point (much better than Sunrise Point IMO) for the sun cresting the horizon and then proceeded to spend 2 hours at different spots with the most time at Inspiration Point.
After breakfast, a nap and a lazy late checkout, my wife and I headed out and as we drove by decided to stop at Red Canyon. We stopped at the visitors center which was closed and unplowed which keeps the people away. There are a few smaller to medium hikes that start from there and we did the Pink Ledges trail which is only about 1 mile. We didn't see anyone.
We then headed down through Mt. Carmel to Coral Pink Sand Dunes. We were contemplating Toroweap and prior to not getting a permit, The Wave but settled on CPSD since we could then take the road on into AZ and over by St. George. Coral Pink was ok but definitely more geared towards ATVs and photographers. We hiked around the dunes and snow for a while before heading out. The road was fine and we made it over to Colorado City and up to Hurricane by 5:30pm. At dinner we decided to head up to Cedar City to stay the night because the next day we were thinking of going over to Great Basin National Park.
Due to the weather rolling in and the amount of miles needed to get over to Great Basin, we decided to head down to Kolob Canyons and do some light hiking and photography (me). We stayed about 2 hours, hiked the mile long hike at the top of the drive and took off for SLC. On the way back up, we took the road through Eureka and the backside of Utah Lake. I'm amazed at how many houses are over by Eagle Mountain, etc.
We came back a day early but I'm glad we didn't have to drive through the weather and got to enjoy some amazing powder on Monday at Snowbird.
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