Friday, April 4, 2014, Cedar Breaks National Monument, Cedar City, UT

It was too nice to sit inside and too cold to hike, which left as our only option, a drive. Whenever hiking is not in the plan, Sam gets to ride along. Sam is always excited when he gets to go for a ride. From our site in Kanarraville, UT, Cedar Breaks National Monument was a scenic 40 miles away and seemed like a good destination.

A really nice highway takes you high into the mountains. As we steadily climbed, the snow banks became deeper and the temperature dropped. Four miles from Cedar Breaks the gates were locked. On the other side of the gates, the roads were not plowed. There were at least 2 feet of snow covering the road. Obviously, the dusting we got upon arriving on Wednesday was a bit more significant up here.  

The GPS said our altitude was more than 9,800 feet. I knew it was an uphill climb, but I was still surprised at that figure. Later I found that the National Monument is well over 10,000 feet. Hopefully, they will plow the road soon or the snow will melt, so we can visit on another day.

I think Sam has only seen snow once before and it was packed and frozen allowing him to walk on it without even leaving footprints. He jumped up on the snowdrift and was completely freaked out when the snow didn't support him and he found himself up to his ears in the cold, wet, white stuff. He was not about to repeat that for the camera and, in fact, he stayed well clear of the snow altogether.

All along the roadside, there were frozen waterfalls and icicles requiring frequent stops for pictures. There was a small stream following along the road that I saw twice disappear into the ground only to emerge later around a corner or on the other side of the road. These appeared to be natural caves - I saw no signs of engineering the stream's path. Maybe we can investigate further on a warmer day.