We arrived early evening and set up camp.
Emma, Vicki, and Greg came on over to our campsite and we hung out for the rest of the day.
The next day we drove out to see the canyon.
We stopped at a couple lookouts. It was a hot day, but clear and perfect for viewing the gorgeous canyon.
A one lookout involved a short walk and another a short hike. We got back to camp in the evening and spent the remainder of the day there.
The next morning we were greeted by a Kaibab squirrel. A rather crazy one who seemed to enjoy bouncing off trees.
We got up early(ish) to hike down the canyon a little ways on the North Kaibab Trail. It started to rain as we headed down, but never rained harder than a sprinkle. It was perfect weather. We ended up making it about four miles down.
By the time we reached the end, for us, it had cleared off just in time for us to head all the way back up. We made it up, though, by mid afternoon. We enjoyed our last afternoon, night, and morning at camp or the visitor's center. The next morning we slowly got going and drove out. After a picnic lunch at a rest stop, we said goodbye to Vicki, Emma and Greg.
My parents and I headed on over to Cedar Breaks. After looking around a bit we set up camp.
We then came back to the lookout for sunset. The dimming light seemed to set the reds of Cedar Breaks on fire.
All of the park seemed to be in bloom. So the next morning we went on a wildflower hike with a very knowledgeable volunteer.
She pointed out some of the more obvious flowers, like the columbine.
However, even for the easier to name flowers, she gave us information about them. For instance, this paintbrush has very bright red leaves, not petals. The flowers are actually the small green shoots in amongst the colorful leaves. However, for each flower we could name there were fifteen more that we couldn't name or perhaps hadn't even notice before. It was very enlightening. After this guided hike we drove down the canyon to Cedar City, about an hour away.
We got to our rented house that Monday afternoon and spent the rest of the week watching six fabulous productions at the Utah Shakespearean Festival.
About midweek we headed back up to Cedar Breaks with my Aunt Sylvia, who was watching the plays with us. We went on a short hike up there. Early on the hike we noticed a marmot just hanging around. We saw another one on the hike, as well.
The trail was a loop centered around this pond. It was a nice day and a beautiful trail. After the plays were over we stayed with some other friends, Rob and Kezia, in Rockville for a night before heading on home.
