Monthly Archives: September 2020

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Color Tour

Dave and Jan received a mailing which indicated that the last part of September would be a good time to see plants putting on their fall display in the mountains east of Cedar City. So they drove up Highway 14 out of town to the Markagunt Plateau for a color tour.

One of the features of the area which they enjoy is Coal Creek, which follows Cedar Canyon along the highway, flowing out of the canyon close to the center of town. So they stopped up the canyon for a photo of the creek.

The trees at Deer Hollow were not at their peak yet, but there was a little bit of color to be enjoyed in the area anyway.

Closer to Duck Creek Village is Aspen Mirror Lake where the aspen trees were flaunting their colors around a peaceful, beautiful lake setting.

A little east of Duck Creek Village Highway 70 heads north toward Panguitch Lake through miles of forest and some interesting displays of black lava rock – highlighted below by some color in the shrubs and trees.

Turning west and north onto Highway 143 toward Cedar Breaks and Brian Head Resort there were some very showy trees along the side of the highway.

Driving north on 143 toward the town of Parawan a narrow, paved road turns to the east toward Yankee Meadows where the fascinating and colorful rocks compete with the colors in the foliage for attention.

The lyrics of a song by Phillip Keverin and Steve Siler, from their CD album “In Pastures Green,” seems like an appropriate response to the Lord in the minds of Dave and Jan: “In forests green Your sacred presence shades the stillness. In meadows gold Your hallowed hands prepare the harvest. You set stars to blazing. It’s so amazing how You formed the universe.”

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So Much to Enjoy!

Dave and Jan have enjoyed exploring their surroundings in Cedar City during the three months they have lived in the area. And now that the challenges of landscaping are moving closer to the finish line (the initial one, at least), they have begun to explore things a little further out. A recent drive through part of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in south central Utah was a very pleasant surprise – but no pictures, because California fires were clouding the air. Next was a very enjoyable overnight trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon – but no pictures, because Dave made a mistake, after editing them, by failing to load them on the computer before deleting them from the camera’s disk (Oh well. Guess they’ll have to do it again!).  But here are a few pictures of some of the things to be enjoyed both in town and in the area.
Coal Creek flows through town from nearby Cedar Mountain and seems to flow year round – though it sometimes turns red with the red-colored soil which washes down out of the mountains when it rains.
 
Cedar Canyon comes down out of the mountains at Canyon Park – a nearby park Dave and Jan enjoy walking to and from, and through which Dave takes his daily morning bike ride up the paved trail into the mouth of the canyon with its amazing red rock walls.
 
Rainbow Canyon is just over the ridge from Dave and Jan’s house and is the site of walks almost every evening – with or without Jan’s dog Lola (whose white hairs turn pink because of the red tint in the soil in the canyon)
 
Hiking up the washes which drain into Rainbow Canyon leads to a popular hiking trail, Razorback Trail – so named because it descends to Highway 14 down a razor-thin ridge which can be avoided by hiking up or down the Razorback Wash.
 
Driving up Highway 14 (a few blocks from the Balsleys’ house) about eight miles brings a person to Woods Ranch County Recreation area with its beautiful forests of Quaking Aspen and Colorado Blue Spruce and other attractive forest foliage.
 
A recent evening walk took Dave and Jan in search of The Thirteenth Hole Trail – so named because it is located near the thirteenth hole of the beautiful Cedar Ridge Golf Course.  The trail is part of a series of hiking trails associated with the Thunderbird Gardens trail system.  The evening sun turns the red rock of the canyon ablaze.
 
This sunset shot taken from the Thirteenth Hole Trail is a sample of the sunsets which are frequently enjoyed in Cedar City – visible from Dave and Jan’s sliding glass door to the back yard.
 
A recent drive took Dave and Jan to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park off Highway 89 a few miles south of the road through Zion National Park.  A popular sport at the park is sand surfing on some of the larger dunes (not pictured here) – apparently not as easy as it might sound on the basis of the performance of the surfers Dave and Jan witnessed.
 
A favorite local attraction for Dave and Jan (though not nearly as crowded as the larger and better known Zion National Park) is Kolob Canyon, the western part of Zion National Park just off of Interstate 15 only 20 miles south of Cedar City, where they enjoyed a beautiful hike in early September.  Even a good camera can’t begin to take in what the Lord has designed the human eye to see.
 
There is so much beauty to be enjoyed in Southern Utah, and Dave and Jan are grateful to the Lord for the opportunity they are having to begin to enjoy more and more of it!