With an unusually snowy season in the Cedar City area this past winter, Dave and Jan decided to try hiking with snowshoes for the first time. So they rented snowshoes from a local sports shop and headed up to the Markagunt Plateau with their neighbor, Kathleen, to try the snowshoes out. Driving between snow banks along the highway as high, at times, as eight or ten feet, they found there weren’t too many places they could even pull off the road, but they eventually found a wide spot near the Duck Creek Forest Service campground where there was room to park their car.

Wondering whether snowshoes would allow them to hike across country over two or three feet of fresh snow they soon discovered that snow conditions were not going to make that a sensible experience – unless they wanted each step to sink knee deep into the snow. So they chose a “groomed” forest road for their adventure.

The road was a familiar one over which Dave and Jan had travelled by car and Dave had ridden his mountain bike, but the scenery was entirely different with the forest floor and many of its trees plastered with snow.

Snow shoeing on groomed snow, it turned out, was not much different than hiking on packed snow in regular hiking boots. Dave, Jan and Kathleen were agreed that, though the road they travelled was an uphill walk for the most part, it was an easy and very pleasant experience.

The top of the road provided a nice view of an expansive meadow area through which the road passes right to Navajo Lake or straight ahead (more or less) to the Cascade Falls trailhead and a crossing of the 30+ mile long Virgin River Rim trail.

The weather was crisp and beautiful, and the hike was a very pleasant experience – definitely something to be repeated. It was a good opportunity to say “YES” to the Lord’s question to Job, “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow?” (Job 38:22) – though there is far more to the investigation of the wonders of the snow than snowshoeing on snowy fields reveals (see theJohn1010project.com “awesome wonders” video “The Jewels of Winter” for more amazing detail)!

The fall and winter seasons of 2022/2023 in Cedar City have seen a very healthy snowfall after years of drier weather and the challenges of drought. So Dave has had many opportunities to shovel some snow.

Not too far south of Cedar City the Mohave Dessert provides much warmer weather and much less likelihood of snow, so Dave and Jan headed south (around 35-40 miles) to a scenic area north of St. George known as Red Cliffs. The Red Cliffs area includes a popular small Forest Service campground (used by reservation only), some day use facilities (with limited parking on site), and miles of trails for hikers and cyclists to enjoy. Dave and Jan’s previous visit to the area took them hiking on the White Reef trail which connects with other trails leading back to the Red Cliffs campground. Because they had parked their car some distance away on a dirt parking lot just west of the 15 Freeway, they did not venture into the Cottonwood Canyon wilderness trail which begins at the campground, but this time they came with the intention of exploring the canyon – a very interesting experience.

Just inside the canyon entrance they saw a long-dead tree which looked very much like a fossilized elephant head.

Canyon walls soon began closing in on the trail into the canyon, revealing some very colorful displays of Navajo Sandstone rock.

A pleasant stream of cool, clear water flowed through the canyon – eventually feeding into the lake at Quail Creek State Park.

A small waterfall flowed over the red rock farther up the trail before very long.

Canyon walls continued to display varied and interesting red rock formations.

As canyon walls continued closing in there was a good sized pool and a challenging rock passage for hikers on the trail.

Before much further along the trail the water of the creek was pretty much filling the canyon.

And soon the hiker’s choices were either walk or swim in the creek, or turn around and hike back out of the canyon.

On his way out of the canyon Jan used her phone to catch Dave rounding a rock corner where only a rope kept him from a swim!

Dave and Jan are very happy to be living in an area where there is such beautiful and varied scenery to enjoy – beauty and variety for which they are deeply grateful to the Lord as the creator and sculptor of the “color country” which surrounds Cedar City.