Dave and Jan enjoyed a great visit in Cedar City several years back with friends they met during seminary years in Portland, Oregon – Carl and Nancy Laney. Carl Laney returned to Western Seminary after earning his doctorate, where he served for forty years as Western’s Professor of Biblical Literature. As Carl and Nancy were leaving Utah for their home in Portland following their visit in Cedar City, they chose to drive west on Highway 56 to Panaca, Nevada, then north on Highway 93. They wrote back to the Balsleys to tell them of an interesting state park they had passed – Cathedral Gorge State Park. Because mid-April weather this year was somewhat “iffy,” Dave and Jan chose to return for another visit to Cathedral Gorge State Park for their first camping trip of the season.

Cathedral Gorge State Park is located in a large valley, surrounded by fascinating sandstone cliffs. On Thursday evening Dave and Jan hiked the Hawks Ridge loop trail along the south perimeter of the park (with no pictures to share – though the ridge is beyond the trailer in the first photo). On Friday they hiked the Juniper Draw four mile loop trail around the valley to enjoy many of the sandstone formations which can be seen all around the trail.

The park includes examples of cryptobiotic soil (“desert glue”) which takes decades or longer to form, but which can be destroyed if it is walked on, so visitors are encouraged to watch their step where it exists.

Sandstone formations come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes all around the canyon – which includes many more miles than the four miles which the loop trail travels.

Cathedral Gorge includes many “slot canyons” which can be entered by visitors – some of them going as far as one or two hundred feet into the sandstone walls, creating a cathedral-like feeling for visitors.

Cathedral Gorge turned out to be a suitable destination for the season’s first camping outing because, back in Cedar City, snow which had been predicted as a possibility actually materialized, and the news made it to Nevada before Dave and Jan even headed for home (as reported by one of the park rangers they spoke with before leaving the area). The Lord has provided lots of variety in terms of scenery and weather conditions, and Dave and Jan enjoy the variety in the southwest region where they live.