On our way toward Utah, we passed through the corner of Nevada and waved to Las Vegas as we went by. We spent one night outside of Mesquite, AZ and then moved on when we figured out it wasn’t going to be great for Mike’s word days – too hot, bad signal and just not very appealing.
We planned to get some more truck and trailer work done in Cedar City, so made our way to a spot on the north side. As we headed into Utah, the terrain changed and we were soon surrounded by beautiful cliffs on both sides of the interstate.
We stopped briefly in St. George for possibly the best gas station dump and fill. It was super clean and angled just right to really clean things out well. We have come to appreciate things like this a lot! St George seemed like a beautiful little city, but we moved on to the higher elevation of Cedar City for cooler temps.
Parowan Gap was our new home for the next few days – BLM land that hosted some lovely petroglyphs on the side of the road as it passed through the namesake gap. It was a quiet spot surrounded by rolling hills and had some beautiful sunsets through the gap. Mike worked non-stop and tried not to be too stressed out by it while I shopped, cooked, wrote, and wandered. I even got warned by a rattlesnake that I was too close.
Yep, that’s a rattlesnake
We then pulled up stakes to get the truck and trailer in early to Rolling Rubber in Cedar City. We had been there before in the fall and decided to have them deal with all of our issues. They changed the oil, corrected a misaligned rotor (yay for brakes that work normally!), recharged our A/C, patched a tire, and tried to figure out why one of our tires of the trailer was wearing strangely. When they couldn’t diagnose the problem, they sent us to Matt’s Springs and Repair. Through all of this, Mike continued to work in the car and in the lobby of Rolling Rubber.
When we got to Matt’s Springs, Jesse got close to diagnosing our problem without even looking at the trailer. After quite a bit of chatting (Jesse was a talker), he said that he could fit us in on Monday.
I had gotten some hiking recommendations from Facebook friend, Cedar City native, and fellow preschool teacher Kristy, so we moved a little south for our exploratory days – now we wanted a little warmer weather as a cool front went through and we were closer to hikes.
We were close to Zion again, so headed into the Kolob Canyon section of the park. It was just as beautiful with a fraction of the visitors. We hiked the middle and south forks of Taylor Creek and found both hikes to be beautiful in different ways. On the middle fork, we crossed over the creek time and again with views of the canyon the whole way. It ended at an enormous alcove where we reste a bit and then headed back.
The south fork trail was totally different. We never saw water, but hiked over hills of sand and the canyon narrowed around us as we climbed inward. Once in the narrow section, we walked through incredibly pink sand and got to watch someone climbing the inverted canyon wall.
We took in the rest of the canyon views by car as the wind had picked up and it was quite chilly. We decided the rest of our day’s activities would not involve doing anything outside the car for extended periods, so we drove up Kolob Terrace Road, which heads into the western side of Zion.
The drive took us from dusty desert to grassy plains, all with crazy beautiful cliffs as a backdrop. The views were just as unreal and amazing as those in Yosemite, but harder to capture. We passed by endless views of giant white and red cliffs in incredible formations with junipers and cedar and scrub and the forefront.
The next day we headed to Red Cliffs Recreation Area. Once we got there, Mike figured out that he couldn’t push through feeling poorly, so I headed out while he stayed in the car. First up was Red Reef Trail. The trail was beautiful as it meandered next to a dry creek bed and then made its way into a narrow canyon. There were a couple of areas where it was necessary to use carved foot and handholds to get around pools of sitting water, but eventually I got to a point where there was an ascent with no handholds and that was the end for me. I clambered over the cliffs nearby for some views and rest and then headed back to check on Mike.
He assured me he was ok in the car so I headed out for a longer hike in the area. It went from red cliffs to white, wandered by the remains of an old movie set, to a creek-side ramble where the trail was covered in bird tracks. (Apparently, I don’t take as many pictures when I am hiking alone.)
When I made it back to the car and tried to start it, we realized that the battery had died because Mike had had the fan on. A jump from a friendly man parked nearby got us on the road and we headed back to Scarlet.
Mike needed some rest time, so I headed back out to another part of Red Cliffs for another ramble. This one took me out again amongst red cliffs. It was not quite as awe-inspiring but still a lovely hike. I was most amazed at all of the bike tracks that were along the trail I hiked. There were parts that I had a hard time walking and couldn’t imagine trying to do most of the trail on a bike. Utahns are crazy!
We took a rest day and then headed back into Cedar City for errands and our appointment at Mike’s Springs. We dropped the trailer and took off for a hike right near the city and then relaxed in a park reading until the trailer was done.
Thor’s throne at the end of the trail
Jesse (with a mullet) straightened both axles (which were both “catawampus” according to him) and did not disappoint with his conversational flair. His topics of conversation included, but were not limited to:
– 90-year-old Canadians who signed up for the pro-rodeo tour in order to be able to come down to Arizona (and they were really coming down to Arizona to be able to get cheap meds from Mexico). Apparently Canadians could come to the US if it was for work so $300 bucks to sign up got them on the program and through the border.
– his love of the continental breakfast at Marriott hotels
– his experience gettting CO-VID (and his co-workers) and how factories in Germany shut down because of their CO-VID protocol
– a news story from the east coast about a traffic accident where a man was thrown through his car window and died and the on-scene officer was amazed when the coroner ruled the cause of death as CO-VID
– the fact that the only person he knew who died of Co-VID was in her 90’s and had terminal cancer (Can you see a trend?)
– how a customer was able to flip several new cars and make thousands because of factories being shut down
– how he started watching basketball (wanted to have a topic of conversation with his fellow group ropers- rodeo stuff)
– Michael Jordan’s ability to play great ball after being poisoned by a pizza during the plays-offs with the Jazz. Great inside Utah stories.
– how he stopped watching basketball because of BLM and players taking a knee during the national anthem
– his Superbowl watching habits
– his dad’s cows and solar wells and the desert land then graze cattle on
– sheep camps (super off-grid travel trailers) – “they’re bitchin’”
– how he owned a restaurant in town
… and all of this interspersed with some fabulous turns of phrase like “it’s like pissing on shit”
Overall, it was a positive and entertaining experience (ignoring some opinions) and we were happy to have a properly rolling trailer for a good price.
And then back to Parowen gap for cooler temps, a good cell signal for work, and lovely vistas.