Not going to lie. We started the day with left over chocolate cake. Turns out cake really is the best start to any day. We gathered our belongings and so sadly checked out of the Hotel Monaco SLC. They treated us the the royalty we certainly are not and we will long remember their hospitality and kindness.
The drive from SLC to Cedar Breaks National Monument was four hours. For some reason, this was the first time I have really been bored in the car. I didn’t get phone service and I was just so antsy. Zak ended up driving three of the hours, leaving the last one to me. That part was curvy, steep, and actually quite exciting.
I had never heard of Cedar Breaks until very recently and didn’t know much of anything about it. But, my goodness, were we blown away. It is an amphitheater, quite similar to Bryce, but much smaller. It is located more than 10,000 feet above sea level and we were stupidly shocked that the temperature was only in 53 degrees. We all changed from shorts and tanks to long pants and sweatshirts in the car. Zoe may never speak to us again. (Kind of like I’m still not speaking to my parents for making me change in the car in Williamsburg, Virginia when I was a preteen.)
The other factor that threw us for a loop was the constant strong winds. Winds that were fierce enough to make us really dig our feet into the group to not fall over. Thank goodness we had our windbreakers.
The hike we did was a 2 miles out and 2 miles back around the rim of the amphitheater. There was significant elevation change of about 1200 feet and given the high altitude, breathing wasn’t all that easy. It really was strenuous. But beautiful. So breathtakingly gorgeous. I forget the other 11 months of the year how amazing and curious I find geography to be. I am in awe that wind, water, heat, and freezing can change rock into something so beautiful that I am brought to tears.
In addition to the amphitheater, the trees were inspiring. Bristle cone pines are some of the only trees that can survive the harsh climate and not only do they survive, they thrive. And then part of the tree will get damaged and die, but the rest continues to grow. The very trees we were looking at were 2000 years old. Think about that! 2000 years old. Unreal.
Once we completed the hike we helped the girls with the Junior Ranger activities. (I have such mixed feelings about the JR program. I’m not convinced doing a word search helps the kids connect with nature and the parks.) They were sworn in once again and we headed back to the car to start the one hour drive to Tropic, Utah.
We pulled into the Bryce Canyon Log Cabins, the same place we stayed last year. The property consists of 10 adorable modern log cabins and a sheep farm. The sheep baa, romp around their field, and munch on the grass all day. They are too cute. I kind of want to take one home, but I’m not sure if Brookfield allows that.
Another great day is in the books.
(We have very limited WiFi tonight, so I’ll put up all of today’s pictures tomorrow in a gallery.)
