Red Canyon Romp

When we started our adventure around the country, the idea was to visit as many National Parks and National Monuments as possible.  What we didn't count on was discovering a huge number of national forests and state parks that could give the big guys a run for their money.  We stopped at one today.

Red Canyon is located in the Dixie National Forest.  We only discovered this park because we had to drive past it on the way to Bryce Canyon National Park.  We could barely keep our eyes on the road as we drove through the canyon.  The red color was so deep and the hoodoos were towering.  We promised ourselves that if we had time, we would definitely stop on the way back.  Fortunately, Bryce was not as crowded as Zion was, and we had plenty of time for a short hike in Red Canyon on the way back to camp from Bryce.

After stopping at the Visitor Center, we found out that the Red Canyon has been called one of the “most photographed places in Utah.”  That's a big boast considering that Utah also has Zion, Bryce and Grand Staircase, but one thing Red Canyon has that the other parks don't is that it is free and right along a scenic highway.

We started out on the Pink Ledges Trail.  How could you resist a name like that?  Here is our first look at the Pink Ledges.

Then we crossed over to the hoodoo trail. Here is Kathy posing with a cuddly couple (hoodoos that is).

The trail then took us to Red Canyon, where hundreds of hoodoos watched as we passed by.

Here is Dave getting up close and personal with a rather alien looking fellow.

Ok, who can hate blue sky, puffy white clouds, brilliant red hoodoos and the perfect fir tree?

Now if you look real close at this rock, he's sitting on his throne overlooking the highway watching all the tourist buses pass on their way to Bryce and thanking his lucky stars that all those crazy people are not tramping all over his beautiful park.

Enough said. Just look at the pretty pictures.

We are taking a day off tomorrow.  We've hike our little tootsies off.