My Recent Adventures--Red Rock Canyon

Well, mother had left for the Philippines and memorial weekend was upon us. I had been invited to join Aunt Jan and Jim camping and biking down at Red Rock Canyon which is five miles east of Panguitch, UT and about 15 miles due west of Bryce Canyon NP.

Jan and Jim are great people to go camping with. They have been everywhere and know all the best places, especially places where it seems no one else is around. Can you imagine memorial weekend and not seeing another soul? Well it can be done if you do "primitive" camping on BLM land...which is another way of saying that you and the bears will have somthing in common. A small price to pay for solitude and privacy. So we go to this place which is about five miles east of Panguitch in the cedars at the base of these red cliffs with a view of the whole valley that Panguitch sits in (see pic). Really nice.


Along with Jan and Jim was Moshe and four friends from his college days including Rob (his school bud), Rob's wife Sophia, Tim and Sophia's father. Sophia and Arie are Russian and all from New York. Needless to say, I am sure that camping was a new experience for all but Arie (the father). To add to the challenge they were vegetarians, which if well planned can work out ok but looks like alot more work than just throwing a chicken into the dutch oven.


Anyway, this place is a biking paradise. There are two canyons within biking of our campground called Loosee and Casto Canyon. Jim and I went on a ride up Casto Canyon. This is what I would term my maiden voyage on my bike (I bought a used bike in March). It initially was two track meaning ATV's had access, but we never ran into anyone else up the canyon (on memorial weekend no less). This was like a mini Bryce Canyon in RED, mixed with a stream bed and trees. I didn't have a camera (mom had it) and so missed some truely fantastic scenery, but I have borrowed a photo or two from Sophie and Rob. Anyway the canyon goes on up to a mesa with a great roller coaster single track trail and view. The trail goes over to Loosee Canyon, but due to a blowout on Jim' s bike due to bad tread and an impending storm (the weather was lousy all weekend), we headed down the way we came. Needless to say, I was hooked on mountain biking.














On Saturday it was threatening weather so we decided biking was out and went to Bryce Canyon. It is truely challenging to hike Bryce in the rain. Hiking poles for both hands are a really good idea as the mud is super slippery and the trail quite narrow. But the rain brings out the colors so vividly.




So, there are many wonderful rides down by Bryce. It is totally different from Moab, but with alot of great trails and scenery (and cooler, our camp was about 7000 ft). Anyway, I look forward to doing it again. I just got back from Moab on the 16th of June and will write about it soon.