Day 8-9 ~ Cedar City, Utah

Time is flyng by while it is standing still. We have seen so much since I last posted 48 hours ago. If feels as if weeks have gone by. We left St. George yesterday and arrived one hour later in Cedar City. This town was establlished when Mormon leader Brigham Young organized volunteers to colonize the area. Iron had recently been discovered in the area. In 1851 a colony was established and work began on an iron foundry. The city was named for the large trees found in the area that were thought to be cedar. It was later learned the trees are all juniper and cedar trees are not natural to this area. In the afternoon we drove to Koleb Canyon seeing more amazing formations.

We started today with a visit to Frontier Homestead State Park Museum. The park was established in 1973 and follows the history of the area. The park features an extensive museum plus an outside area with the oldest Cedar City cabin, the Gronway Parry wagon collection, a sheep shearing barn, a water wheel plus the recently opened historic Hunter House.

We continued by driving to Cedar Breaks National Monument. The canyon is described as a natural amphitheater which is 2000 ft. deep and 3 miles across. We started at the visitor’s center where we experienced breath taking views. We then continued, stopping at each pull out along the road. The spectacular colors, rock formations and sheer awesomeness are beyond description. Next, we drove to Brian Head. At 11,307 ft., it is the highest point within the monument.

Our day ended with a group Sloppy Joe dinner. We enjoyed delicious food, enjoyable music and great company. Every day we ask ourselves “How can it possibly get any better than this?”