Cedar Breaks National Monument & Bryce Canyon

After 2 nights in Sin City, we continue to Utah, back to nature, passing through Zion National Park, over Cedar Breaks National Monument and Red Canyon to Bryce Canyon National Park.

Due to its proximity to several major national parks and its severely limited accessibility, Cedar Breaks National Monument receives little attention. This is unjustified, as this natural monument located at about 3,100m elevation offers an incredible landscape in a manageable size, but is weather-dependent and only open for a few months each year. Right in Cedar Breaks, there are two one-hour hiking trails, the Spectra Point Trail and the Alpine Pond Trail, which are close together. In just over an hour, you can get a beautiful glimpse of the eroded landscape with its colorful rock formations. Millions of years of sedimentation and erosion have shaped this gigantic amphitheater with its vibrant colors. The unique rock formations stretch over five kilometers and are over 800 meters deep.

We start at Point Supreme, right next to the Visitor Center, and drive along the Scenic Drive to Sunset View, and then to the Chessman Ridge Overlook (Elevation 10,460 feet), a nice stop on our journey with pleasant temperatures around 20 degrees.

After Cedar Breaks National Monument, we continue past Red Canyon and under the famous Red Canyon Arch into the considerably better-known Bryce Canyon National Park, where more people are present, but the landscape is no less impressive. We arrive in the late afternoon and still visit Bryce, Inspiration, and Sunset Point to admire the countless reddish hoodoos, as the geological rock formations are called, from the viewpoints. In the evening, we conclude Independence Day at our hotel in Bryce City.

Tomorrow, we plan to hike a trail before heading back to Arizona.