Southwestern Utah

We've had a great three days in southwestern Utah, where we stopped for the natural beauty and for the Utah Shakespeare Festival. There's not a lot of action in this part of the state, which is heavily influenced by the LDS Church, but the red clay mountains, green meadows and clear blue sky can't be beat.

John visited the Parowan Gap petroglyphs on Saturday. The one below is called The Zipper and is a kind of sundial that marks the location of the sunrise and sunset at various times of the year in Parowan Gap.

We took a chairlift to the 11,000-foot peak at Brian Head (a ski resort), where we found snow patches and colorful alpine wildflowers. It was a great long hike back down to the resort.


On Sunday, we visited Cedar Breaks National Monument (below), which offered breathtaking views of red clay pinnacles in a natural ampitheater 2,500-feet deep and three miles across created by wind and water erosion of the Markagunt Plateau.