A Full Day

Yesterday was our first day off after a long, hard week.  We were lucky with perfect hiking weather yet again--clear skies, comfortable temps and a nice breeze  Our plan was to go to Panguitch to deposit our paycheck, come home and go hike.

When I picked up the bathrobe that had fallen off the bed during the night, it was wet??  After a good deal of searching and speculating, we isolated the location of the source--at the end of the bed, behind the difficult-to-remove drawers, at the back of a crawlspace.  Fred compressed and contorted himself enough to inspect the water-lines and connections; none were leaking.  He thought the most likely cause was the absence of a silicone seal under the faucet housing in the shower.  Easy enough to remedy but the task ate up about two hours of our precious free time.

Next--on to Panguitch!  With four times the population of Tropic, we expected their (one and only) grocery store to have a larger selection and lower prices.  Wrong on both counts!  Since we had no intention of spending the day bargain-hunting, we bought a few necessities, returned home and packed up for Kodakchrome Basin State Park.

We'd hiked the park's longest trail on a visit early in May.  Today's agenda was to 'finish up' Kodakchrome by doing Shakespeare Arch, Angel's Palace and the Grand Parade, the three trails totaling about 6.5 miles.  (I offer no explanation for the fanciful names--nothing about any of them merited the label applied.)  Although they weren't far from one another, each route was quite distinct--interesting and beautiful in its own way. 

Shakespeare Arch passes the park's only large arch as it skirts the rim of Kodakchrome Basin and offers breath-taking views of the surrounding Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  We took the challenging alternate route that required a brief but steep stretch across slickrock--fun! Lots of evening-primroses.



Shakespeare Arch



The Grand Staircase in the distance




Fred at The Sentinel

 Angel's Palace climbs a small plateau and projects on to fingers above the Basin. There are sweeping views of the Basin and Bryce Canyon.  Lots of sego lilies.




Sego Lily



Kodachrome's red rock spires from Angel's Palace



Brave Fred out on one of the projections 150' above the Basin's floor



Obligatory Tree Picture


The Grand Parade stays on the floor of the Basin, hugging the base of cliffs rising above.  We took a side-trip into a box canyon that was unremarkable.



Red rocks, hoodoos and spires



Can you see the two figures?  
This immediaely reminded me of Hammurabi's Stele.



Mother Nature's diorama


We returned home tired, dusty, hungry and with memory-cards full of (hopefully) wonderful photos!