Hwy 14. Dixie NF and Duck Creek & back to Bryce

I was surprised by the amount of snow accumalation that I found around here. I suppose that with the forest and 8,000' and higher elevations, I shouldn't have been.
The dirt road to Cascade falls was heavy in snow still, and it was a 7 mile hike in, so I instead went to Duck creek springs Lake. I met up with a couple with a westy from the SJ area, and we chatted for a while. I had a late breakfast with the lake as a backdrop, before wandering around it. I had hoped for a bald eagle and beaver sighting, but as Mick said, "you can't always get what you want, but if..." and I made do with a Muskrat making its way up the stream to the lake and a Fish Eagle (Osprey) scouting the lake...
As I moved around the lake, I was hearing what sounded like an iron gate creaking. On further inspection, I found it to bea woodpecker going at a road sign! That must be hard on the beak :).
A visit to Aspen-Mirror lake was well worth the while. Another check of the road to Cascade falls proved i would not be visiting there today, and so I headed west to Navajo Lake viewpoint. Beautiful! I had envisioned spending the night here and kayaking at first light, but my attempt to drive in found another impassable road. So, I headed out to Mammoth Cave, to fnd it gated until May due to migrating bats. Sheesh. All of this interesting stuff and nothing to do...I did pick up a couple of caches here.
I found a nice spot out in the NF to spend the night, and found mule deer in camp at first light.
Making my way back towards Bryce, I stopped at Red Canyon in the NF for a few hikes and caches.
On the road there, I saw the wagon I had spotted twice earlier already, and the horses were getting their breakfast. By the time I got turned around and back, they were done and I could not get a picture, but the scene was hilarious. The horses each had a 3 gallon paint pail hung over their ears, with their snouts immersed in the pail :). As I had passed, they looked up at me, each with their white round and blunt noses. What a sight. they looked so funny, that I had to chuckle to myself the rest of day whenever the vision popped up.
Red Canyon is a very nice area, with an arch trail, red hoodoos and many trails.
Making it back to Bryce, I hiked out to Mossy Cave and a waterfall, before going out to Tropic Reservoir for an evening exploration and camp.
On friday, I hiked Navajo loop, the now deadend (recent rockslide) wall street trail and through Queens Garden, all down on the canyon floor. A much different perspective of the hoodoos, from down below. As I would later be told by a professional photographer, the hoodoos and Bryce are some of the hardest pictures to take. Lighting is just impossible here!
After leaving Bryce, I made my way east into Grand Staircase-Escalante NP, and specifically, Lower Calf Creek Falls...

Zion to Bryce

From St George, I headed back towards a drive through Zion, on my way to Duck Creek and Bryce. The weather was poor, which prevented me from getting some pics of the magnificent landscape from St George through Hurricane. Here, the plateu has broken and lifted into slanted peaks in places. It looks like what a sidewalk does when a tree root underneath wins the battle. Only on a grand scale, miles in length and hundreds of feet in height.
As I approached Zion the weather started to lighten. As I passed by the virgin river, It had the appearance of the Colorado in its muddy coloration. I wondered if there might be some fresh waterfalls in Zion Canyon, so after numerous stops for more shots of the storm clouds hanging on the cliffs, I took the shuttle up canyon and saw two falls.
On the way out the east side of Zion, it started to snow. It was off and on until I started the climb up towards hwy 14 and Duck Creek, where it got pretty thick. The weather was supposed to be finished by early afternoon, and we are heading into a warming trend. With that in mind, and not wanting to meander on dirt snow laden forest roads in a storm, I decided to go on up to Bryce. I could do a driving tour of the park on Tuesday while there might be fresh snow on the hoodoos, and backtrack to 14 later in the week. So, off I go. The snow was so thick to be almost whiteout conditions. I pushed ahead and must have missed some great scenery on the way. It was near dark when I arrived outside Bryce, and still snowing hard. Looking at my alternatives for the night, I chose to stay at Ruby's resort, taking a camp site. This allowed me the amenities of the resort, which included a heated indoor pool and spa :). Guess where I spent my evening?
My driving tour of the park on Tuesday included several hikes at the rim of the canyon. The trails were severely muddy from the snowmelt, slippery and leaving clods of clay clinging to the shoes...No way am I going to try to descend into the canyon until this stuff dries out.
Hoo (doo) are you, hoodoo, hoodoo...
I'm sorry. That crept into my head on a rim walk (The Who's "Who are you"), and just would not go away :)
What an incredible landscape this is! I spent the entire day taking it all in, and cannot wait to get down below at the foot of these things.
I decided I will head back to hwy 14 on Wednesday,allowing things to dry out some more in Bryce before doing any serious hikes. I drove into Dixie NF, within a mile of the park entrance and camped along Dave's Hollow. Seemed appropiate :). I saw more Prong horned antelope on the way out. They are funny to watch. They do a normal stride until going into alarm or escape mode. They then switch to a prance where are 4 legs are working in unison. Boing a boing and off they go. They switch from one mode to the other without any effort...
I also saw the largest gathering of Mule deer that I can recall ever seeing. Two groups totalling 20 or more deer with a 20 yard area. And I also saw a big red fox, in its winter coat :).
"It's a hell of a place to lose a cow" Ebenezer Bryce
Q-If the forcast at the lower elevation (7,600') calls for partly cloudy skies and a high in the mid 40's, what will the wind chill be at 9100', with 30 miles an hour plus winds, at the edge of Rainbow Point?
A- FLIPPIN COLD, MAN!
The sort of good news about that drive is that the van is actually broken now...not an intermittent problem any longer. The Oxygen Sensor light came on, and it is now an even worse slug on uphills. All I have to do now is find a VW mechanic out here somewheres...