Red Canyon, Black Heart: A (Brief) Hike

Writing up blog posts for hikes that I’ve been on just feels really last-fall to me. And it will never stop bothering me that we capitalize days of the week, but not the names of seasons. When I’m king, whoever made that decision will be first against the wall. Or top ten anyway.

Red Canyon is in Southern Utah. It’s a little place that’s west of Bryce Canyon, which is a bigger place. Maybe. I haven’t measured. Bryce Canyon doesn’t seem all that big to be honest. While at Red Canyon, I hiked the Cassidy Trail up and then hung a left onto the Rich Trail (thinking this would help with my finances) and then, at the appropriate time, took the Ledge Point Trail.

It was snowing much of this time and about 50-percent of the trail was under snow. When I got done with the Ledge Point, I tried to keep going up Rich, but was thwarted by accumulated snow and an inability to figure out where the trail was supposed to go. It had all been so much easier when I could just follow the creek bed. So then I turned around and walked back down to my econobox.

Some photos, sure:

Ledge Point!

Some red rock, trees, and snow.

Snow, falling.

What the hike lacked in length, it made up for in cold, snowy conditions and gray skies.

And FWIW, here’s what Highway 14 looked like on Monday.

I suppose I could have bought chains before leaving Cedar City.

Excelsior, I guess,

bkd