After Bryce Canyon, we decided to head off back to a hotel room we reserved in Las Vegas for the last few nights, not having any plans, just to play it as it went. On the way we kept seeing signs for "Cedar Breaks", another National Monument and decided since we had the time and inclination, we'd go and take a little detour and check it out. Unbelievable. We'd gone from about 110ºF driving from Las Vegas to Utah, to an OHHHH-so-refreshing 75ºF and a height of more than 10,000 feet at Cedar Breaks. We'd found out from the ranger at Cedar Breaks they get as much snowfall as we do here in upstate New York. And also that the humidity rarely gets higher than the single digits. Wow. It was so cool and dry, what a contrast. We could have stayed there all day. Mr. Snoopynut asked me later, "So, after seeing the Grand Canyon, Bryce, and now Cedar Breaks, do you have the view of 'seen one, seen 'em all'?" I cannot put into words how different and miraculous they all are and how separate they are from each other in their beauty and variation! The whole time of seeing these canyons, all I could think of was the song "America, the Beautiful". Whoever wrote that song must have seen this magnificent part of the country!
A resident of Cedar Breaks National Monument, the Rodentus Eatus RitzCrackerus. Or "Ritz Cracker-eating chipmunk".
After Cedar Breaks we decided we'd better get our butts in gear and head back to Vegas where we had hotel reservations. The scenery coming out of Cedar Breaks and down the mountains was just as spectacular....
We had two more days and the last one we wanted to spend relaxing. (Ha.) We got back to Vegas to the hotel, and after a restless night, (we changed hotels the next day...argh), we visited a place recommended by a friend called Red Rock Canyon, (sound familiar?), just outside of Las Vegas. This Red Rock Canyon is quite different from the Utah one. Like I said, it is just outside of Vegas so it has a desert center surrounded by huge towering mountains. And heat....and more heat. There wasn't a lot of wildlife out, understandably, but here are a few things we came across.......
Don't ask me why this is called "Dixie"...it's in Utah outside of Bryce. It's called Red Rock Canyon, a name you will see again in a minute.....
Cactus Wren
I don't know what the name of this desert flower is but it was pretty and wasn't going anywhere so I took a picture.
Chipmunks were everywhere!
<--- Ground squirrel.
Jack Rabbit. if you recall we saw one at a pond in Utah but weren't close enough to get a picture. Doesn't this guy look like the old Bugs Bunny?
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Snoops in the front seat where he wanted to be all along.
