Bob Palin's Blog

Today was a travel day from Cedar City to Torrey so I wanted to find a ride in between the two, Losee Canyon is at the southwest end of highway 12 and leads into Red Canyon. The canyon starts out fairly wide though there was enough snow in the wash bottom that I missed the trail exit from the wash and rode up it a ways to the next crossing. Eventually the canyon became narrower and the trail followed the wash bottom, which was starting to present slippery obstacles. I had hoped to cover the 3 miles to the end but decided against it on this day, next spring! The dogs loved running in and out of the snowy sections Lots of red rocks and side canyons. After the ride I continued along the dirt road to Casto Canyon which also leads into Red Canyon but is much longer, it's possible to make a loop but I think it's about 11 miles which was too far today. The dirt road continued on and on eventually dumping me out into Panguitch right ...

I decided to get a change from the cold snowy conditions around Cedar City and head into the Utah Lowlands for a mountain bike ride. There are a lot of trails down near St George so I picked an easier one with possibilities for further exploration later, the Bearclaw Poppy Trail . The trail runs along the edge of the clay 'dunes' at the base of a red cliff, which could describe so many places in southern Utah. Unfortunately people have made many side trails into the 'dunes' which are part of the protected area, further down the trail fences have been erected to prevent this, presumably where the rare poppy grows. The trail initially runs along a bench above the desert floor. Looking back towards the start of the trail beyond the butte on the right. This was pretty much the furthest point out I reached, I was looking for a connection to get to the lower part of the trail but had gone too far. View from the parking lot at the trailhead....