CEDAR BREAKS NATIONAL MONUMENT

We left Hurricane on Sunday, June 8, and drove to Duck Creek Campground in the Dixie National Forest on SR-14 east of Cedar City ($5 per night with the Golden Age Passport card, no hookups, but water and a dump are available). On our way, we stopped at the viewpoint near Milepost 19 from which we could see the northern part of Zion National Park.

On Monday we visited Cedar Breaks National Monument. Cedar Breaks, together with Bryce Canyon National Park to the east, started out as sediment laid down in an ancient fresh water lake that once covered southwestern Utah. About 10-15 million years ago, a large region of the southwest known as the Colorado Plateau was uplifted. During this time, the Colorado Plateau was stretched and fractured to form a series of smaller plateaus. Cedar Breaks is located on the western side of the Markagunt Plateau, Bryce on the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Erosion has since carved these immense, colorful amphitheaters in the rocks of the two plateaus. Studies of the growth rings of trees along the rims show that the canyon rims of both parks are receding at 9-48 inches per century.