Kodachrome Basin State Park, Cannonville, Utah
Do not testify against your neighbor without cause, or use your lips to deceive. ~ Proverbs 24:28
Pretty as it is, there’s not a lot to do within the confines of this 2,240-acre Kodachrome State Park.
It was time to take a long drive north, where we’re promised dinosaur tracks, petrified forest remains, and Jeep roads to check out. And it was a beautiful day!
We drove the same road, Scenic Route 12, as we have to drive tomorrow when we move, so I only took a few pictures today. But here’s a preview of tomorrow!
Prepare yourself for tons of travel day pictures, I’m certain there’ll be more than you care to see. 😊
(remind you of a 1980s movie?)
Our first stop was Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. We’d planned on visiting the National Park in Arizona, but it was closed due to COVID-19, so this was an opportunity to see these amazing and beautiful things! And we weren’t disappointed! Plus, we got to hike quite a bit! But why “petrified”? I looked it up on dictionary.com and found – – – to convert (organic material, esp. plant material) into a fossilized form by impregnation with dissolved minerals so that the original appearance is preserved. Oh. Well, I’m just going with really cool and beautiful tree remains. Or, we could go with a father’s explanation to his son that we heard today – dinosaur trees. Or finally, the one the Park uses for one of its trails we hiked today – sleeping rainbows. Pick one, or make up your own definition. 😊
At any rate, we had a wonderful time here oohing and awing over a bunch of hardened tree pieces. And took more pictures of terrified trees than you’ll probably want to look at. 😊
Do they have cameras in all the living trees??
Are there security alarms attached to the petrified pieces?
Maybe there are cameras on the parking lot and they can tell if your pockets look heavy . . . .
Blaine had fun using his app today!
This is an Apache plume.
And this is a Colorado pinyon.
These are Rose-heath 
And this, a Tulip prickly pear
It’s supposed to be strenuous, but where the highest concentration of petrification is located.
LOL!!
Strange they just leave this right alongside the trail. . .
And then it was straight up. : )
Don’t they remind you of rose blooms?
He even threw in some dead wood!
Not much difference if you take a quick glance.
And yes, he put it back where he found it. : )
We ate lunch in the Jeep at their visitor center, while watching a Ranger chip rocks off the wall. We wondered at this because it looked just fine to us, but then he got a phone call and we heard him say he was preparing the building for demolition. Don’t know why, but at least they’re saving the facing. And I’m sorry to disappoint you, but we didn’t take any pictures of this.
Next, we went in search of dinosaur prints. There was supposed to be a place along a Jeep road, but we drove and drove and drove some more and never found the road, nor a sign. Sigh . . . .
We did, however, find some more really interesting rocks! Isn’t it wonderful how rocks are rocks are rocks, but they all look so different? God is soooo good to us!
This place is called “Devil’s Garden” and we probably saw more people here than we’ve seen for a while, but everyone was all spread out, so it was fine. Great place to explore! No trail, you just wander around wherever you want. 😊 Made the horrible washboard Jeep road worthwhile.
Is that what the Devil grows in his garden?
Who would know that? Hmmm . . .
We thought it was petroglyphs at first, but upon further examination,
it seems to possibly be some type of fungus.
After we were done here, we drove some more on Scenic Drive 12, and stopped along the way for some extra special views! Unbelievable! And Blaine gets to drive the bus with a Jeep in tow along this same road tomorrow? He may not sleep tonight . . . 😊
This is part of the area we’ll be coming by tomorrow in the motorhome,
so it’s good we stopped today, because we won’t be able to tomorrow.
That’s where we’re headed!
And yes, you’re right,
these pictures are from the same area as the samples at the start of this post. : )
Eventually, we turned off 12 and drove another scenic road, looking for Hell’s Backbone; another Jeep road. (Who comes up with these names??) It was a great drive! Up a mountain, spectacular canyon views, across a bridge, and back down the other side of the mountain. Wonderful!
What we didn’t know until we’d walked a bit, was that the waterfall was seven miles away!
It’s a 38-mile road built by the CCC in 1933, and reaches an elevation of 9,000′.
There wasn’t hardly any traffic, so at times,
we’d just stop by the edge of the road to get out and look.
The next ten pictures were taken from this bridge area.
As we drove today, we kept seeing numerous signs along the way for something called “Turn About Ranch”, so once we got home, I looked it up. Here’s what their website says:
WHEN IT’S TIME FOR CHANGE
At Turn-About Ranch, therapy, academics and hard work come together to impart lasting and powerful change in teens.
Located on a working cattle ranch, our program has students take concepts like leadership, teamwork, accountability and responsibility and put them into practice in a real-world environment.
Recommended by doctors and therapists and frequently featured in the media, our acclaimed program has helped thousands of young people get their lives back on track over the course of our 30 years in business.
What a wonderful idea! Hopefully, it works well!