May 2016, we were on a trip to Utah, Arizona and Nevada for a 9-day hiking & roadtrip.
After a long 10-hour drive, we broke at St.George, UT for the night.
As we drove in the direction of Bryce Canyon National Park, Google Maps showed three different routes and we took the most green-looking route and it turned out to be the best option for sure.
We drove through Cedar Breaks National Monument. The area is amazingly beautiful and goes up beyond 10,000ft easily.
There are a few “closed for the season” Skii resorts in the area. There was still plenty of snow on the mountains for a beautiful drive through.
We saw a lot of people biking and riding ATVs. On a hot day, we walked through ice (on flipflops) to get to some view points for spectacular view of the canyons sprayed with snow.
There are hiking trails in the area but we chose not to do much hiking on that day.
Drove through Panguitch Lake, and we wondering how a summer trip to here would be. One can swim in the lake, go for a bike ride, hike the trails, hit the roads for a run or two. Sounds like a perfect triathlon training location !!
Unplanned, random stops at National Monuments and Stateparks in Utah will not disappoint you.