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Published: August 11th 2008
So I felt really lost last night without internet but it was a nice night as I wrote in my journal instead and enjoyed the stars in Utah. It's nighttime again and I'm now in Southern Idaho, but it was a fun day getting up here from the base of Utah. It started really early (and I mean early for this night person). I woke up once at 3:30am then again at 5:17am. I finally rolled out of my sleeping bag/comforter/sheet/Johnny fleece blanket assemblage around 6:00am when it was just barely light outside. I walked over to the bathroom to put my contacts in, said good morning to the horses standing nearby my tent site, and tried to quietly load up my car. I was moving pretty slow and taking my time so I didn't end up leaving the KOA until almost 7:30am. I hit the road though and took off to Cedar Breaks National Monument about 35 miles down the road.
After turning onto an old highway (14 I think), I started seeing the local wildlife just as the sun was peaking over the hills. On that small 12 mile stretch, I saw 9 deer including a fawn that
still had its spots, 4 long-horned antelope (i think that's what they were), and a bunch of small chipmunks. I made it over to Cedar Breaks which is a national monument that includes a 2000 foot deep huge bowl is the steep west-face of the 10,000 foot high Markagunt Plateau. It was also formed from millions of years of uplift and erosion and also gets its color from the varying combos of iron and manganese. It's called Cedar Breaks because of the local trees that grow nearby (Cedar) and "breaks" meaning another term for Badlands. It's small but still gorgeous as there are meadows on the roads near it and lots of wildlife and flowers that abound in the area. Apparently, the road leading into it is covered in snow most of the year so the road is closed from October until April almost every year.
After seeing Cedar Breaks, I weaved my way through a really small area called Brian Head Town that looked very resort-ish and based around skiing. Then I hit the interstate and time just seemed to fly by. Before I knew it, I was passing Provo, Utah and making my way into Salt Lake
City where sadly, I only caught a short glimpse of the Great Lake and didn't get to snap any pictures. I did opposite of normal and pulled off into the actual Salt Lake City and drove around the downtown a ways. It was nice I guess for a city and easily accessible, but I think it was so empty because it is Sunday and everyone was probably still in church. After seeing a little bit of downtown (the Salt Palace and the Tabernacle) and accidentally running a red light, I headed back to the interstate and before I knew it, I was in Idaho again. It was only about 120 miles more to here where I stopped for the night. And as I reflect on my last night of my roadtrip, I also see the moon outside lighting up this Southern Idaho area. Well, time for me to get some sleep now before my last big day tomorrow -- cruising up to Northern Idaho. Goodnight!!
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