Day #83. September 9.

Three mule deer in campground this morning. Rainy and chilly day.

Henry Mountains in the Background

Traveling through the two million-acre Dixie National Forest, straddling the Great Divide between the Great Basin and the Colorado River, down a narrow shoulder of Boulder Mountain with a summit at 11,322 feet. Steep drops on each side down to spectacular red rock canyons.

Deep Canyons.

Those are Five Hundred Foot Walls

Vegetation is sparse; desert plants at the lower elevations, low-growing pinyon pine and juniper higher and aspen, pine, spruce, and fir higher still. Aspen turning yellow now in spots. Fall coming. Lots of open range cattle.

The high plateaus of Southern Utah are rich with pictographs, petroglyphs, dwellings, and artifacts of ancient people. First nomadic hunters and gatherers and later the Fremont and Anasazi, more sedentary and agricultural. Anasazi stone huts, "Moqui Houses", remain to this day on high ledges throughout the region.

Clannish Paiute Indians ranged this country when the first European settlers arrived in the late 1700s. Spaniards established the Old Spanish Trail and opened trade with local Indians, primarily trading horses for Indian slaves. Fair enough trade, right?  The Spanish Trail became known as the Slave Trail. Fitting.

Our Road

More trappers, traders, gold hunters, and adventurers followed. These early Europeans had to put up with marauding Paiute Indians. Imagine the nerve of those pesky Paiutes. 

High on this mountain shoulder we have splendid views of the Henry Mountains to the east with Mount Ellen at 11,500 feet. The Henrys, the last mountain range cartographers added to the map of the lower 48 states, are named in honor of Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.  I bet those pesky Paiutes have a different name for them.

Glen Canyon to the southeast. The two-million-acre Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument to the south. At least it was two million acres until President Bone Spurs came to office and promptly cut it by fifty percent. More on Escalante later. Bryce Canyon to the west. More magnificent landscape.

Downward, downward. Into Boulder, UT (population 225). Crossed the Escalante River and came into the town of Escalante (population 797).

A Juniper Tree and my Little Juniper

Needles

Sticking to route 12, bound for Bryce Canyon National Park. Traveling through Henrieville (population 225), Cannonville (population 167), Tropic (population 530) and finally to Bryce.

Found good dispersed camping on Tom Best Spring Road west of Bryce.

Tomorrow Bryce Canyon.

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