Welcome to a 10-acre Utah State Park with unbelievable views. The issue today is the wind. It is blowing steady at 25-35 mph with gusts over 50 mph. Since this park known for “standing on edges,” hold onto your hat and anything else that is study and solid.
Let’s go for a hike to a little known canyon in the Irish Canyon area along UT-95 in Utah. No, I’m not kidding. Leprechaun Canyon is part of the Irish Canyon area 28 miles south of Hanksville. You must carefully count the miles because there are no signs and the unpaved parking area is easy to miss. Ooops, have to back up, I just missed it. Luckily there are no cars on UT-95 as far as the eye can see in either direction. Ahh, wilderness.
Although this area is known for full-geared climbing and rappelling, only walking and a tiny bit of scrambling is needed to explore Leprechaun Canyon. Just my kind of “challenge”, so let’s go!
Exploring Cottonwood Canyon Road in April 2017, I could find no way down into the Cottonwood Narrows at this northern end. No signs, no trails, just wandering around finding four to six foot drops into the canyon. I can jump down, BUT how do I get back up? Good to think ahead. Hoping the access they created for us is easy. Come on along into the Narrows!
Here we go . . .
About 20 miles southeast of Bryce Canyon National Park is a 40-mile road that will take your breath away: Cottonwood Canyon Road. It is in the southwest part of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, a rugged, remote 1.87 million acre wilderness and a Utah jewel. The landscape has unique geologic formations of red, white, pink, blue, green, yellow, and more. Coming up out of the sagebrush valley, we are south of Kodachrome Basin State Park. Our “kodachrome” colors will only get better! The first six miles of Cottonwood Canyon Road is paved, but then we adventure on a graded dirt and clay surface with warnings to never travel when raining. Well, it is a beautiful day with no rain forecast so off we go!
