Well hi! What a delight to visit Glacier National Park again. Let’s take a two-waterfall hike to Saint Mary Falls then Virginia Falls on the east side of the park. This is the first time for me and maybe you too, so grab your gear and let’s go. It will be 3.6 miles round trip with lots of wide switchbacks taking us first down about 260 feet then up about 280 feet–then doing it in reverse. Let’s take our time and enjoy the ramble because we’ll no doubt be huffing and puffing as we go!
Here we are at the Fire Wave/Seven Wonders Trailhead. Well, actually we couldn’t find the Fire Wave Trailhead, so we are across the street to do the 1.8 mile loop in the other direction. It is about 8am and only two other cars in the large parking lot. Fire Wave is a major feature here in Valley of Fire. We will get there toward the end of our hike. 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!
Near the western entrance of Valley of Fire State Park we find dark red Aztec sandstone. In the red rock nooks and crannies campsites are available and at this outcropping’s northern end is Atlatl Rock. Home to petroglyphs about 4,000 years old carved by unknown ancient tribes. Yes, these peoples lived sometime around 2,000 B.C. and we can only imagine their thoughts through their art. Let’s go!
