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Show Discover A New Winter Vacation Wonder Land Discovering Bryce Canyon Country is an adventure unsurpassed in travel touring. Unlocking the door to some of the less well known areas is easy and now that more roads are kept open through the winter months, more winter loveliness and recreation are accessible to the sportsman and the tourist. Traveling north or south on 1-15, the visitor should turn off at Parowan where signs direct skiers to Brian Head, a short trip up the mountain from the lhtle community. com-munity. , From Brian Head with its downhill skiing, a variety of winter activities, seven chair lifts, lovely restaurants and beautiful condominiums, condomin-iums, the traveler continues on up the mountain to Cedar Breaks and turns left toward Panguitch. The popular summer fishing spot is no less popular in wintertime, winter-time, when, frozen over, it has become the cold weather place to go for the best ice fishing in the state. Beautiful trout running up to four pounds, taste especially good in the wintertime when their flesh is supremely firm and delicious. There are accommodations at the lake with a fine restaurant, snowmobile snow-mobile and equipment rentals, along with fishing tackle and licenses. In nearby Panguitch, only 17 miles further down the road, there are markets, motels, restaurants, clothing and sporting goods stores, and more than most small cities can offer, since it is a tourist oriented town. Its historical buildings are especially interesting and there is always something to do. At Panguitch, the traveler returns south on U. S. 89 to the junction of Utah Highway 12 and then east for the trip through Red Canyon, sometimes called "Little Bryce" a favorite place for cross country skiers. Travelers who have come north from Phoenix on U. S. 89 through Hatch, can turn east at the same junction for the trip to Bryce Canyon National Park or continue northward to Panguitch where they can then take the westward trip to Panguitch Lake and Brian Head. Those traveling south on U. S. 89 from Salt Lake City either turn off at Panguitch for the same westward west-ward trip or continue south to the junction with Utah Highway 12, about seven miles south o f Panguitch. Once on Utah 12, the trip through Red Canyon is strikingly beautiful and the small sampling of strange and intricately eroded rock simply whets the appetite for the national park. At the top of the canyon a beautiful plateau stretches for miles, with the prominent "pink mountain" on the horizon, its unusual shape, a delight to the photographer. Traveling eastward across the plateau, deer and antelope are frequently seen and occasionally, elk. Approaching Bryce Canyon, motels, restaurants, service stations, sta-tions, stores and resorts are seen, their services catering especially to the traveling public. The highway curves onto Utah Highway 63 around to Bryce Canyon Can-yon where nature has saved some of her prettiest snow to artfully touch the colorful pink to red to purple limestone formations. The magic of winter envelopes the park, the white of the snow everywhere, contrasting with the brilliant colors that are Bryce, playing peek-a-boo through the lacy white tablecloth that nature has woven. Leaving Bryce and traveling north on the same road on which he entered the park, the traveler makes a curve to the right back onto Utah Highway 12 and continues his eastward travels. The road leads down a steep hill into Bryce Canyon heading east and then south through the eastern tip of Bryce Canyon National Park. The lovely valley is the home of three small Mormon heritage towns. The first, Tropic, is the largest of the three and rests immediately below the flaming cliffs of Bryce Canyon. Here services are available, with a cafe and sandwich shop, two stores, a post office, and an auto repair shop, the two markets and garage all selling gasoline. Continuing on past Tropic for five miles brings travelers to Can-nonville, Can-nonville, the gateway to Koda-chrome Koda-chrome Basin State Reserves, one of the three state parks to be found in this section of southern Utah. Cannonville, too, has a general store that also sells gasoline. Four miles further along the same highway is peaceful and lovely Henrieville, with only its special beauty and serene way of life to offer the traveler. Past Henrieville, the traveler moves along the highway, each turn in the road bringing a change in the terrain. It's 34 miles from Henrieville to Escalante Petrified Forest, the second of the three state parks in the area, and then, just past the park entrance is Escalante. Always welcoming visitors, winter and summer Escalante residents resi-dents are friendly and helpful, ready to show the traveler the best sights to see among the many that surround the ranching community: Hole-in-the-Rock, Devil's Garden, Dance Hall Rock, snowmobiling and cross country skiing on the Griffin Top or Hells Backbone and rockhounding in the many canyons. Motels, stores, restaurants, service stations and all other services are available in Escalante. Nearby, the Escalante River Primitive Area beckons the backpacker back-packer for some of the most adventurous hiking and unusual scenery in the west Traveling onward on Utah Highway 12, the visitor to the area comes to Calf Creek Recreation Area with its groomed trails and breathtaking waterfalls. Then on to Boulder over a section of highway that is perhaps the most challenging chal-lenging of the trip. Just remember that the school bus has traveled this route daily for years and years with never an accident Boulder is virtually the end of the highway when heavy snow closes off the road over Boulder Mountain. The tiny town is the home of the Anasazi Indian Village and Museum, an exciting and interesting place to visit and is open year 'round. Boulder is also the beginning of the Burr Trail a dirt road which leads to Capitol Reef National Park and to Ticaboo and Bullfrog Marina on beautiful Lake Powell. The Burr Trail has been used ever more frequently, and in good weather, can be traveled by a passenger car although truckers are not permitted. It, too, has been cut through some unique terrain incredible convulsions or rock. It leads to Capitol Reef National Park, and the traveler can turn north just where the trail leads into the park to reach park headquarters. Turning southward instead, the traveler continues inside the park until Ticaboo is reached, the newest community in the area tucked into the most southeastern corner of Garfield County. Just past Ticaboo is Bullfrog Marina, on the edge of magnificent Lake Powell formed on the Colorado Colo-rado River when Glen Canyon Dam was built in the early 1960's. Here, houseboats and powerboats are for rent and fishing on the lake, with its ever changing shoreline, is superb. The visitors travel approximately 20 miles west to east through some of the most spectacular scenery available in Utah. Any portion of the trek would make a vacation in itself, and added together, makes the trip of a lifetime. Traveling back again to Brian Head along the same pathways path-ways will simply open up to the traveler all the sights and potential winter fun that he missed the first time through. It's the kind of travel that will make the visitor want to come back again and again to take the side road the next time. |