Hancock Peak

Hancock Peak is more of a knoll at the top of Cedar Mountain. I did this hike back in 2014 with a friend and the entire hike was in a thick forest with limited sunlight. Between October 2014 and September 2015, beetles wreaked havoc on the trees and when I took Trekker to it, the landscape was far different. Dead trees were everywhere, along with fields of chopped trees from the Forest Service trying to stop the spread of the bugs. We didn't get nearly as far in October due to being in direct sunlight the entire time, but we ended at one of the ponds fed by a volcanic spring which is still worth the walk.

On the way up from Cedar City, you do pass Cedar Breaks National Monument on SR14-3. It's a small monument, but worth the 10 minute stop

The Hancock Peak trail head is a few miles past Cedar Breaks, literally on the side of the road. Park on the pull-off and start the climb toward the knoll! 

The trail is clearly cut in the grass but as you get closer to the knoll, you just have to pay attention to the cairns. Since there's really not much of a forest there for a while, the scenery is about the same until you get to the pond. It's a cool little hike if you have a free afternoon. You can also find arrowheads all over the area, so keep an eye out.

It looks like this the whole way :(

:( pt.2

Lake Powell- Antelope Canyon

One of the best trips we've taken was to paddle board Antelope Canyon at Lake Powell.

We started off the adventure by going to the dam:

Looked around the dam and the museum they have there for a while and then went back into Page to get some paddleboards. I pretty much have wanted to paddleboard at Lake Powell since Pinterest combined with disinterested high school teachers were a thing, so believe me I planned this all out. I thought Lake Powell Paddleboards seemed like a good idea after looking it up, and it was. It was about $120 for the both of us all day. They told us where to go and what to expect, and we were off to the Antelope Point Marina. 

It's important to remember that karma is a real thing, so when it's your first time paddleboarding and you're keeping your balance standing up and haven't fallen in yet, even if you're impressing yourself, don't brag to your boyfriend about it. Stay humble. Wait until you have a blog and can tell everyone online. ( I didn't fall in my first time paddleboarding!)

And look at this canyon! I didn't realize how justified the Lake Powell hype is until I went there.

The whole paddleboarding trip was about three and a half hours. After we returned the paddleboards, the owners told us how to get to Horseshoe Bend. It's surprisingly accessible, just a short walk down from the parking lot that's right in Page.

 IT WAS SO COOL. All the red rock. The massive, sheer cliff faces. The river. The size of the bend. Ahh my heart. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. We went home so satisfied with the day.

Crawdad Canyon

My brother went camping in Crawdad Canyon a few times in high school and made it sound pretty cool. Trekker seems to trust me in going to these places I hear about and vaguely know where they are actually located, and I'm glad because this little gorge is one of the best places we've been to.

On the way to Crawdad Canyon, you actually pass the Mountain Meadows Massacre site. We didn't realize how close it was to Cedar City, it is literally on the side of the highway. We stopped and looked around for a little bit. There's a few memorials on the location; two were created by the descendants of the survivors, one cairn for the men and one for the women. Another was built on top of the original burial site by the LDS Church. In the early 2000's, the LDS Church and the Mountain Meadows Massacre Association built a nice black wall memorial with the names of the victims. 

The LDS burial site. The US Army buried the victims they could find in a single grave and built a small cairn on top. The Church made it into a memorial in 1999

And on to Veyo! We didn't think anyone had ever heard of Crawdad Canyon so we went later in the day. So we got there and found the owner, he told us the campsites were all full. As we were about to turn and figure out somewhere else to camp, he said, "You could walk down the canyon and find a campsite, there's plenty of those if you're willing to walk." And oh man, you should. He told us about a campsite that had a dock-like board that stuck out into a swimming hole, so we went to go find it. And it was perfect

It was a good night camping. I had my first hot dog at age 21 and didn't like it. The roasted marshmallows were delicious though. 

In the morning, we walked down the canyon for a while. Crawdad Canyon is full of weird things. Its basalt walls have over 180 climbing routes. You see boards, rope, and random ziplines all through the canyon. If camping and climbing still aren't your thing, there's a pool that is fed through a natural spring. Still, definitely take a walk through the canyon

Here's a crawdad!

It blends in with its surroundings really well, but it's the crab/large insect looking thing in the middle of the picture. Trekker tried to get me to pick it up for about 5 minutes, but its centipede-like legs were creeping me the hell out. People eat these.

Finally, here's us in one of the 50 pictures we took to try and get the waterfall and swimming hole in the background. I think I need to invest in a selfie-stick

Directions from Cedar City:

1. Follow Highway 56 west until you hit Beryl Junction (don't stop to talk, the locals are crazy)
2. Turn left onto Main Street (SR-18) and follow it all the way to Veyo. You'll have to turn left to keep on it once you reach Enterprise
3. The turn to Crawdad Canyon is right at the far side of Veyo, which is maybe a mile long. Turn left at the sign and go down