Southern Utah Gems: iron county

We spent a weekend up at Duck Creek with the fam from northern Utah to show them how much better this half of the state is. Renting a cabin in Duck Creek was a great idea.

Going on the trails in the middle of monsoon season was not. It's been raining every day for the past three weeks. Earlier in the day before we first went up, they closed SR-14 for flooding and debris in the road down the canyon. So what do we do when we first get up to the mountain? Get in the 4Runner and find the nearest trail. We went through a few puddles no problem until we see it.

This massive, eight foot long puddle that covered the entire trail across. Trekker backed up a few feet and gunned it. We drove through the puddle and started going down, and down, and down until we were under water to our windows. He never released the gas pedal, which helped us slowly and finally climb back up the other side. There's that minute it stops being fun and it turns into 'shit just got real' and it happened in the middle of the forest outside of Duck Creek when I thought we lost Trekker's car to the monsoonal rainstorm.

The views outside from Cascade Fall's Cave

This poor kid couldn't take another step haha

Anyway, Cedar Mountain is a good time.

But onto my favorite part. Strawberry Point is on the south side of Cedar Mountain, off a rough road at the edge of the Markagunt Plateau. I honestly think it's more impressive than it's western counterpart Cedar Breaks National Monument. The views down into Hog's Heaven and Zion Canyon are amazing, and I could spend all day there.

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.