Cedar City to Panguitch, UT

Oh my, oh my, our climb up to Cedar Breaks almost Broke Us!!! 58 miles traveled, 5,900’ of climbing, blue skies and winds that hurt and helped throughout the day.  

We left at 6 because we knew we had a challenging and long day ahead of us.  It was 57 deg. when we left our hotel and the winds were pushing us backwards as they rushed down the canyon. As we climbed up the canyon the temps steadily dropped to 42 deg. even though we were climbing at less than 5mph.  We had to stop and get cold weather gear on until we could finally have the sun on us. 

For the most part the road conditions were not so good for our 7 hour climb.  And the Saturday traffic that passed us as we slowly climbed were not the best either.  At least in this slot canyon they poured a nice little concrete shoulder so that when a rock fell off the vertical face above us it would make for a spectacular smash up. 

About 4 hours into our climb I stopped at a pullout to rest and Jaqueline (in white) and her family greeted me and started asking questions about my bike, where I was going, etc.  They were all originally from Venezuela but now hailed from Houston and were on a Las Vegas/Canyonland tour.  I told them Len would be coming up any moment and asked them if they would help me sing Happy Birthday to him. They eagerly sang with me and Len enjoyed the nice moment.  

Finally around 12:30 we entered Cedar Breaks National Park above 10,000’ and we’ve got some of our cold weather gear back on.  Our climbing is almost over.  

The view platform over the Cedar Breaks canyon walls was spectacular. A photo can’t do it justice.  

And the sign we’ve been looking for!  A 27 mile mostly downhill ride to Panguitch.  

Len had his birthday dinner at Cowboy’s Smokehouse Cafe and Steakhouse with one of his favorites, chicken fried steak.  I had one too, delicious.  We persuaded our legs to slowly locomote us back to our hotel where we fell asleep in short order.