Cedar Breakes national monument review

To get from Zion national park to the Bryce Canyon I can only recommend you to not take the 14 but to drive through the Cedar Breakes national monument. I will try to give you a short review so you can decide whether you think it's worth the time and gasoline. Make sure to fuel up before entering because you will not encounter gas stations for around hundred miles along the road. It took me around ¼ of the fuel tank to get to the next gas station.

To get to know a bit more about the history and geographic aspects of the park please check this link.

The road will take you up to 10000 feet very slowly. On the right and left you do not see any civilization but beautiful yellow flowers and green pine trees. Some of them died and now look grey, resulting in colorful contrasts. Volcanoes formed the landscape and you very often see lava on the left and right side of the road.
There is a lot of vegetation around and you occasionally see some deers. Be very careful when you are driving. If you came from Las Vegas it will be refreshing for your eyes to see something non-desert and very green. It is also a good contrast to nearby Bryce, Archers and Grand Canyon. I can only recommend you to take the road through the Cedar breaks national monument.

A picture of Cedar Breakes I took some minutes ago:


I arrived at the Cedar breaks national monument visitor center, you can find restrooms right here here. The temperature here on 3000 feet is 60-70 degrees and with wind it feels quite cold in a shirt :P. To enter the park itself by foot you have to pay 6$. I did not enter but took the spectra Point trailhead, it can be accessed from the parking lot. At first I thought it would be nothing special because it looks like the landscape I described above. A warning shield tells you to not trespass during thunder storms and to stay away from cliffs. Once you pass the first forest (around 100 yards) you will see those cliffs. To review it, it looks amazing and is a very extreme experience. You are standing on top and look down the Bryce canyon like cliffs. I wanted to continue walking on the trail to get a better view but a sudden thunderstorm made me retreat and instead write this short review and report out of my Jeep Commander. Also make sure you clean your shoes before entering the cars as in my case they were quite muddy.

I will continue driving now to Bryce Canyon. All I can say, take the vista points as this somehow friendly and unexciting looking landscape is extreme and worth to see. If you like, drop me a short comment how you liked my Cedar breaks national monument review or just if you liked it too. I will be adding some pictures one I have WiFi and a mobile phone network again (haven't had mobile phone networks for more than 72 hours now).

I decided not to check out the Amphitheater for now because it is currently raining heavily. I passed the Chessman Ridge Overlook and now directly head to Bryce Canyon. Unfortunately I can not check out the Alpine pond and the Alpine pond because of the weather. Next national park I pass to get there is the Dixie national forest for. I will also be writing a little Dixie national forest review. My rating: 9/10

Here a satelite map of Cedar Breakes:

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