Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Hiking on Yants Flat in Utah…

IMG_20191007_145133

The next morning we broke camp and leaving Kanab we headed west to our next destination at Southern Utah RV Resort. This is a relatively new park still under construction and we learned that if we ever stay there again we will ask for a site on the back wall as it is further from the highway noise. Those sites also have a great view of the mountains.

Image may contain: one or more people, people standing, sky, mountain, tree, plant, outdoor and natureImage may contain: sky, outdoor, nature and water

Since there was still a bit of time left in the day we went over to Pine View Disc Golf Course to play a round of disc golf. Playing disc golf in the west is always tough because of the terrain and viscous vegetation armed with thorns. We still had fun even though we were  slogging through the sand looking for our errantly thrown discs.

Image may contain: one or more people, mountain, sky, tree, plant, outdoor and natureIMG_20191007_151055

The next day we drove over to Yants Flat to do a hike I found on the internet that looked appealing. We had to drive to Leeds Utah and take a dirt road for 10.4 miles from Leeds to a parking spot where the trailhead begins.

MVIMG_20191007_145048MVIMG_20191007_145351

A bit less than three miles this hike took us through some deep sand (not my favorite) but it finally ended up on some beautiful sandstone outcroppings. The trail was sparsely wooded with Juniper and Pinon Pine, The trail was mostly well marked and as we crested the last hill on the trail we saw the beginnings of the sandstone on Yant Flats.

IMG_20191007_144104IMG_20191007_143603

Wow! The swirling and stripped patterned sandstone in an array of colors was a sight to behold. Eroded sandstone cliffs, buttes and ravines created a smorgasbord of cool geologic structures.We loved the red, yellow, orange, purple, pinkish and white wavy bands in the sandstone.

IMG_20191007_144616IMG_20191007_144934

What a very photogenic landscape! One could scramble on the rocks for hours here and see different images and lighting conditions.

IMG_20191007_144412IMG_20191007_144224

Sharon did well negotiating the steep sandstone slopes as it took us some time to explore ways to get from point A to point B.

IMG_20191007_145116IMG_20191007_145140

We were glad we went as this was another amazing hike in the desert Southwest!

IMG_20191007_150255IMG_20191007_150203

NOTE: We left Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada and are now in Las Vegas NV…

4 comments: