UT -- Red Canyon (Dixie Natl Forest):
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- RED_120717_012.JPG: Welcome to Scenic Byway 12: Utah's First All-American Road:
The Road and its People:
As you travel Scenic Byway 12, it's possible to take for granted the ease of traversing this landscape. But constructing this roadway demanded decades of work and paitence. Pavement, completed in 1985, is a relatively new luxury. As you spend time in communities along the way, try to imagine the remoteness and isolation of the days when horse trails and rough wagon paths formed the only threads of connection to the outside world.
Stories in the Land:
The landscape and communities you'll pass through along Scenic Byway 12 have incredible stories to tell. Take time to discover them as you go. Along the route, roadside interpretive panels and kiosks reveal stories of this land and of the people, plants, and animals who call it home.
Along its 124-mile course, Scenic Byway 12 winds through stunning and dramatically varied landscapes -- from ponderosa pine and aspen forests to slickrock canyons, from flower-laced mountain meadows to sparsely vegetated shale badlands, from vast wildlands to historic communities.
People have inhabited this landscape for thousands of years. Along the way you'll see signs of their presence here -- from ancient granaries to ripgut fencing. While people have shaped this land to meet their needs, the land has also powerfully shaped the people who lived here. Offering limited water, rugged typography, and isolation, this land nurtures self-reliance and tenacity. Far from city conveniences, strong community ties aren't just social niceties, they're essential to survival.
Scenic Byway 12 became Utah's first All-American Road in 2002. This designation signifies that the road's outstanding scenic, natural, historic, recreational, archeological, and cultural qualities make it a destination onto itself. So, as you explore this one-of-a-kind route, don't be in a hurry to get anywhere -- you've already arrived.
- RED_120717_022.JPG: Visitor Information: Along the Way:
Entering a Vast, Wild Country:
When you embark on Scenic Byway 12, you're entering some of the wildest country in the United States. A landscape of 100-mile vistas with few, if any, signs of humanity. A land of deep and enduring silence. The byway spans some 4,400 feet in elevation changes, from 9,600 feet on Boulder Mountain to 5,200 feet at the Escalante River.
Like a jeweled necklace, Scenic Byway 12 threads through many public land gems, including Dixie National Forest, Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, and Anasazi State Park. Along the route, you'll also encounter six historic communities, rich in cultural history. Each offers places to linger along your journey, from town parks to fine lodging.
The landscape through which Scenic Byway 12 passes can't be discovered in a single visit. Return in other seasons and explore it in new ways to reveal the fullness of this complex and beautiful land.
- RED_120717_063.JPG: Red Canyon: Like Nowhere Else on Earth:
Red Canyon's Hardy Community:
It takes a special plant to survive in Red Canyon -- one that can tolerate shallow and erosive soils, repeated freezing and thawing, summer deluges, scorching sun, and drought. The Claron Limestone Formation, which gives Red Canyon its brilliantly colored hoodoos, yields soils that host many hardy and beautiful plant species, some of which are found nowhere else on earth.
Here, you'll find thistlecone pines -- the longest-lived tree species in the world -- and rare plants found only in Red Canyon, including Claron pepperplant ... [couldn't read the rest from my photo -- sorry!]
- RED_120717_105.JPG: By Foot: In Touch with the Land:
Human beings have walked the trails of Sevier River Valley and Paunsaugant Plateau for over 10,000 years. The Paleo-Indians and Archaic Cultures (8,000 BC to 500 AD) were hunters and gatherers. The Fremont Culture (500 AD to 1100 AD) grew corn, beans and squash and supplemented their diet by hunting animals and gathering wild plants.
The most prominent artifacts of the Paiute culture were their beautifully woven baskets. These functional "backpacks" enabled them to transport everything from food, water and belongings for long distances from campsite to campsite.
After 1100 AD, the only cultural group still found in the region was the Southern Paiutes. They foraged in the region year-round, living in easy-to-move shelters called wickiups. These effective shelters provided them with shade in summer and warmth in winter.
- RED_120717_110.JPG: By Beast: Carrying a New Life:
Beasts of burden were the key to opening the West. In the 1840's [sic], horses and oxen pulled thousands of families and their belongings to southern Utah and beyond.
The Mormon leader Brigham Young sent the first white settlers to southern Utah from Salt Lake City in the early 1850's [sic]. It was this intrepid group of determined Mormons that founded the community of Parowan, north and west of Red Canyon.
In 1852, a party of men from Parowan explored the Red Canyon area. Party member John Steele wrote "... good chance for a small colony... 50 or 100 families might wish to go into the lumber trade, as this is good timber country..."
Then, in March 1864, 64 families left Parowan to establish the first white settlement in the Upper Sevier Valley. This town, called Panguitch, is located a few miles west of Red Canyon.
- RED_120717_119.JPG: The Real West:
"The romance of the Wild West rarely matched the legend; there was only hard work with no guaranties, and the promise of more hard work."
-- Anonymous
There was no "how to" manual for life in the West in the mid-1860's. Techniques for survival were often experimental and failure could mean death.
Upon arriving in the area, the settler's immediate task was to dig irrigation ditches. Digging these ditches required precision. Using the replica of a water-level jar below, see if you can determine which way the ditch would flow. Can you imagine the consequences of digging a ditch for miles and not having the water flow to the field?
The large expanses of prairie and high country meadows were good for grazing cattle and sheep. By 1890, livestock grazing had become the dominant commercial industry in the region and was the key to moving the economy from subsistence to commerce, and life became a little easier.
- RED_120717_127.JPG: The Times They Are A-Changing:
By the late 1890s, many of the larger communities had a general store. The general store was a place for much more than shopping. People congregated to catch up on the local gossip, as well as to barter and exchange money for goods and supplies. Society prospered as increased commerce yielded healthy returns on the exchange of products.
Prices have increased with the changing times and the cost of a rural western lifestyle is still a challenge. Can you guess how much essential items increased in cost over the years? Pull up the tabs below and compare prices.
- RED_120717_130.JPG: Mail Order Catalog:
By the early 1900s, what you could not get at the general store, you could order through the Montgomery Ward catalogue. For a walk back in time, explore the price of something more than the essentials, as life became more and more comfortable.
- RED_120717_133.JPG: The New Rural West: Slowly Evolving to Meet the Needs of the Times:
Following World War II, in the late 1940s, the West began another change. Traditional economic pursuits -- logging, farming, and ranching -- were challenged by outside competition and falling prices. Westerners needed a new direction and one soon presented itself.
Tourism and technology are changing the West in unexpected ways. Along with much-needed income, visitors bring different values. Many visitors experience the land for what it means rather than for what it grows.
While technology and research made the land more productive, they brought change in the form of highways, motels, resorts, airports, antique shops, crafts fairs, outfitters, stores and roadside attractions.
This exciting New West is truly a cross-culture frontier -- a mixture of future and past, Spandex and buckskin, gourmet coffee and chewing tobacco, mountain bikes and rifle racks, sweat from recreation and sweat from toil.
Spurred on by 21st Century digital communications, the cultural landscape of the New West is being sculpted by the forces of technological change.
- RED_120717_138.JPG: A New Way of Looking at Nature:
"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike."
-- John Muir
By the 1920s, people from around the world began traveling through Red Canyon to experience Utah's natural wonders. Public lands became valued as more than a resource for mining, logging and grazing. Over time, local businesses, along with the Forest Service, adjusted to this change in emphasis. New recreation-based economies are prospering throughout the region.
We once went into the forest to survive. We now go to reconnect with nature and, most importantly, ourselves.
How long to drive from the train station in Cedar City to Bryce Canyon in 1920? Eight hours.
- RED_120717_142.JPG: Playing on the Land:
"In America there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. This is what makes America was it is."
-- Gertrude Stein
Today, recreation on public lands includes leisure-time activities and sports that challenge and refresh people in new ways. Backpacking, rock climbing, road and mountain biking, horseback riding, four-wheeling, skiing and snowmobiling provide adventure for visitors and business opportunities for local entrepreneurs.
Whether we choose to walk, drive, ride or glide, we all share a desire to experience the great natural beauty of this country, and see it preserved for future generations. Enjoy this magnificent environment with an eye to the future!
- RED_120717_145.JPG: Water and Fire: Still Sculpting the Landscape
Water: The Ribbon of Green:
The watersheds of the West are often referred to as ribbons of green. They traverse the land and bring life to its otherwise dry terrain. A watershed is an entire area from which water drains across, under and through, on its way to a water body.
The Upper Sevier Watershed drains the terrain in and around Red Canyon. The natural resources in this watershed have been vital to farmers and ranchers in the region since early settlement. Today, the natural resources and special places of this watershed are in even greater demand than in the past. Watersheds impact all of our lives; they have to managed cooperatively if they are going to provide sustainable, quality water into the future.
Did you realize that over 60 million Americans get their drinking water from watersheds that originate within natural forests? Most of us don't think about water any further upstream than our own faucet.
Fire: Nature's Housekeeper:
Fire has been a natural force in the forest and watersheds of the West for millions of years. Lightning ignites most fires in the forest. American Indians learned to light fires to revitalize grasses which eventually lured grazing animals. They even used fire to drive elusive prey into traps!
Until recently, wildfires were suppressed as soon as possible. Now, some naturally ignited fires are allowed to burn, "cleaning" the forest floor of the normal build-up of needles, dead grasses, thick brush and dead trees. These fires create openings in the forest, stimulating growth and increasing plant diversity.
Fire specialists use prescribed burning as a tool to create and maintain healthy forests and watersheds and reduce the potential for catastrophic wildfires.
A diverse forest landscape is a better place for all of us. Examine it with new eyes!
- RED_120717_149.JPG: The Forest Service Comes to Town:
"The environment is where we all meet: where we all have a mutual interest; it is one thing that all of us share..."
-- Lady Bird Johnson
By the late 19th Century, the weight of the West's growing population and their demands on the land exceeded the fragile environment's ability to support them. Overgrazed rangelands, clear-cut forests, and fire-scorched watersheds left the people of the rural West with diminishing livelihoods. In response to these concerns, the Forest Service was created in 1905. The National Forest System comprises more than 191 million acres. The Dixie National Forest is but one of 156 National Forests in the United States.
- RED_120717_153.JPG: Forest Partnerships: Keys to the Future:
Partnerships are an important part of the history and future of the Forest Service. As early as 1916, the Forest Service, Union Pacific Railroad and local volunteers partnered to provide automobile access to Bryce Canyon. This early road through Red Canyon featured the picturesque tunnels we still use today.
Today, Forest Service partnerships continue to have special significance to Red Canyon:
* Red Canyon Visitor Center and the Red Canyon Bike Trail are the result of a partnership with the Utah Department of Transportation, Garfield County, and local communities.
* The cradleboard represents another cooperative effort. A Forest Service Rural Community Assistance grant helped the Paiute Tribe of Utah rediscover traditional craft skills.
The future of our National Forests in in your hands. Join us as a partner!
- RED_120717_185.JPG: Red Canyon Tunnels: Gateway to Natural Wonders:
Building the Tunnels:
"We came upon what I have always considered the most beautiful piece of natural scenery on the face of the earth... Immediately upon my return to Panguitch, I began to make it possible to reach the canyon by automobile."
-- W.J. Humphrey, Powell National Forest Supervisor, recollecting his first visit to Bryce Canyon circa 1915. Though it took nearly a decade of effort, Humphrey realized his dream of a road through Red Canyon.
Rusted Roads:
The bright formations of Red Canyon are largely limestone, built from sediments of a lake that covered this region 35-50 million years ago. The pink, orange, and red tones come from oxidized iron in the limestone -- in other words, rust. Color hues depend on the amount of iron in the rock.
A New Park's Magical Opening:
"One little fairy hopped upon the running board and asked Governor Dern if he believed in fairies. 'Yes,' he said. 'Then,' said she, 'enter into Fairyland."
-- from Golden Nuggets of Pioneer Days, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1949
On June 1, 1925, a 315-car caravan, led by Governor George Dern, arrived at the Red Canyon tunnels to celebrate the opening of Utah National Park (later renamed Bryce canyon National Park). A flower-strewn gate closed the entrance to the second tunnel, and a banner proclaimed "Welcome to Utah's Fairyland." Children dressed as fairies tied flowers and long ribbons to the bumper of the governor's car. When the governor pronounced his belief in fairies, two young elves opened the fates while a band, perched atop the tunnel, began to play. Dancing fairies pulled on the streamers (and men pushed from behind) to draw the car through the tunnel. Ever since that momentous celebration, the Red Canyon tunnels have served as a magical entrance to Red and Bryce Canyons.
- Description of Subject Matter: This isn't a park but it's located outside of Bryce National Park and you pass it on the way in. It's a wonderful section of red-colored sandstone in interesting formations. This is a microcosm of what you see at Bryce.
- Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.)
I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com
and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
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