February Hike in the Red Cliffs Desert Preserve

Today we took a fun 8.8 mile hike in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve; it's located about 10 miles from Hurricane. Karen, a co-worker of Kents' came with us. We left one car at the Grapevine Trailhead and then drove to the Cottonwood Trailhead to begin the hike. It was a chilly morning so we had on light jackets and gloves at the start; before long we were down to T-shirts. We began on the Cottonwood Hills Trail trudging through lots of sand....what a workout! We joined up with the Upper Bracken's Loop and ended on the Grapevine Trail. We had originally thought of circling back to the Cottonwood Trailhead, we soon realized that wasn't going to happen as it would have added about 4 miles of hiking in the deep sand....what were we thinking?! We have to admit that we're getting older, but we can still hike!

We started at the Cottonwood Trailhead and ended at the Grapevine Trailhead 8.8 miles

It was a beautiful day in Southern Utah

Starting out.......

Kent, Karen and Tahoe

Interesting lava formations

Snow on the Pine Valley Mountains made for a nice contrast with the Red Cliffs

Kent and his faithful hiking buddy, Tahoe

Looking south towards St. George

Yucca

Interesting terrain in every direction 

Tahoe enjoys a cold drink

Hidden surprises

Moss in the desert!

Neat textures and shapes in the sandstone

We came across several rings on the sandstone, no explanation.....maybe to tie horses or haul something up the cliff?

More of the rings

Sandstone swirls and sand marbles

Cholla cactus

Basalt cliffs layered in between the sandstone

Basalt columns

Looking toward Zion