We had planned on making this trip to the Paunsaugunt Plateau, last September, with our friends John & Mary, but had to cancel due to an unforeseen event. Now, eight months later, it worked out that our schedules aligned and so it was time to spend a few days exploring this wonderful area south of Tropic Reservoir. The pictures that follow cover several days of riding Side-by-Sides, a little hiking, and some fishing. As we had hoped, John & Mary enjoyed this high plateau as much as we did, and are planning on making another trip back on their own.
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| Violets growing along a creek |
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Mary trying her luck on a pretty mountain stream
(She caught one but it got off the hook and back in the water before Allison could get a picture) |
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Now, it was John's turn . . .
You would never think this creek would hold some nice Cutthroats, but it does! |
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| One cast and John pulled out this pretty eight-inch Cutthroat |
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| After an hour of fishing, we decided to ride up to the west side of the Plateau and explore the Black Butte area |
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We hiked a small portion of the Grand View trail that leads under Black Butte . . .
A good picture of Mary, John and Kent . . . too bad we didn't get our photographer in the picture |
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| Greenleaf manzanita in bloom |
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As we were making our way back to camp, the thunder clouds began to build . . .
It rained all around us, but we only got a few drops . . . just enough to mess up the windshields
Hard to believe this young bristlecone pine can survive on top of these cliffs . . .
The cliffs, in the center of the picture, were the ones we were standing by in the last picture |
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Back at King's Creek Campground . . .
Someone had left this firewood at a remote campsite that we came across as we were driving . . .
It was nice of them to think of the next person, which happened to be us! |
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King's Creek Campground was a great place to use as a base camp . . .
Surprisingly, it was very quiet with more open spots than taken ones |
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| New pine cones forming on a fir tree |
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The next day we headed for the Pink Cliffs . . .
This was such an amazing loop that we had to give it it's own post (click on the link above to view) . . .
On the way back to the campground, we tried fishing another of the many streams in the area |
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Kent spent more time getting his hook unsnagged, than he did fishing . . .
Although we saw a few nice trout, we couldn't get any on the bank |
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We had seen this old cabin on a previous hike to Water Benchmark, but hadn't stopped to check it out . . .
So we asked John & Mary if they wouldn't mind taking us back to it, since we were in the area
and the fishing wasn't really working out |
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Quite the cabin . . .
At one time it had been drywalled inside, had a stove and even some electricity . . .
What we found most humorous, though, was the outhouse which had a cement toilet! |
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| They certainly had a gorgeous valley for a camp |
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| On our last day we decided to try fishing the East Fork of the Sevier River |
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| Mary got serious about sneaking up on the trout! |
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| But it was Allison who caught this nice brown trout |
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| One last picture of our friends before we head back to camp and pack up |
It's really hard to believe that such a neat area lies just a few miles west of Bryce Canyon National Park. While the Park is flooded with sightseers from all over the world, this part of the Paunsaugunt Plateau sees only a few visitors and is open public land. If you happen to be in the area, you might want to take the road to Tropic Reservoir . . . you won't be disappointed!
