Distance 59.6 Miles Cedar City Canyon, over Cedar Breaks to Panguitch, UT
Ride Time: 6:11
Altitude Gain: 5789 Feet
Average Speed: 9.6
Maximum Speed: 35.7
Maximum Altitude: 10,409
Today I started up Cedar Canyon. I’m not sure of it’s real name. It is a good steady climb. The sign said no heavy trucks on this road but there were plenty using it. There was one broken down while I was going up the canyon. When there was a shoulder on the road, it was a good road to ride. At times, when the canyon got the steepest, there was no shoulder and I had to ride in the lane of traffic. They were doing some construction in the canyon so there were a lot of dump trucks using the road that day. The heavy trucks and RV’s did not want to loose their momentum going uphill and the road was just too narrow for three of us on a two lane road. The road dropped off to ten feet on my side of the road. The trucks came just too close. It was my worst day yet for close calls. The marked summit was 9910 feet.
The scenery was beautiful. The higher I climbed in the canyon, the greater the vistas. Besides the views, it was a relief to get out of the traffic for a moment at the pullouts. One pullout had a park with a swing set. We are never one to pass that opportunity up. At another view point, we ran into a group of four boys in a minivan. They were from Chicago touring southern Utah parks. We had a fun time talking to them and saw them going up and coming down the canyon.
Just after the summit, we took the road up further to Cedar Breaks National Monument. It is one of my favorite places. It felt even better to reach that summit and start the decent into Panguitch. At the Summit, Kathie took a hike into see the panoramic views. Panguitch Lake was calming with the waves hitting against the shoreline. We saw some deer and some other critters.
From the steep mountain cliffs with their scary drop-offs to the serenity of the beautiful mountain lake, it was a spectacular day.
ThruUSA2 