Lower portion of the Blowhard Trail

We drove up Highway 14, east of Cedar City, to the Moots Hollow Trailhead to hike partway up the Blowhard Trail. Our route was 7 miles round trip with 1,500 ft of gain. At the parking area we saw these lovely rock formations and some fall colors! 

This trail is for both hikers and bicyclists. We saw 4 cyclists and no other hikers on the trail today.

View looking towards the south about 0.5 miles up the trail

colorful oak leaves

Another view to the south from further up the trail

We detoured from the trail to stay on the old road portion up to a rise and had a distant view of the red cliffs of Cedar Breaks National Monument, and then went back down to continue up the Blowhard Trail.

View to the west and Ashdown Gorge

We found some scarlet gilia in bloom

More views to the north and northeast from along the trail

About 2.5 miles up the trail, we entered Dixie National Forest.

Views to the south,

west,

and north from the trail as it went through meadow and forest. Here we stopped for a lunch break and had our turn around. Between the trees we had a good view of the rock formations at Cedar Breaks.

zoom 

zoom

And enjoying all the views again on our hike back down the trail.

It was nice to have this sign letting us know when to leave the old road portion back onto the trail.

Another view abut 0.5 mile from the trailhead. It was wonderful to be up at elevation and out of the heat today! The trailhead is at 7,590 ft

 

The Narrows

We hiked the Riverside Trail (from the last Shuttle stop in Zion National Park) to do part of The Narrows. The Riverside Trail is 1.1 miles each way, and we went about 1.6 miles along the Narrows Trail before turning around, for a total of about 5.4 miles round trip. View along the Riverside Trail.

Where we entered the Virgin River at the end of the Riverside Trail. We were told the water temperature was 56F, so we were kept cool to chilled on a hot day. It was long before we went through the deepest area that was waist deep (we put our cameras away until we were in shallower water again).

Views along our hike up the Narrows:

looking up

looking up, some  where near here we turned around as we were getting cold (I had slipped and fallen into the river getting quite wet(.

We found a sunny area to dry out as best I could and have a lunch break, before returning into the river and back to the Riverside Trail.

Some views along the Riverside Trail as we headed back to the shuttle stop.