RonnieAdventure #0067 - Cedar Breaks National Monument & Rattlesnake Creek Trail, Iron County, Utah

Cedar Breaks National Monument at 10,350 feet elevation is a great place to spend the weekend during the summer or in the early fall. The only problem is that it is about a three hour drive from Las Vegas.

Cedar Breaks Nation Monument was established in 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to protect the great natural rock amphitheater at Cedar Breaks. The amphitheater is shaped like a huge coliseum that is over 2,000 feet deep and over three miles in diameter and was formed by many of the same natural forces that created the many spectacular and colorful canyons of southern Utah; e.g., Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon.

For millions of years wind and rain eroded the uplifted soil deposits and created the intricate formations that you see today. The vivid red, yellow, and purple colors in the formations are a  combination of iron and manganese found in the soil deposits, which are very similar to the formations found at Bryce Canyon National Park. 

There are a variety of flowers and trees in the area, with different species of flowers blooming from early spring until late fall. Although the area is called "Cedar Breaks," this is actually a misidentification of the trees found in the area. There are no "Cedar" trees, the single-seed Juniper trees just resemble Cedar trees.

My favorite hike in the area is Rattlesnake Creek Trail, which starts on the north boundary of the Monument and runs downhill for ten miles. (What is there not to like about a trail that is all downhill for ten miles!) The trail is divided into two very distinct and different segments. The fist five miles of the trail is forested with spectacular views of Cedar Breaks and the last five miles runs through a deep, narrow canyon similar to the Zion Narrows. There is even a natural bridge high on one of the canyon walls that most people do not even see because it is only visible from one spot in the canyon.

The advantage to this trail over the Zion Narrows is that the trail is primarily on Forest Service land; thus, no permits are required and there are very few people that actually use the trail. In some places it is hard to even find the upper part of the trail that runs though the forest, so you just have to keep walking down the hill until you reach the canyon.

I would highly recommend the hike, just do not go when there is a high potential for rain because there are few places to exit the canyon. Water shoes are a must for this hike, as the canyon is so narrow that you are constantly walking in and out of the water for the last five miles. (If you look closely, you can see people in five of the pictures. The size of the landscape just dwarfs the size of the people.)