May 24, 2010
Day 26: Cottonwood Canyon to Kodachrome Basin State Park
The sky was clear when I went to bed. But there was rain overnight and the temperature got much cooler when the rain started. It was still raining at 7AM, so I slept until 9. By then the rain had stopped and the sun was just starting to shine over the ridge to the east. There was a bit of snow on the bike seat, but no snow on the ground. I got on the road at 10:50.
Cottonwood Canyon continues upstream along Cottonwood Creek, but I was surprised to see that the creek is dry 3 miles upstream.
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I took the turnoff to Grosvenor Arch. It's a little more than a mile off Cottonwood Canyon road, plus a 1/4 mile walk to get under the arch.
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Cottonwood Canyon road passes over two 6400-foot summits, then descends to Kodachrome Basin state park. The last few miles of the road are extremely rough because Kane county hasn't graded the road since the National Monument was created in 1996. The county is furious that the federal government made half their county into a park without consulting with the county at all (the land was already federal property before it was a park). The road is also deeply rutted because some monster truck bozo drove on the road when it was muddy. Consequently the descent was very slow, about 8 mph.
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Pavement resumed at the entrance to Kodachrome Basin State Park. I arrived at 3:30 PM and got the last site at the campground. $16, with free showers. I spent the rest of the afternoon hiking various trails. It's beautiful and very user-friendly. The trails are mostly flat, but wander through vertical red rock.
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Today was much cooler than yesterday. Mostly cloudy with a high in the low 60's, but at least the wind wasn't very strong. Tonight is forecast to get down to 25F. People say it snowed last night and the snow didn't melt until 1 PM today.
Today was fairly strenuous despite the short cycling distance. The cycling was mostly on rough dirt with a lot of climbing, and I hiked 5 miles.
Yesterday and today I pedaled a total of 43 miles of dirt road in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
Distance: 25.0 mi. (40 km) 22.6 miles on dirt roads
Climbing: 2436 ft. (738 m)
Average Speed: 6.8 mph (10.9 km/h)
Maximum Speed: 17 mph (27 km/h)
Hiked 5 miles (8 km)
Today's ride: 25 miles (40 km)
Total: 1,223 miles (1,968 km)
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