2018-15 Bryce Canyon NP and Kodachrome Basin St Pk UTAH

2018-15

along hwy 12, Dixie National Forest

Mount Carmel Junction
Dixie National Forest
Bryce Canyon National Park
Kodachrome State Park

Campground: Mount Carmel Junction. An open construction site often used for Horse rally events, they permit Rv’s to park overnight or a few nights for free. Boondocking site. Free. Weak to no Verizon signal.

Mount Carmel Junction, at construction site

Campground: Dixie National Forest, off of Tom Best Road/ hwy 12. Close to Bryce Canyon. Forest campsites, Free, limit two weeks. Good Verizon signal. Awesome location expansive views and forested settings. Elevation 7777 ft, could be cold at night.

Dixie National Forest, free camping

Campground: Kodachrome State Park. $30. Full hookups. No cell phone signals, no TV signals or radio, with spectacular views all around who needs any of that. Awesome modern campground. Mostly paved pull-thru sites, many with full hookups. Good paved road leading to state park which is at the end of the road. New Laundry room with excellent machines. FIVE STAR RATING.

Kodachrome Basin State Park, 5 star rating

Distance traveled: 100 miles

Heading out from Lake Powell, my original plan was to stop over in the nice town of Kanab, which has grown up nicely since I was last here. it’s also close to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Although I was recommended a few BLM free campsites outside of town near the Angel Canyon Loop, I discovered that all of the dispersed sites were located on red sandstone sand. Very fine and loose. Obviously I could have gotten stuck. So the decision was to continue heading north. Stopping off in Mount Carmel Junction for lunch, I had noticed an open field south of the junction where a couple of motor-homes were parked in a sand/gravel and asphalt staging area. Turned out that the company that owns the land permits Rv-ers to camp overnight. They also recently had a horse rally of some sort where ranchers and horsemen would go on 25, 50 and even 100 mile trail rides. That’s a lot of riding over a couple of days.

construction area behind my "free" campsite

some Junctions corners are more interesting than others

yes, I always take photos with my Store Indians

The junction is super busy as was the Lake Powell area with lots of tour buses and vacationers traveling through the area especially to Zion National Park. I decided to forgo it this time of year as the crowds are unbelievable. My plans are to head a bit further to some parks I haven’t experienced. Many rental Class C campers and a new rental Van-camper with colorful graphics all over the van. Great way for 1^st time campers and many foreign visitors to experience travel in the U.S. without the excessive expense of hotels.

Distance Traveled: 50 miles
Dixie National Forest

There are some excellent National Forest and BLM offices in this part of the country and the Red Canyon Visitor Center provided some great information about forest camping. I was able to get an awesome site right off of the main road, hwy 12. What a great site with views to die for. The only issue boondocking at this site and this time of year, is that the temperatures could and did get down to freezing at night. Daytime temps were in the mid 70’s. The solar panels and 4 deep cycle batteries were barely adequate to handle the needs to run the furnace fan which ran quite often throughout the night, set on 65 degrees. And I even turned the furnace off completely one night as the batteries were getting dangerously low.

I think I'm going to like this boondocking in National Forests

Bryce Canyon National Park

But it was really close to Bryce Canyon National Park, which I went to the next day. Crowds. Can we all say crowds together. Geez, Shuttle buses everywhere, cars, campers and tourists. Once again many foreign visitors enjoying our wonderful parks. This time, more Asian tourists. I did my best to enjoy the park and even descended down onto one of the trails leading to the bottom of the canyon. I only made it about half way, talk about a steep trail with many switchbacks along the way. Of course I also had to climb back up. Need I say, the trail was super crowded as well. No pushing or shoving or one would go right over the very steep cliff edges. Well, that was enough of that.

yes, I went about half way down this very steep path
before turning around and getting out of the crowds

the early morning light was
awesome today

Distance Traveled:
28 miles (three times)
Kodachrome State Park

Even before getting into Kodachrome State Park
the scenery is breathtaking

Deciding as much as I really liked the forested setting, the nighttime freezing was just a bit much. I think I had every blanket on top of my bed the last couple of nights. After driving over to Kodachrome State Park and discovering that they had a “first come first served” site available, I drove back, packed up the camper and came back to Kodachrome for a couple of nights stay. This is a park I’ve not been to in the past and will get to enjoy the area a bit. Can we talk 50 amp electric service, paved campsite, water and sewer hookups. Unfortunately no cell phone service. Life is almost perfect.

The National Geographic Society in 1949, named the park Kodachrome with the consent from the Kodak Film Corp. after their recent development of Kodachrome as a superior film for capturing the true colors of nature. The name fits the area well, as the colors in the rock formations and the blues of the sky are quite stunning and every changing depending on the time of day and changing light and shadow from puffy white clouds passing by overhead.

all picture up to this point
were taken outside of the park

now for some pictures inside the park
by the way, this is a corner of the new Laundry facilities

Shakespeare's Arch, super nice 2 mile
hike around the mountain range 

Inside Kodachrome State Park

and all the campsites are nestled around these awesome
structures

cedar trees, hundreds of years old

rock on top of a slick rock

much debate as to how these pillars were formed

Campers Note: Commercial campgrounds run around $40-$55 average in this area. There are a lot of BLM and especially National Forest campgrounds (most are Free) Red Canyon campground (National Forest) even has hookups at their campground. 3 State parks in the area run $30 a night.

Bike Note: from hwy 89/ hwy 12 junction there is a superb paved bike path running 55 miles parallel to the highway to Bryce Canyon.

a wash inside of Kodachrome State Park

It’s nice to be able to see and explore an area that I’ve been close too, but have never ventured into. Obviously a rugged area with all the unusual rock formations and stark looking mountain ranges, yet nestled between them are green valleys irrigated by rivers coursing through them. The elevation at the Forest campsite was 7777 feet and Bryce Canyon is 8,0000 feet. High enough that there are pine forests and the ever present cedar trees with their twisted trunks and branches from the strong winds that blow through the area. And also high enough as I’ve mentioned that it can easily get down to freezing temperatures as well.

Here at Kodachrome State Park, the elevation is around 5,000 feet and the temperature is easily 15 degrees warmer both daytime and at night.

Campers Note: I personally rate Kodachrome State Park my highest marks for visitors and campers alike. Campsites are excellent, laundry room is the best I’ve ever used at any campground. Scenery and scenic view stop offs are top notch and today I took a couple mile hike loop along Shakespeare’s arch which not only was a great hike, but the views along the way were pretty awesome. Best of all, the trail was a sand/clay mixture with no rocks, making for a very pleasant hike, up, down and around the entire mountain loop trail.

More Photos:

Mt Carmel Junction

Dixie National Forest

Bryce Canyon National Park

Kodachrome Basin State Park