Cedar Breaks National Monument Things to Do

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Save the best for last? Rows of eroded hoodoos stand like so many toy soldiers in colorful array, a preview of Bryce? Orange Ridge attracts your immediate attention. catch your breath for the viewpoint is 10435 ft/3181 m high!

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At 10350 ft/3155 m, Point Supreme offers a magnificent first look out over the colors of the Breaks. A small visitor center set right on the rim, offers a few explanations to the geology and ecology in question. Since you are looking to the north, this could be one of the best picture-taking spots, shooting away from the sun.

Breath deeply up here, because the air is thinning out quick.

The next turnout north of Point Supreme is Sunset View. Another turnout and another look out over the colors and wonders of Cedar Breaks. Cedar City can be seen many thousands feet lower and several miles to the west.

Stop number three, this overlooks Chessmen Ridge which acts as the center aisle for the coliseum that is Cedar Breaks. During the winter - approximately mid-October through late May - the Park road is closed. You can access the Park at these times via snowmobile, snowshoe or ski from the Brian Head ski area two miles to the north. From the turnout is the Park's other trail - Alpine Lake trail - which loops of for two miles through dense forest that has been decimated by bark beetles.

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We visited Cedar Breaks in the middle of May, 2006. I had researched our Utah adventure enough to know that the trails at Cedar Breaks are only along the rim. We were staying in St. George so it was only a short drive up to Cedar Breaks. We got there early, around 10:30. Left 90+ degrees in St. George and headed up to 10,000 plus feet and it was in the middle 50's.
Cedar Breaks is stunning, steep and the colors are perhaps more extreme than Bryce. There was however 3 feet of snow on the ground in the shade! The rim trails were out of the question as I hadn't packed my snow shoes. You could easily navigate the drifts to get out to the 5 or 6 major viewpoints. The snow in the crevices made the photos that much more dramatic. It really was worth the drive up there. I imagine hiking the trails around the top of it would be well worth your time if you were there in the summer months.
How cool/awesome is the state of Utah? After discovering that we wouldn't be able to hike the rim at Cedar Breaks and seeing all of the views from the round trip drive, we drove back toward St. George and had a great picnic lunch in the Kolob Canyon section of Zion. After lunch we had enough time to drive down to the Valley of Fire in Nevada. We arrived at the V of F around 3:30 and hiked some great, short (important: short, temp. at the V of F: 103!) hikes in narrow canyons and saw fascinating petroglyphs and pictographs. Left the Valley of Fire around 6:30 and drove back up to St. George on the Joshua Tree Scenic Byway. Yes, it probably was a 300+ mile trip but the Speed Limit in Utah is 70 and the roads are nice and wide open. The travel was almost as enjoyable as the four areas we visited this day.
If you've never been, Utah is jam packed with scenic wonders. I had read that every turn you take unveils a stunning new vista. It is absolutely true.

The drive on Hwy 14 between Cedar City and Bryce is very scenic with amazing views of Zion and even Arizona. Cedar Breaks is a short distance off on Hwy 148 and is worth the slight diversion. The national monument is a nice introduction to what you will see in Bryce but on a smaller scale and at a higher elevation. We found alot of pretty wild flowers along the side of the paths and road in August.