Kodachrome Basin State Park Off The Beaten Path

Kodachrome Basin is a mixture of Utah's southwest landscape. The sandstone cliffs found in Bryce, the slickrock found in the Dixie region and the rock formations found in various Utah locations are all found in this one park. Its a great place for sightseeing and photographing.

Along the deserted road on the outskirts of Cannonville. In the distance are pink cliffs covered with snow and snowless bare brown cliffs before them. Its a spectacular sight. I've seen many of those, but they never fail to amaze me.
Its just a brief stop to capture the moment before its time to move on. Can't linger too long and can't look back as there are so many spectacular sights up ahead to focus on. And the sights seen through the windshield are always better than those in the rear view mirror.

If you've travelled through enough of Utah's parks, you may have grown weary of seeing rock formations. After all the arches and hoodoos and canyons, these rocks may seem to be, well, just plain rocks.

But that's no reason to bypass Kodachrome. First, the chimneys are grander in scale than the hoodoos of Bryce. And their towering forms seen against a backdrop of pinks, greens and browns will still amaze you, even if you think you've seen it all before in other parts of Utah. Simply put: this scenic park is about more than just the rocks.

Walking along the Panorama Trail, you'll come across a sign reading "ancient Indian cave." A short spur trail leads to the cave and then loops back to the main trail. There were no signs explaining anything further about the cave and little else of interest over here, so you may want to skip it unless you are really into things like that.

The Panorama Trail splits off and a separate trail heads to the Big Bear Geyser. According to the sign, there is a "cool cave" along this route as well. I'm not sure what makes a cave cool or whether its worth seeing, but I figured I'd pass the information along.

Hiking in Kodachrome gives you the opportunity to have an up close and personal view of this photogenic and unusual landscape. The wide range of contrasting colors and rocks contained within this tiny park are quite amazing.

The Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument surrounds this park. This is an area encompassing over one million acres of protected wilderness which extends to Capitol Reef National Park. Driving to Kodachrome, you can get a glimpse into the monument's beauty and see why the area has been so designated.

Geologists speculate that Kodachrome was once geographically similar to Yellowstone National Park. If you've been to both, its hard to picture how these parks could have resembled each other. But, at one time, Kodachrome Basin was filled with hot springs and geysers. Today, only sandstone chimneys remain, fueling the speculation about what this land once was.