Cedar Breaks National Monument can feel like a different world than most of southwest Utah.
There’s still plenty of red rock — the monument’s focal point is a massive amphitheater of orange and tan stone cut from the same layer as nearby Bryce Canyon. But unlike the warm desert valley of St. George 85 miles away, the park averages 12 feet of snow per year.
Visitation peaks in the summer, but Cedar Breaks is trying to make it easier for visitors to explore its snowy side, too.
The main road closes to cars each winter, and the North View Overlook — just inside the monument’s northern border — is typically the farthest people can drive. This winter, Cedar Breaks put up the first permanent contact station there and expanded the hours that it’s staffed. It also added more opportunities for people to join ranger-guided snowshoe hikes, offered three days a week when snow and weather conditions allow.
I joined a group of eight hikers on a chilly spring morning for a one-mile trek aimed at introducing beginners to the winter sport.
We gathered on a snowbank next to a row of big, flat footwear options and a metal trash can filled with ski poles — loaned gear that’s included in the park’s cost of admission. The snow drifts piled so high, that the tops of wooden fence posts and signs peeked out near our ankles.
For most of the visitors, this was their first time in snowshoes. After helping everyone put on their gear, Park Ranger Ty Riepel then demonstrated how we should walk.
“A good way to make sure you don’t step on your now-four-times-as-big feet is: walk kind of like a cowboy with a nice wide bow-legged stance. Can I get a ‘yeehaw’?,” Riepel called.
The group shuffled in a single file between and alongside tall, green Engelmann spruce trees, which blocked the otherwise howling wind. To the right, the snow-capped mountains around Brian Head ski area glistened in the sun.
A few times along our route, Riepel stopped to point out what the surroundings can teach about this high-elevation ecosystem — from how the frozen ground forces animals to burrow in the blanket of snow to how trees shield delicate summer wildflowers from the elements. He also explained how the snowpack, which provides water for surrounding communities like Cedar City, can be threatened by the dust that blows up from the valley. Dust can darken the snow and accelerate its melting.
“All of it’s intermingled. The snowpack is important for down below, and the way we treat the soil down there is important for up here.”
Midway through the hike, our path opened into a clearing that sloped down toward a cliff. In the amphitheater below: a three-mile-wide bowl of red rock spires and ridges dusted in a layer of white.
Hiker Denna Abell leaned on her ski pole and took it all in. She lives nearby in Iron County, so this was not her first time to Cedar Breaks. But it was her first time snowshoeing to see it like this.
“It's all spectacular, but it's a whole different scenery. It's completely different. I love it.”
Traveling on top of the snow is the only way to get to this particular overlook. That’s because — under the several feet of snow we’re walking on — there’s a meadow that will fill with wildflowers this summer and be off-limits to hikers.
This quiet, frosted landscape may look pretty sleepy, but the rangers said there’s still lots of life. Foxes and rodents dig into the snow to make their winter homes. There are even hummingbirds that stay year-round, slipping into a mini-hibernation to survive the cold.
The hike’s other ranger, Emily Childs, said her favorite example of adaptation at Cedar Breaks is the long-tailed weasel. It transforms from having thin brown fur in the summer to a thick white winter coat.
“You can think of the layers we put on — all of our coats, all of our hats and gloves. That could be our version of an adaptation,” Childs noted.
It may take rangers extra work to keep a park this snowy open all winter, but seeing this landscape through the eyes of first-timers makes it all worth it.
“It's really fun to see them try something new … and experience the park in a way that most visitors to Cedar Breaks will never experience it,” she said. “Because it is magical.”
Cedar Breaks National Monument guided snowshoe hikes have concluded for the 2023-2024 season. Find more information about snowshoeing in the park here.
