Cedar Breaks is a series of vast amphitheatres eroded to a depth of 2,000 feet into the Pink Cliff formation at the summit of the Markagunt Plateau and covering an area of approximately sixty square miles in the Sevier National Forest. Its forested rim, 10,300 feet in elevation, has been etched back into Blowhard Mountain and adjacent eminences; and a short distance to the north the blunted volcanic crest of Brian Head rises 900 feet higher, affording a panorama of practically all of southern Utah, Nevada and northern Arizona.

Within its limitless labyrinths countless millions of grotesque and magnificent architectural forms, anointed with all the colors of the spectrum, flash into the eyes of the beholder. The erosional structures are blends of Egyptian and massive medieval Gothic walls, modified in a thousand surprising and original details, and rising generally from far-flung, wedge-shaped base courses of white and orange. The colors change marvelously in response to the sun; pink is dominant, though, at times, orange tones seem to prevail. In broad aspect the color scheme is pink, red, orange, yellow, white, lavender and purple, with intermediate tints and hues that would form a dictionary of pigments; and on the countless scalloped slopes appears the green of spruces, firs and pines. An artist has counted more than sixty tints in Cedar Breaks.

There are six or seven great amphitheatres, semicircular or three-quarter circles in shape, with sharp ridges radiating from rim to center; the few trails into the abysmal serrate basins are faint and obscure, yet the descent with a guide offers unsuspected marvels; then only does one comprehend the immensity and the variety of Cedar Breaks.

Along the rims are several easily reached viewpoints, among them Point Supreme and Point Perfection. Conspicuous in the welter of forms below are innumerable red, castellated bastions in parallel rows; long, writhing dragon-like forms of pure white; and huge sprawling dinosaurs covered with blood. For all its beauty, the place might appropriately have been the habitat of prehistoric monsters. The panoramas westward across the deserts of the Great Basin are notably fine.

In vastness, in variety of color, in wild grandeur, Cedar Breaks is the greatest of Utah’s painted amphitheatres.

Cedar Breaks to Bryce Canyon

It is seventy miles from Cedar Breaks to Bryce Canyon. Crossing the broad summit of the Markagunt Plateau the highway traverses fine coniferous forests that frequently open into charming “parks,” and passes great areas covered with lava from Hancock Peak and the adjacent extinct volcanoes. Navajo Lake, a beautiful mountain tarn encircled by pines and a noted fishing water, is about eight miles beyond Midway.

Soon pretty Duck Creek, rising in full power from a fine spring and filled with trout, parallels the highway for several miles, then disappears under the volcanic rock. At the crossing of Strawberry Gulch a little used trail extends southward to Strawberry Point, a famous observation place on the Pink Cliffs. The main highway is alternately surfaced with white, pink and red rock, a painted road in a land of color.

At Cedar Breaks Junction, the route turns north, following the head waters of the Sevier River, one of the most important streams of the Great Basin; to the eastward, in the vicinity of Hatch, vistas of the Pink Cliffs appear. Then the road crosses the Sevier and enters Red Canyon.

The rich red turrets and towers at this canyon gateway are harmonious introductions to the greater glories of Bryce. Once within its narrow defile, the superb portal broadens into a little pine-dotted valley and its walls display hundreds of spires, windowed walls, bridges, columns and statue-like shapes of pink and ruby. The road, often running through arches in the red cliffs, is as smooth as a boulevard. Next, the route leads out upon the level, treeless surface of the Paunsaugunt Plateau, and comes with startling unexpectedness to one of the splendid amphitheatres of the Pahreah Basin.