Saturday, May 20, 2017

Cathedral Gorge State Park - Panaca Nevada


Introduction


For a while now, I have had the Cathedral Gorge State Park on my "todo / bucket list".  The problem with Cathedral Gorge is that it is sort of hard to get to. 

Most people, when visiting the area, visit the Great Basin National Park and overlook this beautiful area.  

I was in Las Vegas and on my way to Wendover, so I decided to take an opportunity to visit this place.  I was not disappointed.

The park is only a minute from Route 93 once you pass through the tiny village of Panaca (not far from the Utah border).  There is a self-pay kiosk ($7) to get you in.  There are some camping facilities and bathrooms.  There was a pump for water as well but other than that, there wasn't much as far as resources went.

The park can easily be visited in about an hour.  There are a few areas where you can park your car, walk to the solid rock formations and poke around in the little crevices.  At first, I was expecting to get lost in them, but most of the narrow caves only went back about 40 yards or so.  

There was a 4 mile trail there, but I had just eaten and I was with non hikers so that wasn't really an option.  

I thoroughly enjoyed this trip and there definitely were some unique rock and sand formations.  The wind and sun has baked this stuff so that it is rock-hard.  While it looks delicate, it isn't.  It is like concrete.

If you are passing through, this park is definitely worth visiting.






Trail map





One of the narrows












An old water tower





















No comments:

Post a Comment