The highway crosses the Rio Virgen at Rockville and climbs the plateau, whence splendid views may be had of the Temples of Zion. Near the Arizona boundary appear the magnificent Vermilion Cliffs which stretch across Southern Utah for great distances; they present the arresting architectural effects of vast castles and cathedrals colored rich red which becomes vivid vermilion in the afternoon sun.
After crossing Short Creek into Arizona the immense blue arch of the Kaibab Plateau becomes more prominent and Mt. Trumbull, an extinct volcano overlooking Grand Canyon, looms in the purple distance. Upon this stretch of fascinating desert range many wild horses, direct descendants, perhaps, of those brought to America by the Spaniards. On Cedar Ridge is a petrified forest.
The road follows the Vermilion Cliffs eastward through the Kaibab Indian Reservation to Pipe Spring, a celebrated oasis on the plains, created a National Monument in 1923. The two historic stone buildings standing there were erected more than fifty years ago in fortress style for protection from the Indians; from beneath one house flows the finest and purest spring in all this frontier domain, daily discharging 100,000 gallons of cool water.
At Pipe Spring, the Vermilion Cliffs recede northward and give place to the Shinarump Cliffs, banded with gorgeous colors—red, brown, lavender, chocolate and white. A conspicuous butte seen approaching Fredonia is The Battleship. Fredonia is a pretty little Mormon community of 300 inhabitants and the only town in Arizona north of the Grand Canyon.
Between Fredonia and the Kaibab is one of the most picturesque and exquisitely colored stretches of upland in America. Whites, blacks, browns, yellows, pinks, purples, reds and all their pale intermediate tints are splashed over these prismatic plains, where cactus, yucca, piñon, sage and cedar somehow find sustenance.
Almost imperceptibly, the automobile has climbed the gentle slopes of the Kaibab. Looking backward to the north one of the grandest spectacles of the Plateau Country is unfolded. Nearly 10,000 feet of terraced rock layers are exposed edgewise across a frontage of some sixty miles. A glorious panorama, these painted precipices! First the rainbow Shinarump, then the Vermilion, White and Pink cliffs, tier upon tier and hundreds of miles in convoluted length, all shining and shifting in the sun.
Bryce Canyon from Inspiration Point
The Temple of Osiris, Bryce Canyon