Canyon Breeze Holsteins
Scenic Sunday - Cedar City, UT
We are back on track for our Scenic Sunday. Sorry about the past few weeks and if you somehow look forward to this every sunday I am sorry to disappoint, but most likely this simply ritual is forgotten about. If you do happen to be reading, thanks and hopefully you start to see the neat little world we live in around Southern Utah.
This week’s post circles around Festival City USA. Cedar City, UT has become known as Festival City because of the many events that are featured throughout the year. This is being posted today because two of the biggest events are currently running. Cedar City is the home of the Utah Summer Games and the Utah Shakespearean Festival. These two events draw thousands of people to the area and these events launch summer for the town.
Utah Summer Games
The Utah Summer games is a month long event that features athletes young and old from around the state of Utah. Most events happen Wednesday-Saturday from June 7th, July 1st. This event brings thousands of people to Southern Utah to compete and win gold. To have that one moment of success and accomplishment and the need to compete is what brings people back to Cedar City. They feature many sports including bowling, cycling, basketball, baseball, soccer, arm wrestling, Tae Kwan Do, fencing, and water polo just to name a few.
The Utah Summer Games are kicked off every year with their opening ceremonies. This year was a little bit different for the opening ceremonies because they were able to dig up the SUU football stadium because SUU will be replacing their field with astroturf. They tore up the stadium the week before the event to prepare for horses tromping through the dirt and also the high-energy Thrilbillies presented by Nitro Circus. Nitro Circus and Thrillbillies are two television shows that feature high-flying stunts with dirtbikes and basically any other vehicle like a canoe that create an adrenaline rush. The opening ceremonies went off without any problems. The athletes walked through the stadium and the Thrillbillies performed a spectacular event with exciting jumps and daring stunts.
Utah Shakespeare Festival
The Utah Shakespeare Festival is a Tony Award Winning production that is currently on it’s 51 years. The Festival always features many plays from William Shakespeare along with other high-quality plays like Fiddler on the Roof or Anne Frank. This seasons line up is as follows:
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Scapin
Mary Stuart
Les Miserables
Titus Andronicus
Hamlet
Stones in his Pockets
The summer season features 6 plays over the summer and 2 during the fall. The Festival lasts about 6 months and many visitors over the summer spend three days seeing all 6 plays. The Festival isn’t all about the plays. It is also about embracing the old renaissance style with singing a dancing including a hilarious Green Show that occurs each night before the dinner plays.
These 2 events help define Cedar City, UT as Festival City USA. We hope you enjoy. Check out more pictures at www.utahsummergames.org and www.bard.org
We hope to bring you more news and information in the near future. Thank you for reading.
Thrillbillies at the Utah Summer Games
The Greenshow at the Utah Shakespeare Festival
Zion National Park according to Google Maps is 1 hour and 54 minutes away from Minersville, UT. This beautiful park is 15 miles long and provides many spectacular views. Zion National Park is located near Springdale, UT, home to about 450 residents. Zion National Park is known as the oldest Utah National Park and it was designated in 1919. Zions attracts about 3 million visitors each year to the park.
Zion National Park presents plenty of activities for people to participate in, but the largest attraction is the hiking and the beautiful scenery. The most popular hiking spots are The Narrows, The Subway, Angels Landing, and Kolob Arch.
The Narrows at Zion National Park. The Narrows is a hike is a bit unusual on the Colorado Plateau because for 1/3 of the route the hike is done in the river. The walls are vertical and red in color and provides a narrow path through the park. The hike is pretty strenuous and some places the water is waist deep or higher. In the spring, the hike is typically closed because of the excess water from the winter storms.
This is the opening view to the Subway. The Subway is located between two peaks and is another strenuous hike throughout the park. There are many videos posted on YouTube that show the variation of water levels of the Subway and the difficulty of this 6+ hour hike is and requires a permit because of the popularity of the hike.
Zion’s provides everything from hiking to biking, camping to canyoneering, and even offroading and horseback riding. Zion National Park has plenty of activities for the young and old. The park provides visitors with beautiful views and breathtaking scenery. This National Park is truly magnificient is a wonderful treat for people in Southern Utah to have.
I have hiked a few trails in Zion and it is a sight to behold. There are small hikes and long hikes depending on how die-hard of a hike you are. There never seems to be a dull moment or a time when you don’t appreciate the wonderful vistas that Zions has to offer.
Minersville, UT is a small town with around 800 (817 according to the 2000 Census) settled in 1859. Minersville is located in Beaver County about 15 minutes from Beaver, UT, 40 minutes from Cedar City, UT, and about 1 1/2 hours away from St. George, UT.
Minersville was established because of the because of a lead mine and this is the reason for the town name. It soon found it’s main industry to be built around farming, dairy farming, and the railroad. Farmers and dairy farmers have been a vital part of the community of Minersville. Farms and dairies have been passed down from generation to generation and is still the main industry in Minersville. Milford (15 minutes away) was known as a railroad community and many people from Minersville were employed for the railroad. Many years ago the railroad industry faded, but soon enough Circle Four Farms was established in Milford Utah employing 400+ in southern Utah.
Minersville is a small town consisting of a Post Office, 2 gas stations, one feed store, a library and one grocery store. Minersville have become known as Punk’n Rollers because our pioneers were said to have rolled pumpkins down what is known as Bally Hill. Minersville has it’s own Punk’n festival to celebrate this name given to Minersville residents which features Pumpkin Chunkin. Minersville is located about 2 hours away from 5 National Parks (we will do blogs on these later). Minersville is a small, close knit community that has been built on tradition. Walking along the creek, eating sour sockets (never did this or understood this one, but it is a small little plant you can eat), green jell-o, 4th of July celebrations are just a few of the traditions that make Minersville a quaint little town to live in.
The “Old Grist Mill”
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY - Minersville Veterans Memorial
Thank you to all the men and women who are serving or have served in the military to protect our freedoms. We are grateful for the service men and women and we will remember those who have given their lives for this great nation!
Punk’n Chunkin
An old Aerial view of our dairy operation
A view from Minerville highway
Circle Four Farms
Welcome to the first ever Scenic Sunday post. Since we live in Southern Utah with many majestic and beautiful views we thought we would start showcasing these magnificent places. We have 5 national parks within about two hours of us, and many beautiful vistas all around us. We also want to discuss many local areas and what Southern Utah has to offer. The first post should be about Minersville which is where we are located, but it seemed fitting to start it with Kanarraville (one of the locations that is the best places for the solar eclipse today). Next week we promise to do it on Minersville and give you a little insight into the 800 person town.
Today is about Kanarraville, UT, home of 311 residents according to the 2010 census. Kanarraville is about one hour away from us and other than a few houses there doesn’t seem like there is much there. The biggest claim to fame to Kanarraville (before one of the prime locations to view the 2012 eclipse) is the Kanarra Creek Canyon (or Kanarraville Falls if you live in Southern Utah). Kanarraville Falls is a ”light to medium” two hour hike that includes some time passing through streams and the waterfalls.
The challenge comes from two waterfalls that block upstream travel through the narrow slot. Water flows here year-round and hikers must wade the stream in many places. The hike to the base of the first waterfall is short and easy. If you want moderate challenge then climb the falls and continue up the canyon. These falls are a fun little hike and something that has put the town of Kanarraville Falls on the map.
Also, as everyone else is aware the solar eclipse happened this evening as well. On the line of the best locations to see the eclipse was Kanarraville, UT. This small town had several visitors during the eclipse to see this event. Cedar City was predicting around 15,000 people were going to be traveling in to town (Cedar City & Kanarraville) to be apart of this event. We are going to include some pictures from the eclipse and the falls for you to enjoy. There are many more great locations that we are going to discuss and next week will be our hometown of Minersville, UT!
