Cedar Breaks National Monument

Will expanded wireless service for cellphones and the Internet enhance your national park experience, or will it clutter it with a technological Disneyification of the parks, one that will detract from, not add to, the national park experience?

Recent snow storms have led to the closure of some roads at both Dinosaur National Monument and Cedar Breaks National Monument for the rest of the winter.

Snowfall already has been recorded in Utah's high country, and for Cedar Breaks National Monument that means the end of the busy travel season and time to prepare for the quieter winter season.

How mild was this past winter in Utah? Mild enough that Cedar Breaks National Monument will be able to open its visitor services in time for Memorial Day Weekend.

Utah's collection of national parks, monuments, and historic sites helped generate $6.5 billion in tourism spending for the state in 2010, an increase of nearly 5 percent, according to state calculations.

In this guest column, RL Miller, a California-based attorney who keeps watch on environmental issues on public lands, questions the wisdom of allowing the Coal Hollow Mine to expand to more than 3,500 acres near Bryce Canyon National Park.

A massive landslide, possibly 1,700 feet wide by as much as 100 feet deep in places shoved a Utah highway 100-150 feet downhill, indefinitely closing off one route to Cedar Breaks National Monument.

Bountiful snowmelt this spring and summer has led to a dazzling display of wildflowers at Cedar Breaks National Monument, where officials have extended their wildflower festival through month's end.

Having already pushed back the summer opening date once, Cedar Breaks National Monument officials are finding themselves having to due it again, this time until June 17.

The list seems to be going on and on in the Rockies and Sierra this spring: too much snow is complicating openings of national parks for the summer season. One of the latest casualties is Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah, where crews are still trying to open the road.

Cedar Breaks National Monument officials will be showing off their yurt this weekend to get the public accustomed to relying on it for winter recreation information.

Though the annual wildflower festival at Cedar Breaks National Monument is months away, officials are searching for a poster design to promote this year's festival.

With a potent winter storm dumping multiple feet of snow on Utah's high country, the timing couldn't be much better for the annual cross country ski and snowshoe event at Cedar Breaks National Monument in southern Utah.

What's in a name? Apparently a lot when the name includes "national park."

If you live near, or can travel to, Mount Rainier or Voyageurs national parks, or Cedar Breaks National Monument, for one last fall fling, now's the time to do it.

It's hard to beat autumn for prime hiking in parks from coast to coast. This season brings fine weather to most of the country and in many locations fall foliage is an added bonus. There are more hikes in national parks that we can take in a lifetime, so here are a few suggestions for some great ones all across the nation—including some alternatives to the most heavily-visited sites.

While the big five -- Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Zion -- get most of the attention in Utah, Cedar Breaks National Monument is certainly no slouch. With Methuselah trees and a colorful amphitheater that would embarrass Crayola, Cedar Breaks should be on your itinerary.

The Perseid Meteor Showers will soon be upon us, and Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah is celebrating with a star party next week.

A good example of how diverse Utah's national parks are is playing out now. While visitors to Arches and Canyonlands national parks are enjoying warm, short-sleeve weather and blooming flowers, Cedar Breaks National Monument is still closed due to heavy snows.

If you enjoy looking at wildflowers, and you're handy with a camera, you might want to enter the annual wildflower poster art contest at Cedar Breaks National Monument.

If you're within the vicinity of Cedar Breaks National Monument this coming Saturday, you might want to join the rangers there for a snowshoe hike or cross-country ski tour of the colorful monument.

Cedar Breaks National Monument has one of the most colorful amphitheaters of the National Park System, but you're going to have to work a little bit to see it in the coming months as the road to the Utah monument has been closed by snow for the winter.

Dazzling strokes of Indian paintbrush, daubs of lupine and larkspur, and dashes of primrose will be on display at Cedar Breaks National Monument during its 4th Annual Wildflower Festival next month.

How much have the national parks changed since you were a kid? Have they changed? When you return to a park that you haven't been to in decades, is it like returning to an old friend, or visiting someplace totally alien?

While winter got off to a slow start in Utah, things are starting to pick up in terms of snowfall. In fact, there's enough snow at Cedar Breaks National Monument that the superintendent will lead a cross-country ski and snowshoe hike this Saturday.

If you didn't find time to drive up to Cedar Breaks National Monument this year, well, you have missed your opportunity for 2008. With winter closing in on Utah's high country, the roads leading to the colorful monument have been closed for the season.

There's an economic report out touting the benefits that a Mount St. Helens "National Park" would bring surrounding communities. And that begs the question of whether units of the National Park System should be viewed largely as economic engines?

Sweeping panoramas, fluted slot canyons and fossilized sand dunes are among the subjects that Jon Ortner brings into focus with Canyon Wilderness of the Southwest, an expansive coffee table book.

It was just about a year ago that I wrote about the invasion of "GPS Rangers" into the national parks. Back then I wasn't so keen on this hand-held electronic tour gizmo, but there does seem to be a hidden blessing in it.

In geologic time, something that's quite evident at Cedar Breaks National Monument, 75 years is pretty insignificant. But that doesn't mean the folks who operate the monument and those who take pride that it's in their backyard aren't going to throw a heck of a birthday party.