If you head east from Bryce Canyon National Park along Scenic Byway Route 12, you will soon come to Kodachrome Basin State Park. The park gets its name from a National Geographic expedition in the forties. The Eastman Kodak company, at the state’s request, gave the state permission to use the name of its Kodachrome color slide film for the park.
What an honor! To have some of the best photographers on earth come to an area and name it after your color film. Little did Eastman Kodak suspect that within eighty years, most children would not otherwise know what Kodachrome was, much less what color slides were, or, for that matter, what photographic film was. It would have been fun to tell the executives of the time that most children take pictures with their telephones these days, but at least your flagship film’s name is immortalized in an incredible state park in Utah. [Since I returned, I have learned that Kodak is discontinuing their Kodachrome film.]
The name tells you a great deal about Kodachrome Basin. Ansel Adams could, no doubt, have done wonderful things here, but color is really the thing. The red sandstones from different ages combine with the desert varnish and the other rock formations to splash color all over the landscape.
Trails here are good fun. When they say a trail is one mile long, this is a horizontal measurement. It does not include the vertical. A flatlander tourist will think a mile is not far, and not bother to take water. Big mistake. After you’ve climbed the first couple hundred feet (think climbing the steps in a twenty story building) and round a corner to see your car far below, you begin to suspect that perhaps you should have come better prepared. Also, sandstone in the summer sun makes an excellent frying pan, so hats and sun block are also a very good idea.
As I said earlier, Utah state parks seem to be understated in their signs, and the standards are those for local residents. So if a sign says a trail is strenuous, take it seriously, and if says the trail is very strenuous, content yourself with a picture of the sign.
An obviously safe trail, no sign needed.
Likewise, a perfectly safe and well-used viewpoint.
So do you really want to know what kind of trail follows these signs?
This trail climbs about 100 feet and is about a foot wide. I'm not sure what the options to staying on it are.
Tactful, if you can't fit through the gate, you probably don't want to go on the trail.
How did my car get way the heck down there?
TH stands for trailhead, which is where you want to go if black clouds suddenly appear overhead. Fortunately, I was hiking this trail on a Thursday, so I made it back down.
Lest I mislead, there are many rewards for hiking the trails of Kodachrome