Virgin River Gorge

I decided to go to an area that I hadnt been to for quite a while. To the southwest of St George, Utah there is a deep river gorge that the Virgin river flows through. Interstate 15 runs through this gorge and was one of the most expensive stretches of highway ever built due to the rugged terrain.
 The developed camp grounds at Cedar Pocket in the gorge is rarely crowded and has some beautiful scenery overlooking the Virgin River.
 There are dirt roads all through this area of the Mojave Desert and the Joshua trees and cactus are typical of the Mojave desert. The scenery is beautiful but if traveling these dirt roads you need to make sure that your carrying plenty of water and are self reliant as the roads are not heavily traveled.
 There is wilflife in this desert if you know where to look and this is one of my favorite areas for getting pictures of Desert Bighorn Sheep. They are not easy to get to and the mountains in this gorge are as sharp as coral so I would recommend gloves and long pants as well as good hiking boots. The best time to visit is the spring and the fall as the temperatures are much more forgiving.
 I hiked around for four or five hours but did not see the Bighorn Sheep but the wildflowers were in bloom and I did get some great pictures of the scenery from the top of the gorge.