The Three Summer Flavors of Cedar City

There are few places better to invest some of your summer than Cedar City, Utah, where the attractions are first-class culture and the high country lying to its east, which offers outdoor recreation and one of the best wildflower shows in the West.

The Tony Award-winning Utah Shakespearean Festival opens Monday, and the Utah Neil Simon Festival opens in a couple of weeks. Less than 20 miles away, the Markagunt Plateau offers limitless possibilities for high-altitude hiking, mountain biking, or merely gazing at blooms bursting from meadows and mountains untouched by scythe or mower.

Two weeks ago, my daughter Charlotte, 13, accompanied me to the area for three days. By the end of our trip, we had spent some time on the Utah Shakespearean Festival grounds, hiked a few trails, visited a lava tube and an alpine lake, and taken in the sights at Cedar Breaks National Monument and Brian Head.

"Cedar City is nestled into some of the most beautiful country in the world," summer resident Carol Linnea Johnson said. "It is just made for people to be in the outdoors; biking, hiking or even just walking around is pleasant." Johnson and her husband, Don Burroughs, make Las Vegas their primary home. If their names ring bells, it's because they are professional actors. Many Southern Nevadans saw Johnson play the starring role of Donna (2006-2009) in "Mamma Mia!" at Mandalay Bay.

While the couple have impressive resumes in television and Broadway productions, they met here 14 summers ago during the festival's production of "The Three Musketeers" and are returning to their happy old haunts for the summer. Johnson plays the leading lady in Hitchcock's "The 39 Steps" and Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Lady Lucas and Mrs. Gardiner in Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." Burroughs stars as Dogberry in "Much Ado About Nothing," and as Banquo in "Macbeth." Even their 5-year-old daughter, Linnea, will take the stage, as one of the Macduff children in "Macbeth."

The outgoing Linnea clued me in to the point of the Shakespearean tragedy. "It teaches us a lesson: Don't do anything bad." She didn't dwell long on the play's psychological complexity, but was soon discussing costume issues. "I have a cute little dress with a cape on it," she noted.

Burroughs said the festival's rich mix of education and empowerment makes it especially attractive to visitors. One can see Shakespeare's plays many places, but here one can see them in a replica of the 17th-century theater where some were first performed. During the greenshow, which precedes each night's performance, visitors can enjoy the variety acts of the Bard's day -- dancers, jugglers, magicians and puppeteers, all the while munching on tarts like those peddled to the audiences so long ago. There are backstage tours and seminars on production and literature.

Nor is Shakespeare the only theatrical game in town. The Neil Simon Festival's eighth season opens July 15 with some of Simon's best, such as "California Suite" and "Broadway Bound." Robert Harling's "Steel Magnolias" also will be presented.

It was early morning on the second day of our trip when we turned our attention to the outdoors, heading up to the scenic high country. In less than five minutes from town ,we were driving up Scenic Byway 14, and within a half an hour, we had arrived on the Markagunt Plateau. While July brings sweltering temperatures to most of the Southwest, up here, it remains cool. At Cedar Breaks National Monument, daily highs average only 68 this time of year.

Our first stop was a small pullout that served as the trailhead for the half-mile Bristlecone Trail. We headed out on the heavily forested path, and in about 10 minutes, we were not only surrounded by the ancient bristlecone pine trees but were also treated to far-reaching views down into the Virgin River Valley and the North Fork of the Virgin River, the headwaters of the Zion Narrows.

We next took a 10-minute drive to Navajo Lake. The 1,500-acre natural lake is worth driving around at the very least, but if you have the time, it's a great place to camp, rent a cabin, explore a variety of trails or rent a small boat and fish for trout.

Our next destination was just past the small town of Duck Creek, where we headed off onto a gravel forest service road for a few miles in search of Mammoth Cave. While called a cave, it is really a lava tube, and as lava tubes go, this is a good one. When flowing lava cools and hardens on top, the hotter lava below flows out, leaving a tunnel or hole. This tube has one large entrance and four smaller ones, and more than 2,100 feet of passages.

Donning a headlamp, Charlotte investigated the main opening and traveled in a ways on her own, but returned after a few minutes. Emerging just behind her was a group of young teens and children who had explored one of the longest tunnels the entire way. Their father, who was confident in their guiding abilities, volunteered their amateur services to bring Charlotte and two other interested adults through. She was ready and willing, and off they went into the underground.

After about 15 minutes, I started to get concerned and headed over to an area a few hundred yards away, where I was told they would emerge to the outdoor world again. With some exploring, I found the small hole, maybe four feet wide, that marked the exit. I waited there nervously until the first of the group emerged with Charlotte close behind, followed by the rest of the crew. All were muddy but with grins from ear to ear. Charlotte loved the experience and had no complaints, except that it was slippery, cold and wet toward the end. This is a warm-weather activity only, for the lava tube is closed to the public from October through April, because it is an important winter habitat for Townsend's big-eared bats.

After taking a few more hikes, including an excellent trail to a small waterfall near Brian Head, we headed over to Cedar Breaks National Monument. More than 10,000 feet high, the park still had deep patches of snow in many areas. Besides taking in the spectacular views of the deep and colorful amphitheater, filled with natural hoodoos, we were quite surprised at one viewpoint to see two well-defined bear tracks in a muddy area.

The Cedar Breaks Wildflower Festival starts Friday and runs through July 18. During this event, the park offers guided hikes and daily activities for adults and children. The Zion Canyon Field Institute will give workshops on such topics as wildflower photography and wildflower journaling.

If you are interested in star gazing, Cedar Breaks has some of the darkest skies in the nation. The park conducts star parties throughout the summer and sets up powerful telescopes for visitors to use at the Point Supreme Overlook. You are also welcome to bring your own.

Returning to Cedar City, we headed to one of our favorite museums, the Frontier Homestead State Park Museum, formerly called the Iron Mission. This is an excellent place to learn about the early settlers of the area. It displays an unusually rich variety of early vehicles -- sleighs, wagons, carriages and a replica Wells-Fargo Overland Stagecoach you can get inside to experience the cramped conditions that characterized first-class travel in the 19th century.

One of our favorite places at the museum is the outdoor section, where we found lots of farm equipment as well as many historic buildings. We especially liked the Rass Jones Sheep Shearing Shed. Built in 1924, the shed has 12 outside ramp entrances where sheep were led in toward the shearing stations. We took the human entrance and found a great display of shearing devices and an assortment of wool from raw to spun yarn that visitors can touch.

Other historic buildings rounded out our tour, including the historic Hunter House, which is Cedar City's oldest standing home. A well-preserved cabin is said to be the fifth-oldest still standing in Utah. And we saw a large metal cage, which served as a temporary jail at one time and apparently was once used as a holding tank for a bear.

A visit to Cedar City can be what you want it to be. The area is rich in history and culture, and offers easy access to a great variety of outdoor recreation. The unusual virtue of this place is that each of these three elements is so plentiful that you can fill your whole visit with that flavor of pleasure alone. Or, as we did and as we recommend, you can have some of each, scooping out three-flavored summer days sweet as Neapolitan ice cream.

Contact Deborah Wall at deborabus@aol.com.