To future Parowan visitors,

I stayed at the Cedar Breaks Lodge in Brian Head for three nights last
week (I flew a day with Karl during the Region 9 contest and toured
Bryce/Zion on the ground). It's a 20 minute drive up a wide two-lane
highway from the field and is at 9,500 feet - stays cool during the
day (no joke with 100 degree plus temps at Parowan). Stunning Cedar
Breaks Monument is 5 minutes up the hill. We liked it a lot even
though it's not next to the field.

The room was exceptionally nice and reasonably priced - two rooms, two
fireplaces, jacuzzi tub, full kitchen, nice view of the mountain and
basically one of the nicest rooms we've seen - for $90 a night. It
has a modern ski resort feel (actually they are upgrading it now so
there was some construction going on while we were there - they gave
us a free night due to the noise during the day). They have a pool
and various activities - seems like a good place for the family to
hang out while daddy and/or mommy is climbing in 15 knot thermals all
day. One nasty problem is they charge $7 per call plus $1 per
additional minute for non-local calls (including internet of course).
No high-speed access of any kind.

They have a decent restaurant (breakfast good, dinner average based on
two samples each), and there is a great little store across the street
(Mountain View Deli?) with *great* fish and chips, sandwiches and
other high quality food - a nice surprise for us.

In short this is a nice place to stay and it is downright cheap for
such a nice resort/spa. There are some nice B&B's in Parowan (don't
know the names, sorry) that are the next best bet for families.

As for the soaring experience I think every soaring pilot should fly
here at least once in their lives. This was my third trip to the area
and it is impossible to overstate the joy of soaring around here. On
the 'bad' days you can explore spectacular Cedar Breaks and Zion from
the air (airports near both so you can get up close and personal with
big rocks when the wind is favorable). The Grand Canyon is a safe
flight on better days, and on strong days you can do amazing things.
My best was a flight to Telluride one day, back the next with a few
hundred extra miles just for fun over amazing terrain.

There are plenty of airports along I-15 (Las Vegas to Salt Lake City)
and on most days you are so high that other directions are pretty safe
as well. There is plenty of terrain that qualifies as 'Hell on Earth'
and death/near death experiences are only one bad decision away if you
start pushing it out here. You and yours can even get hurt on the
ground if you aren't aware of the nasty surprises mother nature can
dish out

http://parowan.soaringweb.net/Photo.html

Gunther Jacobs is the guy to call.
http://www.flyparowan.com/gliding1.html

Best,
Milt