Road-tripping through Bryce Canyon, Grand Staircase-Escalante

Spotlighting Utah’s iconic geology and encouraging outdoor adventure, a travel on authorities Route 12 bestows its visitors with vivid memories of strangely sculpted spires, incomparable views, connections to Anasazi culture, peeks astatine the Cretaceous Period and bully nutrient finds. But possibly the roadworthy trip’s biggest bliss is the roadworthy itself.

The westernmost constituent of the 123-mile scenic byway starts conscionable earlier Bryce Canyon National Park, which is astir 4½ hours from Las Vegas. Utah Route 12 begins astatine its intersection with U.S. Highway 89 conscionable southbound of Panguitch. Roadside java stops and souvenir shops pb to a handsome chromatic motion declaring authorities Route 12 an All-American Road, hefty praise from the Federal Highway Administration.

At this point, the scenery instantly becomes stunning. Red Canyon, with its fanciful turrets and rugged cliffs, soon fills the car’s beforehand model with a mural of brilliant, glowing reds, heavy Dixie National Forest greens and big-sky blues. Hikers and bicyclists tempt passing motorists to marque an aboriginal halt connected their Route 12 eastbound trek. Trails, a motorcycle way and the postcard scenery are terribly enticing, but clip constraints unit galore of america to zip close past and marque promises to return.

Our thrust continued, and we spotted a twelve pronghorns resting nether the ever-present junipers and pinyon pines arsenic we approached the adjacent roadworthy travel temptation: Bryce Canyon National Park. That halt demands a afloat time oregon much for exploration. Its whimsical geology includes hoodoos, fins and windows successful an endless sunken fairy plot you tin observe from respective overlooks. Stepping adjacent a abbreviated region beneath the rim and into the amphitheaters offers an alternate position and appreciation.

But we resisted the gully of Bryce Canyon — we had lone capable clip connected our three-day travel for a first-time sojourn to Grosvenor Arch successful Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument; leisurely stops on the wilder stretches of Route 12; a half-day hike successful and on the Escalante River; and a mates of dinners astatine Hell’s Backbone Grill successful Boulder, Utah. Although we’d halt successful Boulder, the road continues done forests and implicit mountains connected its last agelong into Torrey, a municipality with entree to Capitol Reef National Park.

Descending connected Route 12 from atop the Paunsaugunt Plateau and past Mossy Cave Trail (we’ll drawback that hike connected the return), we drove beside layers of sandstone and limestone successful shades of cream, ochre, pinkish and peach connected our attack to Tropic, 1 of 3 tiny towns en way to Escalante. At the 2nd town, Cannonville, we took a close astatine the motion for Kodachrome Basin State Park and headed successful the absorption of Grosvenor Arch.

Nearby and acold away, the surrounding cliffs and terraces successful pinks, whites, tans, browns, grays and reds, with their stepping-upward appearance, explained the Grand Staircase name; the astir 1 million-acre nationalist monument’s different allusion is to the Escalante River. Puffy clouds floated supra an assembly of striped mesas, constrictive canyons, checkered monoliths, otherworldly spires and high-desert floors dotted with sagebrush.

The roadworthy to Grosvenor Arch is paved for astir 9 miles to the Kodachrome Basin parkland turnoff, past it continues arsenic a graded ungraded roadworthy with a clay base, which means occupation during rains, erstwhile Cottonwood Canyon Scenic Backway becomes impassable. Our mid-September time brought sprinkles but thing serious. It was enough, though, to adhd a clean, crisp sage scent to the quiescent and solitude.

Ten miles and a near crook disconnected the ungraded road, a fortress successful beige, gold, achromatic and airy yellowish jutted up much than 150 feet. A paved pedestrian walkway guided america consecutive to the bonzer treble arch that’s named successful grant of a erstwhile National Geographic Society president. Most cars successful the tiny parking batch were two-wheel-drive sedans. Other Grand Staircase-Escalante ungraded roads necessitate four-wheel drive, truthful bash your homework earlier exiting paved roads successful this distant and rugged landscape.

Once backmost connected Route 12 and past the farming fields of Henrieville, the thrust yet led uphill on the aforesaid way that explorer John Wesley Powell’s 2nd expedition squad took successful the 1800s, erstwhile it mapped 1 of the past remaining mysterious regions successful the continental U.S. We stopped astatine The Blues place for a raven’s presumption of gray-blue shale layers that clasp 80-million-year-old Late Cretaceous secrets from a clip erstwhile overmuch of south-central Utah was an inland sea. Visible crossed from The Blues is Powell Point astatine 10,000 feet.

Several much turnoffs on Route 12 connection hikes and important sites (including Indigenous granaries built into the cliffs) connected the mode to Escalante, a municipality wherever travelers tin find motels, restaurants and escapade guides. Also located determination is the area’s astir broad visitant accusation center, arsenic good arsenic museums and parks that assistance construe the area’s quality history, geology and paleontology.

By the clip you get astatine the stop-worthy Head of the Rocks Overlook, astir 10 miles eastbound of Escalante, Route 12 itself has go the trip’s wow factor. And, from the overlook’s perch, you tin visually way the slithering-then-suddenly curving asphalt ribbon crossed the rolling slickrock and into a heavy stream canyon of Grand Staircase-Escalante.

The “Million Dollar Road to Boulder” was completed by the Civilian Conservation Corps successful 1940, yet allowing all-season question and timely message work betwixt the towns of Escalante and Boulder. That feat took 5 years to implicit and required tons of dynamite, engineering ingenuity and dangerous, exhausting quality labor.

Back connected Route 12, yellowish signs with arrows request cautious turns and look to outnumber guardrails connected the wilder portions of the road’s precarious descent into reddish stone beauty.

Over the centuries, the Escalante River and Calf Creek person carved canyons into the scenery that present diagnostic a mates of irresistible trails close disconnected the highway. Having done the 6-mile Lower Calf Creek Falls hike connected a erstwhile trip, we opted for the Escalante River Trail.

In the institution of cottonwoods, we went connected a 5-mile round-trip hike done sand, vegetation, water, packed ungraded and flash flood debris on the Escalante River. We spotted a juvenile great-horned owl surveying its surroundings from a subdivision supra the shallow waters. The trail’s different prizes included views of the Escalante Natural Bridge, Skyline Arch, a petroglyph sheet and Anasazi ruins successful the cliffs.

Escalante Natural Bridge is 1 of the astir awesome stories of h2o and upwind erosion successful Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Skyline Arch opens up similar a model hundreds of feet adjacent the apical of a sheer sandstone cliff with colorful mineral streaks, immoderate of which instrumentality connected a feathery look.

Heading northbound connected Route 12 and up into higher elevations of beige slickrock, the roadworthy gets trickier for drivers and much spectacular for passengers. Sharp curves are portion of this “Hogback” section, wherever the thrust is on a constrictive ridge betwixt Calf Creek Recreation Area and Boulder. The Hogback includes steep grades, breathtaking vistas and perchance deadly drops of 1,000 feet connected either side. Ominous spot names successful the country see Hell’s Backbone and Death Hollow.

Hospitality is simply a contrasting taxable aft the highway’s adjacent descent into a farming vale with roadside cattle, goats and sheep, and the tiny municipality of Boulder. There you’ll find the Burr Trail, with its galore must-visit spots, arsenic good arsenic Anasazi State Park Museum, a halfway wherever overmuch tin beryllium learned astir the archetypal settlers of Grand Staircase-Escalante country. Hell’s Backbone Grill, an award-winning edifice seemingly successful the mediate of nowhere, has its room and patio eating on Route 12 (it’s scheduled to beryllium unfastened done October).

During a two-night stay, Boulder besides talented america with an after-dinner rainbow that cropped up connected a tract down Boulder Mountain Lodge, wherever hours aboriginal an aboriginal greeting prima locomotion successful a grassy communal yielded the Milky Way and the Orion constellation. Breakfast meant kimchi tacos and ovum burritos sold retired of the repurposed schoolhouse autobus successful the parking batch of Anasazi State Park Museum.

A six-hour thrust backmost to Las Vegas provided plentifulness of clip to crippled our adjacent Route 12 adventures.