Bryce Canyon was special for Cokie and Kae because it came to represent the most personal of the canyon experiences. As Kae describes it, “Grand Canyon was the top looking down, Zion was the bottom looking up, but Bryce was hands on, walking in and on the ancient formations; far more personal and of a human scale”. Of course we all would have loved it more if it had been of a “dog scale” too, but we were in another National Park, don’t you know! The Ladies hiked quite a bit here and were captivated by the constantly changing beauty of the place. Filled with formations known as ‘Hoodoos” – pillars of rock, usually of fantastic shapes, left by erosion, Bryce is one of the smallest parks on the Colorado Plateau but also one of the most spectacular.
Grand Staircase/Escalante Monument and Capitol Reef National Park were our next destinations, but we stopped in the picturesque town of Cannonville to gather information and found out about Kodachrome Basin. This basin is a spectacle of towering sandstone chimneys, changing in color and shadows with every passing hour. This color and contrast prompted National Geographic, with permission from Kodak Film Corp. in 1949, to name the park Kodachrome. There are nearly 70 of these monolithic, sedimentary pipes jutting up from the valley floor and are from six to 170 feet high. Geologists believe they most likely originated as injections of liquefied sand from remnants of ancient springs. They were left standing after the layers of surrounding Estrada sandstone were eroded away.
On we go east on Scenic Byway 12, a trip I will recommend to anyone traveling in Utah. Here there is so much beauty along this 124 mile All-American Road that you never tire. Space won’t allow us to describe each thing but here are a few must sees: - Escalante/Grand Staircase National Monument, 1.9 million acres of cliffs, badlands and canyons administered by the Bureau of Land Management,
- Unusual colored clay hills known as The Blues”; striking against all of the corals, pinks and reds of the surrounding countryside,
- Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. We missed this due to weather, but anything 160 million years old has got to be interesting, - The Hogback, a very narrow section of Highway12 with sheer drop-offs on both sides, but with sweeping views of the slick stone countryside on your way to Boulder.
- Anasazi State Park Museum in Boulder takes you back to 1050 A.D. when the Fremont and Kayenta peoples occupied this site. A self-guided tour winds through the partially excavated site and through the museum to view the artifacts and exhibits. We left Highway 12 and traveled down Hwy. 24 to Capitol Reef National Park. Named by early pioneers because the huge domed formations reminded them of our nation’s capitol, it also has a brilliant array of eroded stones, colorful cliffs, domes, and canyons, including the Waterpocket Fold, an impressive buckling in the earth’s crust that stretches for 100 miles.
We found the campground at the pioneer town of Fruita to be delightful with its 150 year old orchards, old buildings, a sweet river and petroglyphs, plus two of the biggest cottonwood trees we have ever seen!
Click on the picture to enlarge it and you can see the petroglyphs
On and on here in Utah; it has to have the largest number of acres devoted to National and State lands in the continental U.S. We traveled west and south and west again trying to make our way to Cedar Breaks National Park. By golly we make it but forgot to check in with the weather station so found ourselves at 10,000 feet in the middle of a fast moving and darn cold snowstorm! This was the first time the Pod had been driven in any real snow and we weren’t sure just how she would do. Needless to say the weight, broad wheelbase, low clearance and expert control by Cokie got us through just fine even at a top speed of 15 mph! At one point I thought I might have to get out and lead the gals myself.
We got over the mountain and onto I-15 south heading for the town of St. George and on to Las Vegas to see my friend Max and his lady Jane. But we just had to stop and visit St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm. This is unbelievable evidence from the age of those great reptiles millions of years ago. Here are their actual footprints, swim tracks and yes, even a track made by a dinosaur’s butt, all frozen in time and here for puny humans to see and appreciate. Good thing there weren’t any of those old bones lying around as I might just have had to see what something that old might taste like! (Just kidding!)
Well, I know this had been a very long journey for you folks but every inch of it has been worth it. I never expected Utah to have so much to offer and we haven’t even been up north near the Great Salt Lake and all of that. Guess another visit will be in our future. On to Nevada and we’ll be sharing our adventures again, real soon.
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