Still in sight-seeing mode, we decided to head back to Salt Lake City via Scenic Byway 12 rather than using the Interstate. Scenic Byway 12 runs for 100 miles through the center of southern Utah passing through 3 national parks, 3 state parks, a national recreation area, and a national monument. Phew that's a lot to see! We headed north east from Bryce Canyon stopping first at an overlook to view Powell Point. This 10,188ft (3105m) peak on the Table Cliffs Plateau is named after the explorer John Wesley Powell who used it as a landmark survey point during his expedition in the late 1880's.
After descending into the town of Escalante and crossing the Escalante River the road climbs again through pale pink and white sandstone dotted with deep canyons carved by the Escalante River and its numerous tributaries. Between the towns of Escalante and Boulder, the road climbs a narrow ridge of slickrock known as the "Hogsback" with dropoffs of 1,000ft either side. This shot was taken from the Hogsback looking down into Calf Creek Canyon.
In the small town of Boulder (not to be confused with Boulder, Colorado) we stopped to visit Anasazi State Park Museum. The Anasazi (ancestors of the modern Pueblo Indians) were village-dwelling farmers who lived in the southwest between 1 and 1300 AD. Approx 200 people lived at this site between 1050 and 1175 AD. So far excavations have uncovered pueblo dwellings encompassing 97 rooms and 10 pit-house structures. Mark takes at look inside one of the reconstructed pueblos.
Pithouses were built where the sandy soil made digging easier. They provided better insulation against the cold of winter and the heat of summer than the above-ground dwellings. The park also houses a small museum containing many of the artifacts (pottery, bone fragments, seeds, stone tools etc) found at the site and some cultural and interpretive displays.
From Boulder the road heads north climbing the Aquarius Plateau passing through Dixie National Forest. It is the highest timbered plateau in North America and contains hundreds of moutain lakes and streams filled with rainbow and brook trout and is a popular area for camping and fishing. The road climbs to over 9600ft (2900m) as it crosses the plateau and it started to sleet as we climbed above 9,000ft. We stopped at a scenic lookout to see the view "As Far As The Eye Can See" across the valley to the distant Henry Mountains, but today the view was partly obscured by the thin grey clouds depositing the sleet. It was REALLY COLD so we didn't stay out of the car long!
The temperature rose again rapidly as we descended from the plateau. The forest changed from Aspen to Mountain Juniper trees and looking east we could see across the red cliffs of Capitol Reef National Park to Mt Ellen Peak (11,500ft) in the distant Henry Mountains.
The scenery changed dramatically again as the road turned east through Capitol Reef National Park. The main feature of the park is the Waterpocket Fold, an impressive buckling in the earth's crust that streches for 100 miles.
We would have liked to have spent some time here and done a hike, but we wanted to by in Salt Lake City by dinner, so we just did a drive-through of the park, stopping in the old pioneer town of Fruita for a picnic lunch in the shadow of the impressive red cliffs. The Freemont River which runs along the fold provided a surprising reliable water source for the numerous plants, animals, ancient Indians and Mormon settlers alike, in this otherwise dry area. Fruita was so named because of the numerous apples, pears, plums and cherry tree orchards which thrived along the river in the late 1800's.
The park also contains evidence of the ancient Fremont Indians who lived here between 700 and 1250 AD, growing corn, beans and squash as well as hunting mule deer and big horn sheep. There are numerous petroglyphs carved into the great stone cliffs.
The Navajo Indians call this area "the land of the Sleeping Rainbow" - an apt description for the multi-hued rock layers exposed along the Waterpocket Fold.
As we left Capitol Reef National Park and continued east towards the small Utah town of Hanksville, the scenery changed again to green fields watered by irrigation from the Fremont River contrasting with barren shale (grey) and sandstone (yellow) cliffs of the Cainsville Badlands. Interestingly Hanksville is only 70 miles from Lake Powell and about 50 miles from Moab (as the crow flies) so we'd done nearly a full circle during our southwest road trip! At Hanksville we turned north towards I-70 with just one more stop planned (Goblin Valley State Park) on our way home.
Ben loves travel and hiking as much as Mark & I do, so we decided to take him to Moab for a few days to get a taste of the American southwest.
We arrived at Arches National Park around lunchtime. With the temperature forecast to go over 100F (38C) this afternoon, we decided we would only tackle a couple of short hikes - the first one to Balanced Rock.
Ben is dwarfed by the 128ft (39m) rock formation. The hard Entrada sandstone "head" balancing on the softer, eroded Dewey sandstone "neck". The overhanging Entrada sandstone protects the softer sandstone beneath it from some of the effects of erosion, but eventually it will erode enough that the balancing rock will topple over.
Our next hike was in The Windows section of Arches National Park. Here are Ben & Mark beneath Turret Arch.
We then headed over to The Windows arches. If you click on this picture, the size of the people underneath North Window (the one on the left), will give some perspective on the size of these arches.
Ben & I head up to North Window.
View across the park through North Window.
Our last stop for the day was Park Avenue - named for its resemblance to the tall high-rise buildings on Park Avenue in New York.
