Road Trip 2013: Day Three

Highway 12

September 17, 2013

Soundtrack:

• Ryan Adams -- Easy Tiger
• Radiohead -- Amnesiac

Tuesday would turn out to be a pretty epic day on this road trip.  I'd been hoping to hit the North rim of the Grand Canyon.  It didn't work out, though.  The campsites there are all by reservation and they were all booked.  I'd heard Highway 12 between Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon is considered to be one of the most scenic drives in the country, so I switched my plans up, removing the North Rim and adding Capitol Reef to the itinerary.  I thought Tuesday was going to be the payoff for that switch, and it was indeed a wonderful drive, but the real payoff was Capitol Reef itself.  What a spectacular park.

Capitol Reef National Park, UT

I beat the sun up again Tuesday morning.  I mean, I didn't beat the sun up in a street brawl or anything, I just woke up before sunrise.  It wasn't really intentional, it just seems to work out that way when I'm camping.  All the better for early light pictures.  I took some snaps as I headed out of the park to Torrey, UT.

Capitol Reef National Park, UT

I picked up some coffee from a nice hippie chick coffee shop in Torrey.  It felt a lot like home there.  I guess coffee's not such a big thing in Utah.  There aren't a lot of coffee shops like we have on the West Coast, at least not from what I saw of Utah.  The hippie chick was shocked when I asked for their strongest brew black, like I wouldn't dare actually drink it that way.  I told her that's how I roll.  I told her I was heading up Twelve to Bryce Canyon and she wrote down a couple of places for me to stop along the way.  Sweet.

State Route 12, UT

Without a doubt, Highway 12 is one of the most scenic drives I've ever been on.  It rivals the Big Sur section of Highway 1 in California in that sense.  In terms of the drive, this was definitely the highlight of the week.  One stunning view unfolds into another.  Often the sights are on both sides of the road.

State Route 12, UT

Cliffs on Both Sides

At one point, the road narrows with cliffs falling off on either side.  In one short stretch there isn't even a shoulder on either side of the highway, just cliff fall with canyon views on both sides.  Pretty crazy.  The road winds through some canyons and tracks above others.  It also passes through farm land and Aspen forests.  Cattle range freely in the area, so you've got to have a constant eye open for cows on the road.  It took me over five hours to drive the 115 miles between Torrey and Bryce Canyon.  That felt just about right, too.

Pronghorn -- Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

Sunset Campground

I got to the Sunset Campground in Bryce Canyon National Park around 2:00 and easily found a nice spot.  The campground is a little removed from all the action along the canyon, and the North Campground runs flush up against the canyon, but that turned out to be a bit of a blessing.  A ranger I talked to said this was the busiest the park had been all year, and the large crowds definitely colored my trip a bit.  More on that later, though.

Rainbow Point, Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

Turkey Vulture

I decided that with the afternoon I had left I'd drive down to the end of the park road at Rainbow Point and work my way back, taking pictures on the return.  I stopped at one point on the way out and hiked into the woods to watch some pronghorn I'd seen through the trees.  I sat down by a tree and settled in as they lazed about in the grass.  Such peace.  They're pretty fearless for deer-type things, sitting out in the open grasslands where they figure they can easily outrun anything they see approaching.  They stood up and looked to my left, where another pronghorn came running by.  They followed after and I got back on the road to Rainbow Point.

Bristlecone Loop, Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

There's a short trail through a grove of bristlecone pines at Rainbow Point.  The trail takes you to the Southern-most end of the cliffs of Bryce Canyon.  They say on a clear day you can see all the way to Kaibob Plateau in Arizona, which is the plateau through which the Colorado River has carved the Grand Canyon.  Glen Canyon can also be seen from here.

Bristlecone Loop, Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

Bristlecones are the oldest living things on earth.  Some of the trees in California are over four thousand years old.  They are even older than the nearby Sequoia trees.  These are the first bristlecones that I've been aware of seeing.  I don't know if there are any particularly old trees in Bryce Canyon.  They can be seen here and there all along the canyon rim, but the loop trail at Rainbow Point puts a nice emphasis on these quirky old trees.

Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

There are a number of overlooks on that drive between Rainbow Point and the park entrance.  I stopped at each one and took some pictures.  At one point I began to wonder just how many pictures of orange rocks can hold a person's interest.  Looking back through the pictures, I don't think I reached that limit.  Every view along the rim of Bryce Canyon holds something unique.  The late afternoon light really lights up the rocks, and the shadows from the cliff walls and overhead clouds added a lot of drama.  Even at a single spot, the clouds provided for a constantly changing view as they rolled along overhead.

Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

My plan for my time in Bryce Canyon was to take pictures from the rim on Tuesday and hike down into the Canyon and visit the Peekaboo slot canyon on Wednesday.  That plan fell through on Wednesday (as I'll explain on the next post), but I have to say the views from these cliffs left me a bit in awe.  I've been to the Grand Canyon once, and I'm not sure it's any more powerful of an experience than is Bryce Canyon.

Bryce Canyon National Park, UT