Scenic Byway 12

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The Grand Circle Day Four - Route 12 Scenic Byway
We were ahead of our schedule – not that it was much of a schedule, we just assumed we would spend two days per park and see how far we got round our route. However having spent a day in each of the first two parks, we decided each park was unique, but a second day would be more of the same, so we elected to take Route 12 as far as we could for the day’s drive, with plenty of stops along the way.
The mileage involved wasn’t that great and we thought we would be in Torrey by lunchtime and in Capitol Reef National Park for the afternoon and the next day. How wrong we turned out to be. Our first stop was Kodachrome Basin State Park. The ranger seemed very pleased to see us, which suggests they don’t get many visitors. State Parks, like the National Parks, seem to be well organized and Kodachrome had a news sheet telling you of the trails, we became brave and picked a moderate trail, the Angels’ Palace Trail, which the ranger said was short and well marked. She was partly right, it was marked, it just wasn’t well marked, thereby turning a short walk into a very long walk.
The trail consisted of a long tail with three loops, however after going round and round and always coming back to the same part, everything looked the same. There were signs at the start of the walk advising walkers to always keep several feet away from the edge …. Sometimes the path wasn’t even a foot wide. The arrows quite often pointed us out onto a ‘lookout’ which was more of a sharp drop down. The sun was getting hotter, and the walk was no longer pleasant. Ursula said it was reminiscent of the Blair Witch Project, I have never seen a Cherie Booth film, but it was as creepy as a description of sex with Tony so I could see her point.
I kept on thinking ‘if we just head downwards, we can’t go wrong’, but we did, time and time again, far below us we could see our car. We decided to retrace our steps, which we had tried – but retracing circular steps leads to circles. We did eventually make it back down without sending out an SOS, but we didn’t feel the need to tip the ranger. It had started off as a pleasant enough walk, but we were now measuring all scenery by Bryce – an unfair comparison, but that was our benchmark. '
Our next stop was the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. Being sensible, rational and willing to give everything a second chance, even in a dry State, we decided that if this was a let-down, we were avoiding all other State Parks. No ultimatum or dramatics at all! The park is in a very scenic setting, being on the edge of a reservoir providing water for the town of Escalante – Escalante is Spanish for escalating upwards, and was the name of an explorer – although he wasn’t vain enough to bestow his own name upon the park, unlike Ebenezer Bryce, it was named as such by Almon Harris Thompson, one of Major John Wesley Powell’s crew of geologists who explored this area in the late nineteenth century. It is quite incredible to think that vast areas of the parks are very much as they were when in Powell’s time, however Powell and his band of merry men would be horrified by some of the changes we have wrought – the visibility, the traffic and number of tourists who wander about dressed for a day’s stroll around a Costa Brava village in July (that would be us) and not for hiking in the American South West Wilderness.
Petrifying wood is a far more complex process than petrifying me. To petrify me, the mere mention of work is generally sufficient. Wood however needs to be buried in volcanic ash, lava-flow mud or lake sediment along with silica and other minerals. Burial prevents oxygen decaying the wood. The silica, being soluble, enters the wood, generally along with other minerals which when combined with the silica forms the amazing colours typical of petrified wood. It can take on all the colours of the jeweled globe without any of the cringing embarrassment that goes along with owning one.
The main trail in this Park was the Petrified Forest Trail, a one mile loop with an ascent of 200 feet, we decided we were up to this – as long as it was well-marked. We verified with the ranger, who looked quite amused by our concern – had he seen our frightened little faces at the top of the Angels’ Palace mesa, he may have understood, or he may have laughed even more. There was an extension to this trail, the sleeping rainbows trail, having registered our weediness and fondness for all things carbohydrate, the ranger advised against the extension.
The trail was very a bit more of an upwards hike than the Angels Poxy Palace, but far better marked – pink ribbons adorned various turnings and paths. The ranger had warned us that after about half a mile we should look out for samples of petrified wood. His half a mile was approximately 2600 feet, ours was about thirty steps, but eventually we found some petrified wood – and on our way back were amazed by how many samples we had missed. (By the way, I have thought for years that a mile was 35,000 feet because of the mile high club – which is, I now realize, really the seven mile high club, not to mention decidedly tacky and generally results in a very public court case, however, I digress).
Another discovery – Utah’s forests are full of Juniper bushes. Juniper – the plant which gave us gin. I felt as if I had reached my spiritual home. How sad that most of Utah hadn’t benefitted from its special magic.
We ran about the forest looking at bits of wood – which had been polished to emphasize the petrification. We even attempted some of the extension to the trail to find some more. We could have stayed for hours, but we were already long past our ‘lunch in Torrey’ time slot. On our way down we met other hikers (we had done two walks that day, we were giving ourselves the label hikers). We gave the wisdom of our experience – i.e. just do a bit of the difficult trail, its enough to see some spectacular petrified wood. At the very bottom we met a couple about to set off. The woman informed us they had already carried out a six mile hike that day, I couldn’t help but have the uncharitable thought that it must have been round Walmart …. she looked even less of a hiker than I. We watched her ascent, her husband left her and her considerable behind far behind, how very lacking in chivalry!
After this marathon (about 1.5 miles) we decided that we should really get going. We set off along Scenic Byway 12. It is very hard to ‘get going’ along this road. The 124 mile stretch of highway is said to be one of the most beautiful routes in the US, and not without some truth. The views are stunning as the road wends through Utah’s forests, mountains and canyons . Where safe and where the width of the road allows, there are turn-outs to admire the view. We stopped at many, but after a few hours we merely slowed down for some and gawped out of the window – another stunning view, sigh, drive on.
As our altitude increased it got colder and snow appeared in patches, then it appeared in drifts. Unlike Heathrow Airport, the US is well equipped with snow-ploughs and the roads themselves were clear. Many of the turn-outs were closed by snow-drifts, but this didn’t stop me running along them, getting my trainers and legs up to my knee soaked in snow for yet another picture.
We decided to stop at Boulder, unless it was a one-horse town. It turned out to have three horses …. and very little accommodation. It was now gone 6, but we ploughed on to Torrey. Torrey seemed a very small, Hicksville type place on first viewing, however it was a metropolis for the locality and a very sweet little town. We stopped at a motel we liked the look of – well we liked the look of the view, red boulders opposite – and a restaurant opposite as well, which served alcohol, in Utah. Our cup was running over. We had our emergency stash of wine, but still got excited by the thought of wine with dinner – yes we definitely needed to get out more … but there was rarely anywhere to get out to. Before leaving Bryce we had bought a few bottles of wine from the Hotel’s bottle shop – you have to like a hotel with a bottle shop, unless you’re in Utah, in which case you have to fall madly in love with it and promise to give up your first born child. Have I mentioned yet that Utah is dry?
Our very welcoming landlady had not been forthcoming about the restaurant opposite – whether it was because they had a motel attached and were competition or because they served alcohol of which she didn’t approve, we were not to find out, however just to be on the safe side, we didn’t ask if she minded our stash of alcohol being stowed in the fridge and the room. We had already shocked enough hostelry owners in Utah.
By the time we turned in for the night we were tired, a bit merry and very full of steak. Torrey by lunchtime! How we laughed.

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Photos

48 Kodachrome Pillar
A pillar typical of Kodachrome Basin State Park. It appears to be giving us the finger, taunting us losing our way!

49 Kodachrome Basin SP
Have I said how blue the sky was?

51 Ursula on the edge
Height has this distorted this-picture - the path was 2 feet wide, less in places, we took it in turn to pose, knees wobbling and heart hammering.

55 Balanced rock
a rock balancing on a mountain side, in front of a tree overlooking a lake.
Pretty, innit?

56 Petrified Wood
it loses something in translation - so you will just have to go there.

57 A juniper bush
As I gazed in awe at this juniper, I imagined miniature bottles of Bombay Saphire, Hendricks, Gilbeys and Gordons hanging from its branches.

67 Scenic Byway
124 miles of it - be grateful I don't have a picture of every foot of it (that would be 654,720 photos)