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Distance driven today: 335 miles / 539 km
Cumulative distance driven: 3,436 miles / 5,530 km
Today’s trip: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA to Panguitch, Utah
Other motorcyclists encountered on highway 12: 250+
Switchbacks driven through: 139
Today’s ride started off in rush hour traffic in Salt Lake City. After almost an hour of L.A. like traffic (!), I was out of the big city and on to the rural back roads riding south. Without a doubt, the highlight of the day was Utah highway 12, which was voted as one of the most scenic highways in America, receiving the designation of 'All American Road' in 2002. Now, I have said it before (when I drove through the glacier highway in southern British Columbia), so I am going to keep it short. Sure, highway 12 is scenic, but is it really *the* most scenic way in the entire US? It sure is impressive, but I can’t for sure way if it is the most spectacular road in the country.
In either case, I knew that I was getting close to the starting point of highway 12, when I started noticing an unusual
amount of motorcycles, of all sorts, bypassing me, as well as, driving in the opposite direction. Hundredths of motorcycles, from all parts of the US, drive to southern Utah to experience highway 12. Apart from a gazillion switchbacks, which in and itself is worth riding a motorcycle here, riders can also experience beautiful white sandstone mountains, red rocks, elevation changes, and a spectacular light that bounces of the colored sandstone along the entire ride. And it all takes places at an elevation of 9,000ft.
In practice, the whole area along highway 12, is a big sequence of sedimentary rock, resembling a limestone layer cake, hence the name “grand staircase”. The limestone rock here is, according to geologists, about 250 million years old, which by any means of imagination, is an immense time period. In other words, the rock dates back before the time of McDonald’s, Starbucks, Walmart and iPhone’s invaded this continent…
Highway 12 is also nicknamed the “Million Dollar Road.” It was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and was completed in 1935 (paved in 1971). The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public works program, initiated by President Roosevelt after the depression. The program was intended for
young, unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, as part of the New Deal. Highway 12 was unusually hard to construct, due to the challenging landscape, and over a million dollars was spent to build the road. Of course today, you can only get 1/6 of a mile, or about 250m, of modern highway for a million dollars! Clearly times have changed.
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Wellcraft19
Per-Ola
Onto family land!
Ah, how I wish I'd known you'd be going down UT-24 (I assume) to UT-12. You must have passed either Teasdale or Torrey, just at the beginning of 12 (west of Capitol Reef NP). My grandfather's sister settled in Teasdale in the 1950s and eventually built a house on top of the "Mormon basement" she acquired. Interesting was that instead of using brick and mortar, she used liquor bottles found at the local city dump as "bricks". The "bottle house" is still there and I've been to it a few times. In 1985 I was the last of the (very few) Swedish relatives to visit her. Although this colorful, albeit tiny at not even 5 foot, iron lady passed away in 1987, she left a lifetime of memories behind.