If your travels give you a chance to wander through southwest Utah, you need to set aside a day (or more) to travel Highway 12. It is simply wonderful. So much amazing stuff packed into a small space. And it changes so much too, head over into the next basin and its different rock formations, or now its a forest, or badlands, or... well, something different.
Anyway, we started the day on Hwy 12 just east of Bryce Canyon. It was cold that night. Not super cold, but cold enough that we made use of the little Mr Buddy propane heater as we got going in the morning.
This was home for the night. Worked out quite well. Had one vehicle park behind us in the early hours, but was quiet otherwise.
Got a bit frosty by the morning. But then, it is mid-November in southern Utah at elevation. No surprise.
Can definitely tell where the insulation is and where the internal metal ribs are located.
BoB, starting his explorations for the day.
Just outside of Bryce canyon, headed down to the valley below. Nice way to start the day.
Still on the drive down from Bryce, we stopped for a little side hike not even 1/2 mile off the road.
As we were dropping down into the valley and approaching the city (?) of Tropic, we wanted to find a nice spot for breakfast and coffee (for her, I don't touch the stuff). Looking at the maps I could see a road heading out of town back to the hills, so we went for it. It turned dirt, but in good shape. Not a bad place to park for breakfast. This is looking back up the hills towards Bryce Canyon.
View down the road to Tropic, UT.
Further along Highway 12 we took one of several side roads, this one towards the Kodachrome Basin. We just didn't have the time to go exploring everything, had to make do with getting to the entrance. Really need more than one day to fully enjoy Highway 12.
On the way back from Kodachrome Basin towards Highway 12.
So many times the road would climb out of one valley and as you dropped into the next one, the scenery would be completely different, both the geology and the flora.
It was out here that I really became pleased with the choice of NOT getting a white van. There are times that I wish I had gone with Sandstone instead of Silver; that would probably blend in even better, but I'm liking the Silver.
In the arch up there are some cliff dwellings. I was simply amazed, while my gal was a bit unimpressed, but she did note my enthusiasm. Thus we changed our plans a bit, we would still finish out Highway 12 today, but instead of exploring southeast Utah the next day we would drive into the night and make Cortez, CO. From there we would spend almost all of the next day at Mesa Verde. Definitely worth it. Now... back to Highway 12.
Yeah, BoB looks good.
Panorama shot, you'll need to click in and zoom for this one.
And another panorama at an overlook. Don't remember the name of this area, but it was wonderfully impressive.
Had I mentioned there's an overload of amazing views?
Near the end of Highway 12 you climb up and over the mountains past Boulder, UT. Not surprisingly, another wonderfully different view.
We reached the end of Highway 12 at Torrey, UT, and then started heading east, away from the setting sun. We would pass through some amazing stuff, but it was going to be too dark to get many pictures. We crossed the very north end of Lake Powell at dusk, and then on to Cortez at night.
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