The Grand Staircase

   I left Red Canyon C.G. near Bryce National Park quite early (0730) Sunday morning in hopes that I’d encounter minimum traffic the first couple miles, as I had to pass through two rather low rock arches, too short going through to be called ‘tunnels.”  Fortunately, I encountered no traffic, so I was able to safely drive through, taking up the middle of the road, and made it with no problem.  

I soon passed by Bryce ‘City’, followed by the village of Tropic, and then stopped at the Cannonville 'Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Vistor Center', arriving early enough to be waiting when they opened a few minutes later, at 8 AM.  But they had some very interesting displays, exhibits and a natural botonic area to keep me interested those few minutes.

Once inside, I received information on the places where I intended to boondock the next few nights, and on interesting features and sights to see.  I also picked up the dispersed camping permit that’s required along the Grand Staircase, which runs along Utah state highway 24 from Cannonville north and east to Boulder, Utah, approximately 61 miles, 61 dramatic miles!  

   Passing through the farmland outside Cannonville, I could look back to see more pink cliffs.

   Or I could look to the left to view some large local cliffs.  You can just barely make out a little tiny house middle-left.

   After struggling up over a couple passes, I caught sight of some more pink cliffs - this named Powell Point, for John Wesley Powell, who led mapping expeditions into this area at a time when it was one of the last blank spots on the map of the continental US.

   Below Powell Point is a formation called “The Blues”, an area of gray-green shales some 80 million years old.

   A bit farther along, one comes to a site where an ancient granary can be spied, if you have good eyes.  It’s up there at the right side of the ‘arch’ that’s just at the shadow line.

Here’s a close-up of that granary.

   It was only 56 miles from Red Canyon CG to Escalante, so I had plenty of time to find a good site outside town on Hole In The Rock Road, set up camp, and explore a bit.  Hoe In The Rock road is famous in Mormon history as the present 56 mile long road rather closely follows the route that Mormon pioneers took when trying to create a shortcut between established communities on opposite sides of the Colorado River.  At first, the road presented no problems, but it terminated at the cliffs of the Glen Canyon, cliffs that were over 1100 feet high!

   The pioneers, however, eventually were able to locate a crevice in the rock that led steeply down to the base of the cliffs.  But how to get 250 men, women and children, plus over 1000 head of livestock and 83 full-sized wagons down this narrow crevice, which had slopes in places as steep as 45 degrees?

    Six weeks of intense labor followed and the men, using blasting powder to widen sections, and hand chisels to carve anchor points to secure the wagons, created a route wide enough for all the wagons, cattle, horses and people to get down and to the other side without any losses.  

   Myself, I went only a mile or so along the road where I found a convenient dispersed campsite set a comfortable distance off the road.  

   After setting up my trailer, I went exploring, and found a cactus in full bloom.

   Exploring further, I found another cactus in bloom, but upon approching it to take a picture, discovered that there was a serpent in the garden.

   Closer inspection revealed that, “YIKES!  It’s a Sidewinder!”

   Not wishing the young rattlesnake any ill, I used my walking stick to gently move it aside, and was interested to observe the rattling and defensive striking of this relatively small rattler, it being but about a foot long.

   The next day, I moved on to Boulder, Utah, a distance of about 20 miles.

But what miles they were!  This day will include the most dramatic geology I’ve ever driven through!  In the picture below, you can just make out the highway as it passes through the right-hand side of this valley.

   After descending to this valley, I then encountered ascending grades of 14%, but once on top, I had a wonderful view of the geology of this area where the Calf Creek has ground its way through solid rock.

   Unfortunately from this point forward, I was traveling on the “Hogback”, a section of roadway that runs along the extremely narrow top of a ridge, with steep drop-offs on each side, drop-offs of several hundred feet.  And in places, the top of the ridge is no wider than the roadway itself!  There was no space for pulloffs in this area, and I was much too busy paying attention to the narrow roadway to take pictures anyway!

   Once I arrived at Boulder, I turned east onto the Burr Trail Road, which travels some 50 miles to intersect with a roadway that goes north through the backcountry areas of Capitol Reef National Park, but I was going only 5 miles, to a nice boondocking area.  

   Once I arrived the boondocking site, really just a large, relatively level and graveled parking/turn around area, I set up camp

and went searching for whatever I could find, such as “petrified sand dunes”,

   Along the way, I finally got a picture of the orange globe mallow.

   And the glossy light green of new oak leaves.

   

   Leaving Boulder the next day, I encountered more grades, climbing, climbing, climbing to re-enter the Dixie National Forest at an elevation of over 9000 feet.

   It was a drive of only about 20 miles from Boulder to Torrey, where I boondocked just outside town, with about 5 other RVs, about 5 miles west of the Capitol Reef National Park.