Grand Staircase-Escalante to Torrey

The drive to Torrey, the town near Capitol Reef, was just over 2 hours by Google maps. It took us around 4 hours. The road went through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and was windy, twisty, and beautiful. We took even more pictures of red, white, and yellow rocks. It really is amazing how many different shapes and textures of rock there are out here. We saw the curved sand dune shapes, flat walls of rock, rounded mud shapes, and porous lava rocks. At one point we were driving along a spine between two regions of rock - a red rock canyon and white slickrock hills. Then we were climbing up over a more fertile mountain of aspen at 9600 feet. So much diversity in one 100 mile drive!

The pictures are highlights of the sights along Scenic Byway 12; The Blues Overlook (Utah's badlands - where dinosaur fossils are found), Upper Valley Granaries (cliff dweller's grain storage), following Calf Creek which makes an impressive canyon, the Hogback (driving the spine between two valleys), roadside flowers in the gravel, and the Dixie National Forest.

Torrey is back in the red Navajo Sandstone with dark red cliffs. We found our room and then found some supper; nothing special but at least we got full. Back to the hotel for swimming (the boys) and laundry (mom). Time for another good night's sleep to get ready for more rocks and hikes tomorrow.Read more