Starting Mileage leaving Cannonville: 9976
Ending Mileage arriving Torrey, UT: 10,077
Miles Driven: 101
Avg. MPG: 7.7
Overnight: Torrey, Utah
Wonderland Inn at Capitol Reef RV Park (no webpage)
Travel Day
Late getting going this morning as I slept in until 9 AM, and Dave was interrupted during his morning hook-up duties with neighbors that wanted to visit. Finally, we were on the road at 11:15 A.M.
The first part of the drive was gentle rolling hills as we were between steep cliffs. But, soon that turned into steep 6% to 8% up grades. The views were incredible, as you can see.
When we had stopped at the Highway 12 visitor’s center a few days ago, the hostess (from Gainesville, GA) told me about a great coffee house (Kiva Koffeehouse) with an exceptional view along this highway.
The coffeehouse is in-the-round with huge windows, so this was quite a treat.
And, lo and behold, we came upon it right at lunchtime. We stopped and enjoyed a very good lunch.
But, what was so wonderful was the view!
They also had a guest house and a beautiful garden.
Check out these flowers. The picture of the single flower is the unopened version of these opened flowers. They are called Indian Blankets. I have never seen flowers that opened like this.
I think the scariest part for me was when we were on the crest of the ridge and the drop on either side, without guard rails, I might add, was thousands of feet straight down. Here’s pictures of the crest.
Check out the cliff-lined canyon in the middle of this picture.
As you can see, Dave is sharing yet another critter with you.
As we drove further up and down the mountain, we stopped at many vista points. Here's one where a rain storm was chasing us. It is quite unique for this area in that you can see these pockets of falling rain. We did get wet a little, but not too bad. Mostly, we picked up some mud at the scenic roadside rest. The trailer now needs a washing!
At the same view point, but looking in the opposite direction, you could see forever.
As we took a walk down this cattle path, Dave found some other critters to share with you. We have never seen a bee this red color. We didn't linger as Dave is highly allergic to bees--and I want to know what they were doing at 8,000 ft above sea level anyway!
Just a little further down the road and climbing higher still, we saw beautiful patches of Quaking Aspens. The bark on these trees is very similar to Paper Birches, but the bark doesn't peel.
As you can see in this picture, some areas on the mountain have Aspens that are beginning to turn. What a beautiful sight to see all these shimmering yellow and green leaves. The temperature at this 9,600 ft summit was 54 degrees.
In addition to dodging the rain showers, we were also dodging cows. We passed at least 4 groups of cows that graze right along the roadway. This is open range country. Where the farms were is beyond me. We saw nary a home along most of this highway.
Finally, after ascending 8% grades and descending 10% grades, we arrived in Torrey, Utah.
And, for Dave, it couldn't have been soon enough. Seems just at the end of this road, he began to have soft brakes. He was very nervous, but we made it safe and sound. We are hoping they just got a little hot. After we get all set up, we'll see how they react.
Without a doubt, this is a scenic highway not to be missed in your lifetime. It was much more beautiful and vast than I had ever imagined. Because we stopped so many times to take it all in and to each lunch, it took us 5 hours to travel 101 miles!
The campground was in a beautiful sight. Everywhere you looked, there were red mountains. Each site had an apple tree between the sites; however, we were not allowed to pick them until the end of September. Bah Humbug. I'm telling you, they looked scrumptious.
Later in the evening, Dave took a stroll down to visit with the neighboring cows.
He was very disappointed as there was an electric fence about 3-ft inside of the boundary fence that kept the cows from being able to come over to him. After being eaten alive by mosquitoes and realizing his dream of petting the cows was a wash, he headed back to chill in the RV for the night. And, I do mean, chill. Burrrrr.
No comments:
Post a Comment