Bryce Canyon National Park, Kodachrome Basin State Park and Utah State Route 12

1/14/2023 - My body was sore and stiff from a day of hiking on sandstone in North Coyote Buttes, so I had a slow start to the morning. My knees and ankles were especially sore. I took my time waking up and eating breakfast in the hotel in Kanab, savoring everything about what had already happened over the week. I also appreciated the fact that I had no plans for the rest of the road trip. I could go anywhere I wanted. My ultimate goal for the trip had been accomplished.

 
I drove north from Kanab on State Route 89 and eventually connected with State Route 12. This route is a relatively young one, having only been paved with asphalt in 1985. It’s a National Scenic Byway which leads drivers through some wild country that was some of the last in the United States to be surveyed and mapped. My absolute favorite part about this route was the total lack of other traffic; I could drive for an hour and encounter one other car. My second favorite part was when the road meandered on the top of a hilltop and then dove down to the bottom of Escalante River Canyon, like an eagle pursuing prey. It’s a shame that I drove this part at twilight because I couldn't fully appreciate it in all of it's wild glory.

I made two stops along this route. The first was Bryce Canyon National Park. Upon my arrival, I was greeted with flurries of snow. But once I had parked at Sunset Point and installed the snow chains for my hiking boots, I was happily trudging along the icy path and consuming the view of Bryce Canyon from that spot. In those moments, the storm broke and sunlight poke through the clouds, illuminating the scene before me creating a truly magical moment.

“Special conditions,” I repeated to myself in excitement.

                     

I hadn’t planned on it, but I hiked down into the canyon using Navajo Trail. The snow chains were a big help, otherwise I would have slipped and went sliding down the canyon to my doom. Bryce Canyon is filled with orange hoodoos carved by water and wind over millions of years. Many of them look eerily like people. In fact, Native American legend says these were once actual people who were turned to stone by the gaze of the trickster coyote.

I strolled the icy switchbacks down Wall Street, dwarfed by the sandstone walls on either side. Occasionally the sun would reappear and make the orange walls glow. Snow sat on the tips and ledges of the walls and hoodoos like vanilla frosting. Bryce Canyon was another one of those places I had only ever seen in photos before. Seeing it with my own eyes in these conditions was spectacular.

I hiked all the way down into the canyon and stopped at a fork in the trail. I gathered my breath here and chatted with some fellow hikers before beginning the slog back up the canyon. If walking an icy trail downhill is difficult, the slog back uphill is even more so. I took my time, though, and reminded myself that easy does it. With each step back up the switchbacks my body got more into rhythm. Eventually I reached the rim of the canyon once again, exhilarated from a once-in-a-lifetime hike.

Afterwards, I drove to Kodachrome Basin State Park. I didn’t spend a lot of time there, but I did go on a nature walk and was greeted by a stone spire that looked suspiciously phallic. I had no idea this specific spire existed; I just knew Kodachrome Basin as a place with cool rock spires, almost 70 of them. It's an isolated state park as you have to drive about seven miles south of the tiny community of Cannonville and watch out for cattle crossing the road. It is yet another place for geology lovers.

                        

                                               

                           

But I didn't stay long. The sky was turning dark and gray, and rain began to fall. So I returned to Cannonville and turned back onto Utah State Route 12 where I drove for another few hours. I stopped at roadside information signs, such as the one that pointed out an ancient Native American storage structure high in the cliffs in an alcove, kind of like the homes Navajo National Monument preserves in Arizona. I drove through the community of Escalante and nearly hit some deer in town, the fourth one I had nearly hit that evening. Escalante looked like a nice little town with plenty of accommodation, but I kept going.

Since it was turning dark on this meandering road with bad cell reception and I had nearly hit four separate groups of deer in just a few miles, I decided to call it a day when I arrived in the tiny ranching town of Boulder. I stopped at the Circle Cliffs Motel where two men and a friendly cat took my reservation in the office, smelling strongly of marijuana.

I don't remember there being any restaurants or any place to buy food in Boulder, so I just enjoyed my own snacks that night and the hot chocolate from the motel, and the murder mysteries on the television.