Another gorgeous day-72 and sunny. Drove to Kodachrome Basin State Park, named for Kodak in 1949 by an National Geographic photographer. Beautiful monolithic spires in different colors and shapes. It’s a 3 mile drive with lots to see.
Got back on scenic route 12 east which goes through the Escalante Grand Staircase, a two million acre mountain range that goes 150 miles between the Grand Canyon and here. It spans five different life zones from high desert to coniferous forests, with five different colored layers from the top, pink, gray, white, vermillion and chocolate. You can’t see the whole thing and get the whole picture from here but they say in AZ there’s a spot where you can see all five together. We might see that from the Grand Canyon area when we go. The 50 miles we drove on this road had many different mountains along the way and each one was spectacular.
Found a neat place for lunch, the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, there was a campground there and a reservoir with picnic tables, just what we wanted. From there we stopped at the visitor center and the ranger told us about a place where you could get a 360 degree view of the mountains. We found a turn that went up to a little utility building, had to climb up a bit but what a view. We don’t think this was the place they mentioned because it didn’t look too public but it was fantastic.
That was so beautiful we didn’t think we could top it so we turned around and came back to camp. I later read that right after that there was a 14% downgrade so we’re glad we turned around, although there was a 12% downgrade coming back and it wasn’t too bad. Harry got the truck ready to go tomorrow and I scavenged some fire wood from dead trees in the back of the camp for a fire tonight, then read a bit.
We decided to suck it up and go through Zion National Park tomorrow. We’ll need an escort to go through the 1.1 mile tunnel and there’s 9 switchbacks with no guard rail and a 2000 foot drop but everybody we talk to says we should be OK. Staying at Utah Sand Hollow State Park in Hurricane, UT Sat. & Sun. then probably on to Las Vegas.