Highway 12: A (Very) Scenic Byway

Utah's Highway 12, from south of Panguitch to Torrey, is a very special 124-mile stretch of road. Not only is it one of Utah's State Scenic Byways, it's also one of 31 All-American Roads. According to the Federal Highway Administration, this designation is given to roads that have features that do not exist elsewhere and are scenic enough to be tourist destinations unto themselves.

We're parked just a mile off this very special road, so we spent part of our Independence Day seeing what there is to see. Paul loaded a few geocaches into the GPS, I charged up the camera and we were off.

Our first stop was the Mossy Creek Trail. This one-mile round-trip hike is actually inside the boundaries of Bryce Canyon National Park. The trail runs along Mossy Creek, which is a popular swimming spot on a warm day, and offers some striking scenery.

The payoff for this short hike is Mossy Falls. Gorgeous! At a fork in the trail you get to choose between Mossy Cave and Mossy Falls. One of us isn't exactly a cave person, so we headed up to get a closer look at the falls.

This point at Mossy Falls is a "virtual cache". In the geocaching world, that means there isn't a physical cache to find. Instead, you have to provide a photo and/or answer some questions about the spot. The National Park Service doesn't allow placement of physical caches in its facilities. So, if you want to geocache in a National Park, you have to go virtual. Paul posed with GPS in hand to verify this virtual find.

Our scenic geocaching adventure continued on down the road, where I soon found myself standing in the weeds....

...while Paul made our 700th find at a place called Birth Rock. According to local geocachers, this huge boulder got its name when it descended from the cliff across the road while a local woman was in labor. We didn't have to go to quite that much trouble to make this milestone cache.

Down the road toward Cannonville, Paul fought gnats and barbed wire to spot this cache...

...while I got a shot of the "neighborhood". Cemetery caches aren't exactly our favorites.

I picked up a cache in a cattle guard at this stop and took an extra moment to capture the amazing view along the byway.

Our next cache offered me a closer look at this geologic wonder...

...while Paul was out in the weeds finding another cache. (Are you noticing a trend here?)

Again, Paul is in the weeds signing a log after making a find...

...while Mary enjoys the scenery.

We ventured off-road a bit from Highway 12 in search of another cache. There goes Paul off to find the cache that's supposed to be somewhere in that canyon wall.

Meanwhile, I walked down the trail and found a much bigger crack! This scenic view inspired an idea for a portrait of one of our traveling companions.

Paul made the find. (He's over there somewhere!) Then, he hopped in the Jeep to help create...

...this special shot. Does Rocky look like he's in a Jeep commercial, or what?

It was getting late, and we had a holiday meal to prepare, so we got back on Highway 12 and headed back toward Bryce. We had just a taste of this very scenic byway. We look forward to seeing more of it sometime in the future.

On our return, we made a second attempt to find a virtual cache at the intersection of Highway 12 and the road to Bryce Canyon. The title of this cache was "Endangered Species". The task was to identify an animal that's protected in Utah. Earlier, we arrived at the cache coordinates to find nothing. But, on this trip we broadened our search and found the remains of this sign strewn some 20 feet away.

We're not sure which is more endangered: the Utah Prairie Dog or the signs designed to protect them?

Panguitch

One of the joys of traveling the country is partaking in community celebrations, especially in the Summer. On this Independence Day, we traveled 22 miles to the northwest to celebrate with the people of Panguitch, Utah. This tiny town of 1,600 serves as an outpost for visitors to Bryce Canyon National Park and points east. Today it was host to a Fourth of July parade we will never forget.

As we found our way to the parade route, we passed by Quilt Walk Park. As local legend has it, during one particularly harsh winter during Panguitch's formative years (in the 1860s) seven brave men left the community in search of provisions in surrounding communities. Heavy snow forced the men to abandoned their wagons. Instead, they traveled on foot, laying one quilt after another on the snow to maintain their footing. The park memorializes their efforts, and includes a bench dedicated to each man. The city hosts a Quilt Walk Festival each June, which we just missed.

The Panguitch parade got underway with an enthusiastic presentation of the colors by family members of our nation's troops.

Especially today, we're so thankful their daddy is protecting our freedom and our nation.

Nothing about this parade was fancy. These ATVs were the closest thing to a float. Though they were simple, they were quite festive.

Every kid in Panguitch was in the parade. Or, so it seemed. These two were having a great time.

Just about the time we were wondering if we'd see any horses in this parade, along came a dog wearing a saddle, riding in an ATV. His chauffeur was throwing candy.

Every parade has to have horses and pretty girls. This one had exactly three girls on two horses. It was their job to bring up the rear of the parade.

But wait. There's more! We noticed that none of the spectators were moving. And, we wondered why. A few minutes later, the parade came through once more. That's right. They got to the end of the route and turned around. We got two parades for the price of one. And, we were sure not to miss a thing.

No Shriners on scooters, but this little girl had a couple of flags flying from her pretty pink scooter.

At some point, we weren't sure which direction to look. The parade participants were going every which way. But, they were all having fun.

Kids. Dogs. Balloons. What else does a parade need?

Here come the ATVs again. Seriously, folks. You have seen just about the entire parade. And, it lasted just about as long as it's taken you to read this post.

This cute little guy was the last participant to pass by. And, with that, the Panguitch parade was in the books.

Back at our rolling home, Paul prepared an All-American dinner of brats and fixins. Later, under comfortably cool starlit skies, we enjoyed Ruby's fantastic fireworks display just steps away from our site.

We hope everyone enjoyed a safe and happy holiday.

Bryce Canyon City

We escaped the heat of Virgin this morning. Just north of Hurricane we started to climb and we watched the outside temperatures fall for the duration of the trip. We scouted out the 132-mile drive earlier this week in the Jeep on a reconnaissance mission to Bryce Canyon City. We wanted to see for ourselves if it really is 20 degrees cooler than Virgin (It is!) and find ourselves a campground for the holiday weekend (We did!). The one spot along the way that gave us pause was this sign near Red Canyon. Bullwinkle stands about 13' 3", so the two tunnels on this highway made us a bit nervous.

As we approached Red Canyon, the landscape started to take on a look that was quite new to us. We are eager to see much more of this!

Now, what did that sign say, exactly? On our recon mission, we watched many motorhomes and tall tour busses pass through the two dreaded tunnels with ease. Suddenly, as we watched from Bullwinkle's Imax windshield, it looked like it might be a tight fit. But, of course, we sailed through with antennas, vent covers and satellite dome intact!

We are parked at Ruby's Inn and Campground in Bryce Canyon City. Actually, Bryce Canyon City is everything Ruby's. Besides the campground, the "town" consists of two or three motels, several souvenir shops, a restaurant and an auto/truck/RV service station. It's a very busy place, especially near a holiday. In this packed park, we have scored what has to be the very best site. The moose and squirrel are perched on a nice wide and level spot in the park's "overflow" area. There's no shade, but with daytime temperatures in the 70s, we don't mind at all. (We like this site, and this shot, so much that we're putting it in the blog header. What do you think?)

The "overflow" area is actually the Ruby's employee housing area. There's RV parking down to our right where employees with RVs park. Those without rolling homes can stay in these row houses. From Bullwinkle's Imax window, we have a stunning view of Escalante National Monument to the east.

We're parked in one of three full hookup sites on this lovely little bluff. The other two spots are empty, and are expected to remain so for the duration of our stay. It looks like this group in the horse corral to our left is the closest thing to a neighbor we'll have for awhile.

With a nice site, cool temps and a National Park to explore just down the road, we are definitely much happier campers!

Virgin

The temperatures here in Virgin are soaring over the century mark. So, we're bugging out. Tomorrow we're heading north and up in search of cooler surroundings. Before we make our early departure, we wanted to capture some bits and pieces of our stay. See Paul in the corner of that photo? He's not only shading himself from the hot Southern Utah sun. He's searching for a geocache.

Here's the little thing that was hiding in that sign. Nanos, as they are called, are not our favorite type of cache. We like to look for something bigger than a nut or a bolt. And, that itty bitty paper log is a challenge to sign!

We did quite a bit of geocaching in and around Virgin. This tile, which we found laying in the middle of nowhere off a dirt road, is actually a cache. We logged the find on the back, with the signatures of previous finders.

The cache we found in this spot was aptly named "Shoe Tree". Dozens of pairs of shoes adorn this tree along the road to Zion National Park. We had passed this spot many times without noticing the road side art. But, thanks to geocaching, we didn't miss it.

We found the shoe tree cache on the way to a picnic in the park with friends and fellow travelers Jim and Ellie and Molly and Bob. We enjoyed a tasty lunch in a beautiful setting and caught up on each other's adventures. It was great to spend time together. (Paul was so enamored with Bob's hat, that we stopped and picked one up in Springdale on the way home.)

We also enjoyed the company of Bob and Molly and friends Keith and Donna at a most memorable dinner in nearby Hurricane. The experience at Barista's was unforgettable, but we cannot recommend the place at all. Our group of six consumed over $50 worth of iced tea! Needless to say, the refills weren't free. But, the company was priceless.

The six of us did enjoy a delightful breakfast on the patio of our favorite eatery in Hurricane: Main Street Cafe. We highly recommend this lovely little place. We had so much fun at breakfast we forgot to take any pictures!

We're not ones to photograph our food, but we present this photo as evidence to our friends that we did go back to Main Street Cafe for lunch and try the burgers. They were excellent! Thanks so much to Jim and Ellie, Keith and Donna, and Bob and Molly for making time to connect with us. We wish you safe travels and look forward to seeing you down the road.

While we were in Hurricane, we also enjoyed a visit with friends Gail and Dave, whom we hadn't seen in more years than we care to count. Gail and Dave hosted a wonderful lunch at their home where we had so much fun catching up that I forgot to get a picture. We had hoped to get together again, but our early departure curtailed those plans. Thanks, Gail and Dave for your warm hospitality. We look forward to seeing you again on our next visit.

Rocky had a great time in and around Virgin. There's just so much for him to do here! We especially enjoyed our off-road adventures along Kolob Terrace Road.

The views on that outing were so spectacular. We didn't make it all the way to Kolob Reservoir, or to Kolob Canyons. But, we will...next time!

Our park has provided a great deal of cheap entertainment over the last few weeks. The place is quite busy, and fills up every night with folks staying for a night or two or three. The parade of "newbies" was fun to watch. Our fellow RVing friends will be able to tell that this guy got himself into one really messy situation. (When you're spraying water from a distance toward your sewer connection, that's never good.)

The park has also hosted many European visitors each night. We are so happy these good travelers are enjoying our country and spending their money here. But, with one look at these recent neighbors, we do wish they'd put more clothes on. Of course, it's dreadfully hot here. So, really, who can blame them?

Despite the extreme heat, we have had an enjoyable and memorable stay here along the Virgin River. We've met wonderful people and seen some of Mother Nature's most amazing handiwork. We have lots left to do here, so we will most definitely return. We look forward to that, when it's much, much cooler.