Utah's Scenic Byway 12 northern junction ends at Scenic Byway 24, which runs through Capitol Reef National Park. We stopped to enjoy a picnic lunch in a peaceful valley beside the Fremont River in the historic district of Fruita.  Settled in 1879, this small self-sufficient Mormon community was home to just ten families who planted crops and orchards of fruit trees. They lived quietly in the sheltered valley until 1959 when Fruita was merged into Capitol Reef National Park. In the spring, visitors can still pick ripe fruit from Fruita orchards.

Here and there, the grassy picnic area was shaded by towering cottonwood trees with gnarled, twisted bark. One of these massive trees was known as the "Mail Tree," for under its branches mail was collected for the community. With a trunk diameter of 2-3 feet, Fremont cottonwood trees grow up to 90 feet tall and can live for 150 years. They grow near streams and rivers.

Long before the community of Fruita was settled, this lovely valley was home to a native people group now known as the Fremont. Like the Ancestral Puebloans, the Fremont lived in pit houses, hunted, and farmed. They made distinctive tightly woven baskets and wore leather moccasins, unlike the Ancestral Puebloans who wore sandals made from yucca fiber. The Fremont culture disappeared after 1300 AD, but numerous small clay figurines and rock art remain. Several panels of petroglyphs are carved into the sheer rock face in the Fremont river valley.

​Petroglyphs are images that are carved or pecked into a rock surface, whereas pictographs are painted. The Fremont petroglyphs depict a variety of human-like figures, animals, abstract designs and geometric shapes. The human-like figures are ornately decorated.

There are dozens of petroglyphs on these rock panels. Some are easier to see than others, but the more I looked, the more I saw. I could imagine Fremont mothers and fathers playing a game of I Spy with their children as they gazed at the pictures etched in stone that decorated their river valley home.

The next stop on our tour through Utah would take us to a dusty valley with fantastic rock sculptures that were carved by the mighty hand of One Who uses the forces of nature to leave His mark on His world, so that people can gaze and wonder, and perhaps seek to know Him.

After leaving Bryce Canyon National Park, we ended our day in the remote small town of Escalante, Utah, (population 850) which was settled in 1875 by Mormon pioneers and was named after a Spanish explorer. After a good night's sleep, we would continue traveling northeast along Utah's Scenic Byway 12. With a distance of over 120 miles, Highway 12 transverses through Bryce Canyon, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, over Boulder Mountain in Dixie National Forest, and ends at Highway 24 near Capitol Reef National Park. Along the way, this scenic highway winds through slickrock canyons, around striking rock formations, along a razorback ridge, through forests of pine and aspen trees, and remote rural towns. 

The Escalante River flows southeast for about 90 miles before entering Lake Powell and was the last river of its size to be charted in the continental United States. It winds its way through the canyons of Escalante. Cottonwood trees often line its banks, a thread of green through this vast, rugged area, but in some places invasive salt cedar bushes, also know as tamarisk, thrive. This non-native plant, along with river dams, has drastically changed the native habitat in many areas of the western United States.

We stopped near the Escalante River Trailhead and took a short walk along the river to see the ruins of two Ancestral Puebloan granaries tucked into a sheer rock face of the Escalante Canyon walls. Tamarisk grows thickly here where the floor of the canyon is sandy and the river is usually a slow and shallow stream. But during spring runoff and summer monsoon season, the Escalante River swells, and hikers must be prepared for flooding. ​

It was hard to tell just how large these structures were, since they were in alcoves high up the rock face. Apparently they had been used to store grain, high and dry above the river bed.

After our walk near the river, we proceeded along Scenic Byway 12 to the tiny town of Boulder, with a population of just over 200, which was established in 1889. This remote town's claim to fame is that it was the last town in the United States to have mail brought in on a mule train. The extension of Scenic Byway 12 through the town put an end to the mail mule train and made this remote area accessible.

Anasazi State Park Museum is located here. This was the site of one of the largest Ancestral Puebloan, also known as Anasazi, communities in Utah west of the Colorado River. Between 1050 and 1200 AD, up to 200 people lived here. Excavations have been undertaken since 1958, with 97 rooms and 10 pit structures currently uncovered. Only half of the site has been investigated. Just outside the museum is a six room replica of a pueblo, and a short trail from the museum leads to the site ruins. 

Utah's Scenic Byway 12 passes through two national parks, a national monument, three state parks, and a national forest. Elevations range from 4,000 to 10,000 feet. The incredible geographical diversity of this area is unique to Utah. The sheer magnitude and variety of colors, shapes and beauty of this desolate rock covered country is breathtaking. 

The day wasn't over yet, but this blog post has come to an end. More astonishing geological wonders were yet to come as we continued our journey along the scenic highways and byways of awe inspiring Utah.

~Debbie

First stop - Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden here.
Second stop - Montezuma's Castle here.
Third stop - Sedona here.
Fourth stop - The Grand Canyon here.
Fifth stop - The Desert Watch Tower here.
Sixth stop - Glen Canyon and Lake Powell here.
Seventh stop - Zion National Park here.
Eighth stop - Between canyons here. 
Ninth stop - Bryce Canyon here.

We spent over a week exploring parts of the Colorado Plateau, visiting many National Parks and Monuments, and seeing a variety of geological wonders that comprise "steps" on The Grand Staircase, a gigantic topographical "stairway" that ascends from the Grand Canyon North Rim to Bryce Canyon. The cliff edge of each colored layer forms a step. The exposed rock layers of the five steps up the staircase are Chocolate/Kaibab limestone, Vermilion near the Glen Canyon Dam, White/Navajo sandstone of Zion National Park, Gray/Cretaceous shale and sandstone, and Pink/Claron Formation. At the top of this vast arrangement of colorful sedimentary rock layers that form The Grand Staircase are the red and pink cliffs of Bryce Canyon National Park.

The showpiece of Bryce Canyon is its natural amphitheater populated with fantastic rock spires called hoodoos. These towering formations are the result of erosion by snow and rain. The  canyon is lined with thin walls of rock called fins. This pink Claron Formation rock is composed mostly of soft limestone, which is slowly dissolved through chemical weathering by rain and snow. Through this process of freezing and thawing, cracks form in the fins and enlarge, creating holes or windows in the rock. Slowly the windows grow until their tops collapse, leaving a pillar of rock. With an elevation of 8000-9000 feet, there are over 200 freeze/thaw cycles a year in Bryce Canyon. The average snowfall is 95 inches per year!

The eerie towering spires of rock are called hoodoos, fairy chimneys, or goblins. Bryce Canyon has the largest concentration of hoodoos in the world. Each hoodoo is unique. These rocks are sculpted by water into fantastic shapes, some of which seem to defy gravity, at least for a time. 

In the 1870s, Ebenezer Bryce, a Mormon pioneer, settled in the valley east of the park. One day he lost some of his cattle and wandered into the canyons to find them. Although he eventually moved to Arizona, the canyon continued to be known as Bryce Canyon. In 1928 Bryce Canyon became a National Park and is now visited by over 2.5 million people annually who come to hike the numerous trails and enjoy the stunning scenery.

After reaching the top of The Grand Staircase, we would be heading back down, stopping at several more splendid sites. Please join me as we continue on our tour.

~Debbie

First stop - Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden here.
Second stop - Montezuma's Castle here.
Third stop - Sedona here.
Fourth stop - The Grand Canyon here.
Fifth stop - The Desert Watch Tower here.
Sixth stop - Glen Canyon and Lake Powell here.
Seventh stop - Zion National Park here.
Eighth stop - Between canyons here.