Wednesday, June 3 – When we met up with Josh and Ginni in Flagstaff, Ginni emphatically recommended that we take
Route 12 through Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument from Bryce in order to get over to Moab. Boy, was she right. When we stopped at one of “scenic overlooks”, one of the signs said it all: “On a clear day you can see forever.” The landscape is vast and beautiful. This is also where we made a pit stop in Escalante, when we
posted earlier to let you know that we were still alive, and we’d just been lacking connectivity. After Escalante, there is a segment of the road called the "Hogsback," where on both sides of the road it drops off into the canyons below to the left and the right. Kind of like a natural bridge, without guardrails.
As the altitude increased along this road – the summit was 9600 ft – the landscape drastically changed. It went from rocky and canyon-like with scrub brush, to lush green hills with birch trees and Ponderosa pines. The most dramatic view was when we were high in the green area and looked back over the rocky, colorful sandstone buttes and mountains.
We spent the night in Torrey at the
Lodge at Red River Ranch, which was great. It was like a large bed and breakfast, and you felt like you’d been welcomed into someone’s comfortable ranch home.
Wednesday, June 3 – When we met up with Josh and Ginni in Flagstaff, Ginni emphatically recommended that we take Route 12 through Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument from Bryce in order to get over to Moab. Boy, was she right. When we stopped at one of “scenic overlooks”, one of the signs said it all: “On a clear day you can see forever.” The landscape is vast and beautiful. This is also where we made a pit stop in Escalante, when we posted earlier to let you know that we were still alive, and we’d just been lacking connectivity. After Escalante, there is a segment of the road called the "Hogsback," where on both sides of the road it drops off into the canyons below to the left and the right. Kind of like a natural bridge, without guardrails.
As the altitude increased along this road – the summit was 9600 ft – the landscape drastically changed. It went from rocky and canyon-like with scrub brush, to lush green hills with birch trees and Ponderosa pines. The most dramatic view was when we were high in the green area and looked back over the rocky, colorful sandstone buttes and mountains. 
We spent the night in Torrey at the Lodge at Red River Ranch, which was great. It was like a large bed and breakfast, and you felt like you’d been welcomed into someone’s comfortable ranch home.
You are staying at some awesome places. How amazing that the scene changed so dramatciallyy. How long did it take you to achieve that altitude?
ReplyDeleteIt only took a couple of hours.
ReplyDelete