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The Capitol
Reef's colors |
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The Three
Sisters at the Goblin Valley |
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The Goblin
Valley's typical rocks |
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Departure:
Tropic, UT |
Arrival:
Moab, UT |
Lodge:
Motel 6 |
Price:
54$+tax |
Leg
Km: 510 (318 Miles) |
Total
Km: 2623 (1630 Miles) |
Summary |
|
-UT-12
Scenic Byway |
|
-UT-24
Scenic Byway |
|
-Capitol
Reef NP |
|
-Goblin
Valley SP |
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|
-click
on the lens to zoom- |
|
|
Saturday, 26th
July
(Tropic)
Escalante Parade
Magda looks quite happy about the breakfast we
eat in our room. Who could have imagined that we could ever be
bored of pancakes? At about 9 a.m. we leave Tropic following the
UT-12 Hwy. I don't know why, but the
idea of a "scenic byway" has always particularly attracted
me. We drive at a leisurely pace and plan to arrive to Moab by
the evening. The scenery is more similar to a "movie's far
west grassland" than you can imagine and it wouldn't be surprising
to see a cowboy riding his horse, a stage coach or bison grazing.
We stop in Escalante to fill up with
gas. The main street is full of American flags and a lot of people
seem to be waiting around for something to happen. So we ask a
nice woman about it and she tells us that they're celebrating
Utah's birthday anniversary. The real anniversary date is July
24th, but here in Escalante they celebrate it on the Saturday
after. During the scheduled parade, people on the wagons throw
candy to children. So, we decide to stop and wait for the parade.
It's pretty bleak. An old truck used as wagon and a band of cheerleaders
dance but out of synch. But the atmosphere is festive and it's
nice to see children enjoying their candy. Before the parade's
end, we are back in our car ready to move. We discovered that
great joy can be found in a little town.
Capitol Reef
The UT-12 between Escalante and Torrey is surely one of our favorite
roads; one of the best seen on the trip. We drive through 70 miles
of wonderlands that we could only have dreamed before. If I ever
reach inner peace, I'll reach it in some place like this.
After Torrey, we leave UT-12 entering UT-24
east. This highway is also a scenic byway and it appears immediately
clear why it deserves to be called so. At the beginning, it passes
through Capitol Reef NP. Planning this
trip we decided not to visit this park to gain more time to spend
in other parks. Capitol Reef has some of the strangest rocks we'd
ever seen. In the first part of the park, the rocks' colors range
from red and brown. Going further on to Hanksville, change again,
passing from white to red, from silver to gold while noticeably
changing their shapes as well. At times, we can barely believe
that this is something really produced by the Nature.
We stop in Capitol reef for a couple of hours, principally to
drive along 9 mile scenic byway and we also give a look at some
petroglyph. At about 2 p.m. we leave the park and stop in Hanksville
to eat. Here's a tip: be very careful looking at the towns' dimensions
on a map. Both small towns and a ghost towns are often indicated
with the same symbol. For example, Hanksville and Tropic have
the same dimension on our road atlas but Tropic is a town and
Hanksville not much more than a few souls in the middle of nowhere.
Our restaurant, the Red Rock Restaurant,
is just the same very nice; the food is delicious. My cheeseburger,
chicken breast and ham are super. Magda's chicken is pretty good
too. We end our lunch with a piece of cake and a cup of coffee
that should help me to stay awake in the afternoon while I'm driving.
Goblin Valley
The sun is high in the sky when we are again in
our car driving on the UT-24. This area is not as spectacular
as the last one but the desert views are fascinating. Here we
get a first idea of the famous endless American spaces and the
limitless horizon.
In the middle of this landscape, about 20 miles from Hanksville,
we turn west on the road leading to the Goblin Valley
SP. The entrance ticket costs 5$. Goblin Valley
features strange goblin-shaped rocks. The number of these formations
is astonishing. They cover the whole valley. We leave the car
and take a walk and have fun using our fantasy to see something
real in the rocks' shapes. After an hour spent among the goblins,
we get back to the car ready to get to Moab. Just before the Goblin
Valley itself, there is one more spectacular rock, in my opinion,
the most amazing one of all. In the middle of a endless flat land,
rises the Three Sisters with three silhouettes
standing out against the blue sky. Wonderful!
Moab
Moab is still a long drive off and the view has become less spectacular.
Time passes chatting and listening to music. When we arrive to
Moab it's about 6 p.m.
We browse around the Arches NP visitor
center picking up maps and magazines to help us to plan tomorrow's
visit. We leave our luggage at our Motel6
and we do some big shopping for the next three days. Behind the
trees in the parking lot we notice some kind of red light. We
think it's a fire but leaving the parking lot we realize that
it's actually the sunset! We've never seen such brilliant color
in our lives. Tomorrow, if we're lucky, we'd like to be able to
enjoy the same show at the Delicate Arch.
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