We stopped for lunch on my tailgate by a little creek running through one of the many canyons we drove through. The names have all run together in my mind and on the map--southern Utah is a land of so many spectacular canyons that it seems they name a few and turn them into national parks so everyone can pay entrance fees and come visit them while leaving the lesser-known but equally awe-inspiring ones more or less alone.
Side note--don't ever agree to a race with anyone from Utah. The speed limit on every narrow, winding, 2-lane road through canyons and mountains is 65. Anyone who needs to be told to go under 65 on those roads has a death wish. On some curves, it would say "Slow: 55" and I would be embarrassed to note that I wasn't even going that fast (and many of you know I'm not exactly a slow driver!)
Soon we came into one of the 5 canyons that were deemed national park-worthy, Capitol Reef. The top part of the canyon around the visitor center was pretty, so we got out of the car, took some pictures and moved on. The rest of the park didn't really seem worth seeing in 100+ degree heat.
Next, for a change of scenery, we headed up and over the Dixie Mountains, providing a great view of the surrounding country and more of Capitol Reef.
Coming down from the mountains we entered the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. This is a very new monument, set up in 1996 by Bill Clinton during a flurry of environmental activity in the last days of his first term as part of his re-election campaign. The monument is huge, 1.9 million acres, and we got to see it from an eagle-eye view--a road following a narrow bluff between two canyons, dropping off sharply on both sides.
Down at the bottom we found an adorable canyon with a path up to Calf Creek waterfalls. We were in a hurry to move on, so just played around in the water a bit, but if I had the chance I would love to go back to do the hike.
We headed on to another national park, Bryce Canyon. This park basically consists of one grand vista and a $ entrance fee. Luckily I already had a golden eagle pass and didn't have to pay, so I decided to give it a look. It was certainly more impressive in person than in the many pictures I had seen, but I attempted to take another couple anyway!
We spent the night in Tropic, Utah, an adorable little town outside the park. I had to sneak this one picture of a grandmother taking her granddaughter to see the horses in the nearby field as the sun went down.
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