August Road Trip Day 3 Knab to Torrey

s Monday and I'm not at work!!!! How could this even be possible? Well you take vacation and you put an out office in your "Outlook" and tell everyone that your not going to be able to answer their emails or phone calls. Basically leave me the hell alone for the next week and a-half... LOL

I set the alarm this morning with the intention of waking up early and getting a jump on the day and to get through my posted schedule/ route. Yeah right, that didn't happen. Set the alarm for 600am, changed it to 630am and then hit snooze 3 times, got up finished the blog I started yesterday (for Day 2).

After finally getting the blog finished and editing a couple of pictures (I did that right?, nope I did just one. I did fool with another one, but didn't like the way it was coming out.) ANYWAY. I got my gear together and proceeded down to the "Sarge Mobile" (man I don't know if that should become a thing or not) and loaded up for the drive today.

Driving through the town of Kanab is rather interesting as it is a small town, with a population of less than 5K, so you would at least think that most people would know each other there. Not only that, but they had a lot of family owned business's there. I didn't see a Wal-Mart or anything like that. It was just mom and pop stores and hotels for the most part. But still interesting to drive through.

I proceeded north on State route 89 and it took me out of town and the mountains that surround Kanab looked really pretty with the morning sun hitting off of them. About 25 minutes or so outside of Kanab is the turn that will take you to a place called the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. It is about a 12 mile drive from Route 89 and is a small park, you can hangout there for the day or you can camp out too. The drive down the road is really nice and there is plenty of scenery to see. Once you get to the park you will have to pay $10.00 to get in for the day (this is a State Park), the guy at the gate was really cool and pointed out to me where to go park.

Once inside you go park over in the day parking area and from there you walk up a foot path that will reveal the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. The color of the dunes is just something really neat to see, you can walk off the path and go out onto the dunes but be prepared. Walking on the sand is not easy in boots, shoes, sandals or barefoot and remember that if you come out here during the summer, that sand will be hot too. When you get out to the main part of the dunes, you have will see a sign that says to "beware of off road vehicles. It is a shared space." And they are not kidding, you have people out there in dune buggies and ATV's going across the sand, and then you have others that bring their snow boards and use them to go down the sides of the hills.

I did take the time to walk out the dunes a little bit, took a few pictures and walked back to my truck. I will tell you that I stopped a few times to drink some water and just to catch my breath cause like I said walking in that bloody sand is not easy.

I left the Coral Pink Sand Dunes and headed back to route 89. I stopped to take a couple of pictures on the way out, but eventually made it back out to the main road.

The drive from Kanab to Bryce Canyon National Park takes about an hour and a-half and is about 75 miles driving distance, but the drive is worth it as you go through some really beautiful mountain canyons and some really small towns. The towns I passed through today were, Mount Carmel, Orderville, Glendale and Hatch. And eventually I ended up turning right on to State Route 12 and would eventually end up at Bryce Canyon.

After getting on to State Route 12 one of the first area's you will come upon is Red Canyon, you have to stop here and check this place out. All of the rock formations here are bright red and are just really neat to see, as you drive up route 12 you will go through two tunnels that have been carved out from the Red Rock, you can stop on both sides and get some pictures here, it is just really really neat. I do believe I also passed a couple of spots where you could go out and hike around as well.

The drive from Red Canyon to Bryce Canyon is about 11 miles or so, and the drive is pretty uneventful as you will continue to see parts of the Red Canyon and of course other mountainous areas and eventually you'll come out into the open plains a little bit. Eventually you will see a sign that says Bryce Canyon National Park next right!!!

Turning right to get to the National Park now puts you on State Route 63 and will take you through the little town of Bryce Canyon Village which of course is a tourist trap, but it has all the hotels, camp grounds, gas stations and such, so if you need to go there you can.

It take's a few minutes to make the drive into the National Park and you must be prepared to pay to get into the park. The cost per car load is about $38.00, you can get park passes and other discounted passes at the gate just ask the Ranger and they'll help you. (I did!!!)

Once inside the park you will come upon the Visitor Center where you can catch a shuttle bus that will take you to the various view points in the park or if you want you (yes, you laddy!! Sorry Pink Floyd reference) could just make the 18 mile driver yourself and stop at the places you want. I highly recommend that you take the time and make the drive and stop at the view points. You won't be sorry at all.

The first view point I stopped at was the was Sunset Point, after finding parking and walking out to the vista it was like wow. The view was just magnificent and the colors on the rocks and points were just spectacular.

Before I go on, I want to be clear that I did not stop at every single View Point in the park. I stopped at the ones that I wanted.

From Sunset Point, I decided to just drive all the way to Rainbow Point (the end of the 18 mile Loop) and just work my way back down and out of the park.

The drive up to Rainbow Point is very pretty on both sides of the road, however on the way up you will notice where at one point the park had been hit by a major wild fire. You will see a lot of tree's that have fallen down, many of them are burned and are just dead. But it is still an interesting site to see, as you can get a better understand as to how nature works and see how many of the trees are growing back.

Once you get to up to Rainbow Point, you will of course park and go out and see another spectacular view of the area. Again you will not be sorry at all. When you leave Rainbow Point this is where I highly recommend that you stop at the other view points along the drive, that are several that are not marked on the maps but you will see people parked there none the less and again I don't you'll be sorry with what you will see.

On the way back down I stopped at Black Birch Canyon, Ponderosa Canyon, Agua Canyon, Natural Bridge and Farview Point. After stopping at Farview Point I decided it was enough as I was starting to get a lot of the same pictures from each place, just seemed like a different angle to me.

The drive out of the park was uneventful and after topping off my gas tank in my truck (you remember the "Sarge Mobile") and continued east on State Route 12 and headed towards Capitol Reef National Park. The drive is supposed to be about 120 miles and take about 2 1/2 hours (give or take) Yup not for this guy...

The drive up Route 12 towards Torrey is really nice and a great way to kill time and see some just really beautiful scenery. I had plotted out on my GPS all of these places I wanted to stop and see along the way and ended up stopping a lot more than I thought I would. I even stopped at one point and took some pictures of a group of motorcycle riders while they were out on a ride. You will go through the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument, the Dixie National Forest.

I did stop at a place called Lower Calf Creek Falls. It was highly recommended by several people when I was doing the research for this trip, so I did stop there. The park is not very big and you must pay a $5.00 fee for day use of the park and whatever you take in you must take out with you. Just keep that in mind.

I decided to hump (hike) out to the falls, but after I took off for the falls one of the things I didn't do was look at what time it was. After making it just about half way out there I decided to turn around and head back. I wanted to try and make out to Capitol Falls before it got dark. So I turned around and headed back to the truck and proceeded to depart the area and continue on my drive.

Like I said before, the drive on Route 12 is just something you must see for yourself to appreciate, you go through a few more small towns and there are plenty of Vista View Points that you can and should stop at along the route. I recommend looking at Google Maps and Microsoft Maps to give you an idea where these places are and read the recommendations/ comments people have left. But you must at least decide for yourself if you want to stop at all through there.

During this drive, I just enjoyed seeing all of the green, the pine trees on the mountains sides and out in the distance the mountains of the Capitol Reef National Park.

Eventually I came to the end of route 12 and turned right onto State Route 24 and headed towards Capitol Reef National Park, I also looked at the time and decided to call it a night and find a place to crash. There was also an accident on the road and it was blocking the road, so that was an additional factor. I did stop at "Twin Peaks" just inside the park and took a few pictures and then proceeded to the hotel that I found on line and checked in.

After a few shrimp taco's and a beer from the local Mexican Restaurant, here I sit in the room for the night.

That's it for today, tomorrow is another day.

Be safe out there, love to my wife, daughters, mom and the rest of my family and friends.

See some of you guys sooner than later...

Semper Fi,
Frank
1/9 Everywhere