Anyway, since Utah is such a beautiful place to live, we decided to see a part of the state that neither of us had ever been before. The little town of Boulder is about as far away from anywhere as one can get. It was the last town in the United States to get its mail by mule train, for example; that didn't end until 1939! Even now, there is only one road in and out of Boulder, Utah Highway 12. As it turns out, Highway 12, a National Scenic Byway, is one of the most spectacular roads in the country, passing through some of the most incredible parts of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. In one spot between Escalante and Boulder, the road lies right on top of a rocky ridge, with a fall of several hundred feet on either side of the road! Here's an interesting shot in Red Canyon, between Bryce Canyon and Escalante.
Our avowed destination on the trip was to eat at the Hell's Backbone Grill, a small restaurant in Boulder. For several years in a row, it has been judged by Salt Lake Magazine the best place to eat in Southern Utah. We agree! The owners and operators are two women who moved to Boulder and opened their dream of an organic restaurant using local fruits, vegetables, eggs, and meat. The cuisine tends to the Southwest, utilizing chiles in almost everything, including the chocolate-chile cream pot for dessert! Vickie's sister Janet gave us a copy of the cookbook put out by the restaurant, and a sampling of their recipes convinced us that we had to eat there. It was truly worth the trip.
After our meal, we spent the night in Escalante, then hiked the Lower Calf Creek Falls trail to Lower Calf Creek Falls, 126 feet high, and a beautiful spot after an incredible 3.5-mile hike in. Besides the red and white Navajo Sandstone, there are interesting pictographs from the Fremont Indian culture. It's an amazing place. It was a reasonable hike, though challenging for Vickie's two artificial knees, and well worth the effort. The only problem was that it is very sandy, and we managed to get enough sand in the lens of one of our cameras that it may not be fixable. Oh well... Here are some pictures we took with the other camera:
After we got the sand out of our socks, we took off for home. Between Escalante and the freeway back to Salt Lake, you pass the turnoff to Bryce Canyon National Park. So we decided to take a look. This time of year, there is still a lot of snow at Bryce, since the canyon rim in the park ranges between about 8000 and 9100 feet in elevation. We weren't disappointed - the snow was about two feet deep. Still, it makes for spectacular pictures. Here are a few:
It was a great trip, and we're back home refreshed and ready to tackle the world again!
1 comment:
Sign me up! Sounds like a really beautiful and nice place to see. Glad you had a good trip! Either one of your cameras take good pictures - oh, that's probably you being a good photographer.
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