Day Nine – Watch the Edge!

The drive between Boulder, Utah, and Escalante, Utah, on highway 12 was... shall we say "interesting". The road travels up, over, down, and back up onto several plateaus. The view of the surrounding country on the tops of the plateaus gave us an idea of the vast territory. It also gave us views of impending storm clouds on the horizon.

The road itself had several 8% downhill grades and a 14% downhill grade which for those of you who don’t travel these types of highways is really steep! Add to that one section where the plateau literally narrowed to a thin neck on a ridge and dropped off hundreds of feet to the Escalante River valley on one side and another canyon on the other side. It made for a tricky drive.


The Escalante area is known for its hiking trails and exploration. However, it is also known for flash flooding... so with the rain on the horizon, we didn’t stay long this trip.






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