Day 34, September 18, Exploring Hwy 12 from Panguitch to Escalante

Was chilly overnight, 2C, but had warmed up to 3.1C by 7:00!

We set off to see the western half of Hwy 12. The first stop was at Red Canyon, which features a variety of weirdly sculpted erosional forms of turrets, hoodoos, pinnacles and spires.

Just up the road, we passed through 2 tunnels, which were created to gain road access to the park.

By 9:45, the sun had warmed up considerably. Our first hike was on the 1/2 mile Mossy Cave trail, which was a nice hike among hoodoos, one of which looks like Goofy! 

Next, we drove to Kodachrome Basin State Park, which is a spectacle of towering sandstone chimneys, called sand pipes, changing in colour & shadow with the day's mood. Nearly 70 sand pipes ranging from 6 to 170 feet jut up from the valley floor or protrude from the sandstone..... Can you see me? 

From there, we drove on to Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, which has one of Utah's best and most accessible displays of petrified wood - fossilized trees from millions of years ago. We took a 2 mile Nature Trail which climbed 200 feet to the top of a mesa, which was once the bottom of an ancient flood plain. Remnants of petrified trees were evident along the trail. The beautiful & varied colours are caused by the presence of other minerals - iron oxides produce orange, red & yellow, while manganese oxide creates blues, blacks and purples. Unfortunately. the colours do not show up in the photos.

There are many more photos, too many to post here!