Today was laundry day, so we didn’t have time for an all day activity. Bud suggested we drive up Utah 12 towards Boulder. He’d gone to the store there yesterday, and although we’d driven this road five years ago with Adler, Bud said it was more dramatic than he remembered and he’d like to stop at some of the overlooks this time. This is a photo coming back into Escalante. Those are the aptly named Straight Cliffs, just south of where we drove.
The first overlook we came to is named, it’s called Head of the Rocks. And that is what you see, a landscape made entirely of rock.
We then continued on to the far side of the Hogback where Bud turned around. We decided to make the rest of our stops as we returned.
This is called the Hogback because Calf Creek Canyon…
is on one side of the road…
and this is on the other.
They warn you that there are steep grades and sharp curves,
they don’t mention that there are no shoulders and no guardrails.
When we came to a pullover we stopped and I got this shot of Calf Creek Canyon.
At the end of the Hogback you descend…
into Calf Creek Canyon on a 14% grade (by comparison, a steep hill on an interstate highway is 6%).
Now you’re in red cliffs.
We stopped at the Calf Creek Recreation Area and took a bit of a walk. As you can see, Matey was better today and he came along.
This is a sweet little creek to have carved such a canyon.
I managed to get a photo of a rock squirrel. They are bigger than tree squirrels and have a smaller tail which they seem to hold straight behind them. And, they live in the rocks.
We continued out the other side of the canyon,
when we got up a ways,
we stopped at our last overlook. This is a view back down to the confluence of Calf Creek and the Escalante River.
This is looking back down the hill we’d just come up.
Those cliffs are on the other side of the Escalante River.
I got some pretty good shots climbing back up the hill towards Head of the Rocks.
The hill and the rocks go on and on.
You can see why this route…
Is an All American Road and Scenic Byway.
On the Roam Again 
More absolutely beautiful scenery! The road along the Hog Back could be a bit scary! I wonder if they get much snowy weather in the winter? I’m not sure I’d even want to walk along it in case a car came by and I had to get over!
LikeLike
I would not want to drive that with snow or ice on it. I know it gets plenty cold here, perhaps it gets closed in bad weather. I wouldn’t want to be the snowplow driver that clears it!
LikeLike
FOR SURE, to your last statement!! I remember once when Oren and I took a trip out west and we were going to cross the mountains. It was in May and they had just very recently reopened the road. I have a picture of one of us standing next to the snowbank at the side of the road and it was up to my armpits – still in May!!
LikeLike