Around noon we decided to take a drive south on Byway 12 - known as one of America's Scenic Roads - traveling from Torrey, winding 124 miles in and around and up and down through mountains, lush forests, through quaint towns, home to 2 national parks, 3 state parks, a national monument, a national forest, and a national recreation area, and if you drove the entire byway - would come out by Hatch, a town we drove through on our way here. Our destination for this trip was to go to Boulder where the Anasazi State Park Museum resides, about 35 miles south on 12.
Traveled up to a whopping 9800 feet over Boulder Mountain, again back in snow, spring has not reached the upper reaches and snow pack is still evident. We stopped at a couple of scenic overlooks - talk about seeing for miles and miles. We could make out the Waterpocket Fold of Capitol Reef National Park, saw towering Navajo Mountain we think about 50 miles away, had to be diligent again with deer grazing right near the road, too bad the sun was not out, but was still pretty awesome to see. This byway was a dirt road until 1985 when it was finally paved. Can't imagine driving this road in the dirt and mud, at times we were hugging the road with steep drop offs on both sides - sorta riding along on a ridge. Glad we did not drive the RV this way - an option we were seriously thinking about when we came here to Torrey.
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| Vista views towards Capitol Reef NP |
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| Navajo Mountain on left side |
Visited the Anasazi State Park Museum. The museum is on a site that Ancestral Puebloan people lived sometime between 1050 and 1175 CE. Consisted of 100 rooms, the site has been partially excavated and restored, and had a reconstructed living area to demonstrate how these people lived. The museum was very well documented and showed actual artifacts from the dig.
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| Coombs site - Ancient Puebloan people's village |
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| Actual pit house discovered |
Traveled back over the mountain to get home and stopped again at the scenic overlooks - was very impressive. Literally drove ahead of snow!
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| Dodged snow at 9800 feet! Notice no greenery? Dull gray. |
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