Today we leave Moab and drive to Bryce Canyon. It is again a trip of more than 500km with some beautiful places so we leave again at 7.30am. After taking some fuel we drive towards our first stop “Goblin Valley State Park” where we arrive around 9.20am. A beautiful scenery created by rain and wind!

After walking between the very cute goblins we continue towards “Capitol Reef National Park”. Around 10.45am we arrive at the park and go to the boardwalk towards the “Petroglyphs” on the rocks. On the board walk we meet a ranger and have a nice talk with him. Walking back to the car we see a young deer standing by the roadside and cars passing very close to it. We go back to inform the ranger about it for which he thanks us and he will keep an eye on it... As it is already noon and we are only half-way, we only enter the park for a short distance to have a quick view at it. Beautiful!

When leaving the park we stop for some pictures of the “Twin rocks” and the “Chimney rock”. We drive into the “Dixie National Forest” where we will be a lot the following days as it is very large. With its 8000 km2 it is the largest woodland in Utah. This road is called the “Scenic Byway 12” en goes all the way up Bryce Canyon and a bit further. It really is amazing here and we stop by the road to have a picnic and enjoy these surroundings.

We continue our trip to the “Escalante Staircase” and on our way we try to have a view of the “Lower Calf Creek Falls”. Although the falls are only 300m away from the UT12, you can only see them if you make the steep descent or make the hike starting from the campground. If we ever come back here, we might try this walk but not today.

A bit further we arrive at the “Kiva Koffeehouse” where we stop for a coffee... it takes a long time before we get our drinks but the view is amazing.

About 8km before Escalante we leave our route and drive to “Devil”s Garden Outstanding Natural Area”. Once arrived there, around 4pm, we walk between the hoodoos created by erosion of wind and water. We are happy we made this stop.

We return to the main road, the UT12, take some fuel in Escalante and a bit later we make some great pictures at the “Grand Staircase Viewpoint”. When we cross Tropic around 6pm we see the first breathtaking rocks of “Bryce Canyon”. This looks promising!

Around 6.30pm we are already taking a shower in our hotel rooms and about half an hour later we go for dinner at the “Ruby”s Inn”. During our meal we see that sunset today must have been beautiful. This we have to remember tomorrow, have dinner earlier or later so we can enjoy the sunset...

Daytrip approx. 528 km