Friday, May 29, 2020

Coffee is essential for another long day of traveling and hiking. Once again we trust our front desk agent, who probably has never drank a cup of coffee, to give us a recommendation. She sends us to Sunny Creek Coffee, a little trailer located in the parking lot of some office space. What a gem. The coffee is fantastic and Carolyn raves about the Orange/Maple Latte. We grab a breakfast burrito and off we go.

We have a 2.5 hour drive and some 140 miles to go to get to Lower Calf Creek Falls Trail. My procrastination gets us started later then we should but we arrive mid morning to a packed parking lot and it is warm. It was a hike where you walked through deep sand so that part was difficult in many ways. It was crowded with many Utah families out to hike to the Falls and then go swimming. Many family units with little children and dogs. Some had resorted to carrying their dogs on the way end. Many had little water and were in flip flops. It reminded Carolyn and I of our hikes to Fossil Creek where hikers were unprepared. From our car we hiked around six miles RT and a tad over 1000 feet in elevation gains.  Beautiful area but as I said crowded.

When finished we jumped in the car and headed east on Scenic Route 12. I believe that it is one of the most scenic drives in the USA. It is incredible with many views and some narrow lanes that have some drop-offs that are a bit intimidating. We drove all the way to Boulder, UT and grabbed a Moab Brewery beer at a local stop before heading back for our next hike along the Escalante River.

We were off to an early afternoon start on this hike in the heat but plenty of water to walk through. We read that you could see some petroglyphs and some ruins plus a natural rock bridge. We had to cross the Escalante River about four times each direction and it felt fabulous. The bridge was an awesome sight and the petroglyphs which we somehow missed on our way out but found on the way back. Once it again it was disappointing to see that some low IQ folks had marked up the area with their destructive marks on the rocks that just makes one furious.

Tired and hungry, we stopped at Escalante Outfitters for a BLT. Not many places open due to COVID-19. Jordyn had recommended a small drive in Nemo’s but it was closed with no reopening date listed. We stopped in 4th West Pub for a craft beer and the place was clean and they were doing their very best with social distancing and sanitation. Great little place along the road.

Back to the Hampton Inn and Kanab after another great road trip. Takeaways from today include the fact that Scenic Route 12 is the real deal. Beautiful, awesome, whatever superlative you want to throw at the route, it sticks. You can take in some awesome sights without ever leaving your car. Highly recommended for a trip through Southern Utah. We turn on the tv and watch the social unrest occurring throughout many metropolitan areas and we go to sleep glad that we are in some very rural areas of Utah, isolated and isolated from reality.

Next stop on our journey away from protests, rioting, and COVID 19 is a trip down  Bryce. It will be one we will always remember as we return to the great wide open.