Lots of animals on the streets today. Three times cattle near Goblin Valley, twice deer on the way to Bryce Canyon. The first group of deer was visible very long before I reached them, but I sensed the second one before I even could see them. Strange. I also saw a Bald Eagle along SR 62. I didn't even knew there were eagles in that area.
Even though we drove about 400 miles today, we did not only see (marvelous) landscape through the windscreen. First stop was Goblin Valley State Park. A large valley of relatively small wind-carved sandstones in the form of... Well, whatever your fantasy wants you to see:
The wind was strong and very cold, though. I should have used my gloves, it took two hours to get back the feeling in the fingertips again... Other than that, the weather was great and the valley is very scenic. If you are in that area, don't miss the park. It is really great.
Next stop was a short tea-break at the Navajo Rock viewpoint at Capital Reef Nat'l Park. Capitol Reef is one of the lesser known parks, but very unique and certainly worth a visit if you are in the region anyway. The climate is astoundingly different from the surrounding area, much milder.
There are a lot of different things to do in the park: Take short natural hikes, learn about the settlers and fruit growing business, or just drive through the park. We took the scenic drive, which definitely deserves its name. One advise, though: the street is quite narrow at some points. Don't try to drive there with a large RV if there are a lot of other vehicles on the road.
After Capitol Reef, it got very windy and I had trouble to keep the RV in lane. It got even worse, lots of drifting snow on the passes of SR 24, even controlled one way traffic at the summit due to that.
(Photo by U. Reuter)
Thank god I wasn't so stupid to drive the SR 12, though. Don't even think about driving that one with a large RV, let alone in winter with high winds. The Escalante pass is only one and a half lane wide, with at least 200 yards going down on both sides. We took SR 62 instead.
In the end, despite high winds, snow, deer, cows and insane drivers, we made it safely to Bryce Canyon. Again, I foolishly forgot my gloves when I went to the campground registration, and nearly froze my thumbs. It is not as cold as two years ago, but not that much warmer, either.
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