4 May ‘08 Sunday
Yesterday we were camped at Tropic, Utah. Tropic is located about 12 miles southeast of Bryce and is a place that offers a good motel for those that need one while visiting the canyon. For us, it was a close campground at a decent price for the night. We pulled out of Tropic about 9:30 this morning taking highway 12.
Yesterday we were camped at Tropic, Utah. Tropic is located about 12 miles southeast of Bryce and is a place that offers a good motel for those that need one while visiting the canyon. For us, it was a close campground at a decent price for the night. We pulled out of Tropic about 9:30 this morning taking highway 12.
Highway 12 is a small 2 lane road that at times was so narrow that we were wishing we were back in the Baja driving better roads. I’ve never felt like I was getting “sea” sick, but today was a first. The first 2 hours felt like the coach was in a bowl of jelly, swaying one way and then another…sometimes it felt like it was swaying all ways at once. Just prior to noon, and seriously, out in the middle of nowhere we came upon Kiva Coffee House.
The setting was unbelievable, and the structure of the coffee house, absolutely perfect. This coffee house is located no closer than 15 miles from any other commercial establishment, and it is located at the edge of one outstanding canyon wall.
This is a place that I would put very high on a “must return” status… Further up 12, we came upon a state park that we had heard some exciting things about. This is the location of the “Calf Creek Falls”.
The hike into the falls was about 3 miles and follows a beautifully clear stream. Unfortunately, they don’t have room for us to get in because of our size. So the only option we had was to continue on. Hwy 12 continued to “surprise” us. The views were outstanding and the road is still extremely narrow. As we climbed at 14 degrees and then dropped at 8 degrees, only to find ourselves at the top of a ridge that was so narrow that I was hoping not to have any on-coming traffic. This was a “ridge”… both sides of the roadway plunged several hundred feet to the canyons below. Continuing another 8 miles further down the road from Calf Creek, we found a small campsite that we could stay over-night at. It happens to be at Boulder, Utah and at a “Mini-Mart” that has 4 electric and water hookups right next to the store. After unhooking the “toad”, we drove back to Calf Creek to take that hike to the falls, and are we happy we did as they are as wonderful and advertized.