Bicentennial Highway and Rte. 12

August 11, 2002

Route 95 is the Bicentennial Highway, built in 1976 through scenic Southern Utah. Add route 12 to the end of that and it makes a pretty nice drive for a day. I traversed the road from Mexican Hat to Escalante with a few stops along the way. The most memorable stop was the northeastern end of Lake Powell where the muddy Colorado River flows into the beginning of the man-made lake. I was so excited to take a swim (it was frickin' hot) that I stopped at a pullout just after the Colorado River bridge and ran down to a "beach-front" that was rather inaccessible. I crossed sharp, crevassed rocks then drought-ravaged sand then a forest of long grass, and then finally I saw wet, soft, luscious sand... and I jumped into it to relieve my anticipating, burning feet.... And immediately I sunk into 2 and a half feet of pure mud. For a sec I thought I was going to die, drowning in the mud. Fortunately I was just able to climb out and reach the hard sand. Who would have guessed? There was no way to the pure water due to hundreds of feet of mud. The entire Colorado River for hundreds of miles deposits its sand here! DON'T GO SWIMMING HERE! It looks enticing, but it could have been deeper mud and I could have drowned. It took the rest of the day to get the mud off me. The town of Hite is on the other side and had a boat marina, I'm sure there's a place to go swimming there.

A panorma over the Valley of the Gods. This cliff is so high up that you can see the curvature of the earth (maybe it's the camera). This is the beginning of Route 95, way cool.

Owachomo Bridge, in Natural Bridges National Monument. One of three bridges spanning about 200 feet (I think). Natural bridges are different than arches in that rivers erodes them. This is the thinnest bridge of the three in the par and it will collapse in a few thousand years.

Viewpoint of Capitol Reef National Park. This park is a geoligist's paradise. I didn't go down the scenic drive since I had visited the park before.

A view of Capitol Reef National Park and the Henry Mountains from the Dixie National Forest.

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