Planning a trip to S. Utah this summer with 3 kids (17, 13, and 10) - need help with one leg of the trip.

My question is ...

Is it worth driving from Bryce to Torrey/Capital Reef (via scenic route 12)? I currently have this planned into our trip but can't decide if I should leave it in.

We would be leaving Bryce after sunrise and breakfast and then driving to Torrey/Capital Reef. It looks like the ride is about 3 hours. We would have the remainder of the day in Torry/Capital Reef and leave the following AM to drive to Lake Powell.

Is it worth the ride? After seeing the sites along Rt. 12 what else is there to do? Would it be better to drive directly to Lake Powell from Bryce? I don't want to miss anything - any advice would be appreciated! Utahtea are you out there??

YES! Leave it into your plans! It is a fantastic drive!

Just outside of the little town of Escalante there is the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. A little farther is Calf Creek Recreation Area, and in the little town of Boulder is Anasazi Indian Village State Park. Also if you feel like a side trip you could drive the Burr Trail for the paved part of it.

BUT I would just take my time driving the scenic drive and spend the time in Capitol Reef National Park. It really is an undiscovered jem in the National Park system. There are wonderful hikes, petroglphys and fruit orchards to wonder around in and pick fruit you can eat while you are there.

BTW, what part of Lake Powell are you going to? Wahweap (near Page), Hites Crossing or Bullfrog?


Utahtea

Thanks for the reply Utahtea! We will definitely leave it in the plan!

After leaving Torrey, we're driving to Lake Powell (Wahweap) for 2 days - rented a speed boat for one day and plan to spend the other day doing a tour of antelope canyon and a tour of the Glen Canyon Dam.

We have never been to this part of the country and are so excited! I would love to have your opinion on our itinerary! I want to be sure that we have the mileage/timing correct - and that there's nothing that we're missing. I've read many of your replies on this site and clearly you are an expert in this area!

If I type up our 10 day plan, would you mind taking a look at it?

Thanks!

JCee

JCee,

Yes, I would love to look at your itinerary. You can post it here and get other's ideas too or you can find my e-mail at my web site.

http://www.utahtea.lithium.com/

Utahtea

another vote for Capitol Reef NP. We spent more time there than we had originally planned. We even drove both the Capitol Gorge and Grand Wash spur roads and hiked the trails off them... thanks to Utahtea and other posters for pointing it out.

Not only is the drive beautiful, but it is a lesson in geology, if anybody is interested. I know a lot of people are not interested in the land before them, but the formations at Capitol Reef are exposed and beautiful. The four major ones, Wingate, Navajo, Chinle, and Moenkopi each are distinct. But, and here is one to ask those teenages if they have any intellectual curiosity at all, where did the big black boulders come from? They are clearly igneous in origin, but all the formations in Capitol Reef are sedimentary deposits.
They did not grow there.