After leaving the relatively peaceful confines of Zion National Park, I decided to take the scenic route up to Moab. The Utah Scenic Byway 12 is supposed to be one of the most beautiful drives in the country, and this allowed me to add Bryce to the itinerary.
This drive started out fine. I went through Bryce (beautiful!) and headed on up to see Escalante and Torrey.
Do you know what no one tells you about this drive? It goes pretty high up in the mountains. Where it snows. While you are driving on a wind-y two lane highway. And free range cows just wander ALL OVER THE HIGHWAY you are trying to drive on.
Look at those cows…just staring at me. Daring me to try to drive faster than 10 mph.
Given I have never actually driven in the snow, you can imagine my panic when the little snowflake alarm in my car went off because it was under 30 degrees outside and I suddenly was enveloped in clouds or fog. So I did what most drivers do, I imagine…I slowed way down, gripped my steering wheel tight, and pretty much cried until I was back down the mountain. That’s normal, right? Then, just when I was starting to breathe normal again, a freaking deer jumped in front of the car and scared the bejesus out of me.
I considered turning around and going home at this point, but then I would have to turn around and go back up that mountain, and there was no way I was doing that. So I pressed on, and finally showed up in Moab about four hours behind schedule. Good times. But at least you get these pretty pics as a result of my terrifying journey.
