On the road through the canyon up to the lake

Posey Lake

KOA, Cannonville, UT, to Escalante State Park, Escalante, UT: Left Cannonville this morning at about 10:45. I ended up driving—Escalante is only about 36 miles up Rt. 12 from Cannonville. Rt. 12 takes you right through Escalante Staircase National Monument. A really pretty drive, but I was getting a little nervous going up over the pass. But it was okay. We arrived at Escalane State Park and were set up by 12:15. Sat around and relaxed for a while and then drove into Escalante to see what’s there and have some lunch. Ate at the Golden Circle Café and I asked the waitress if there might be a place in town to get my hair cut and she gave me the name and number of a girl that does hair out of her home. I called after we ate and got an appointment for tomorrow. We decided to drive up to Posey Lake. It’s supposedly 12 miles from Escalante, so we headed out. The paved road turned to dirt after a couple of miles and then it was slow going in areas where the road was like a washboard. A beautiful drive up through this canyon with white sandstone mountains on one side and cedar covered mountains on the other. More of that swirly-looking rock they call slick rock. Very rugged with lots of narrow side canyons. Ebenezer Bryce (Bryce Canyon’s namesake) used to lament that it was hell losing a cow in there (Bryce Canyon). Must be the same here. I thought we’d never get to the lake and the last few miles we climbed up into a beautiful, old-growth forest of fir, pine, spruce, and aspens. And the lake was really pretty up there. And it was 10 degrees cooler. Fish were jumping all over the place and there were lots of ducks and ducklings. A really pretty spot. The campground was pretty nice also. Reluctantly we headed back down and back to our site. It was 95 today for the high. Got pretty warm inside the fifth wheel, but it cooled down nicely at night.