Scenic Byway 12 - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 378

wheel-drive vehicle. Some 10,000 feet above sea level, this promontory looks out on the
red-and-pink cliffs of the Claron Formation below and, beyond it, Arizona.
AnimalloversmayopttodrivetheEastForkoftheSevierRiverScenicByway,amust
for wildlife viewing; look for Forest Service Road Rte. 87, about 11 miles east of the Rte.
89 and Scenic Byway 12 junction. From its numerous pullouts, sightings of pronghorns,
prairie dogs, and jackrabbits are more than likely, and in summer and autumn perhaps an
elk will saunter into view.
3. Bryce Canyon National Park
The first thing to be said about Bryce Canyon is that it's not a canyon at all. Extending for
18 miles along the eastern edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau, this enchanting fairyland of
stone is a series of huge horseshoe-shaped amphitheaters, carved over millions of years by
countless rivulets.
Time, wind, and water—that masterful team of sculptors—also collaborated to create
one of the park's most popular attractions: the fanciful rock formations known as hoodoos.
Over the ages, as water seeped into the cracks of alternately hard and soft layers, the
rockunderwentrelentlessfreeze-and-thawcyclescalledfrostwedging.Theresultisastone
army of lifelike spires that populates the Claron Formation. Some of the rock formations
herehavenamesnearlyaswhimsical astheirevocativeshapes—Alligator,QueenVictoria,
and The Hat Shop.
The intense palette to be savored here makes this 36,000-acre national park one of the
mostphotogenicinAmerica.Therocks'vividhueshavebeencreatedbytheoxidizationof
various minerals. At dawn they wear gowns of reddish brown that slowly turn to light gold
as the sun bathes them in its morning glow. Soon they don their afternoon play clothes, a
carelesshodge-podgeofflamingorange,brickred,anddeeptan.Atday'sendtheyslipinto
their long-awaited evening attire, festive ensembles of pink, red, and purple.
Making this kaleidoscope of color even more dramatic are the vast backdrops nature
hasprovidedforcontrast:thickstandsofevergreensandaseamlessskyofcobaltblue.Per-
hapssomeofthisgrandeurcanbegleanedfromphotographsbroughthomebyvisitors.But
onlythosewhoseeBryceCanyonforthemselvescanforgivetheexcessofexuberancedis-
played by one early surveyor of the park, who described it as “the wildest and most won-
derful scene that the eye of man ever beheld.”