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Dawn at Bryce Canyon © Claire Dodd
Dawn at Bryce Canyon © Claire Dodd

Why Utah offers the best road trippin' in all America

Driving fantasies are made in this state – classic cars, red rocks and seemingly endless roads with jaw-dropping views, just like Scenic Byway 12

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Four-and-a-half hours from the nearest city, in the middle of the Utah desert, I’m watching a drive-in movie from the front seat of a candy-floss pink 1959 Edsel Ranger, the radio crackling as I find the right frequency. That’s not normal. 

 

This morning, I wedged myself 20 metres up a canyon wall, spanning the narrow gap with my legs and shuffling my bum along its steep walls. That’s not normal either. 

 

And the day before, I walked a very amenable – and exceptionally photogenic – llama named Tadpole across the remote, red rock desert in 39⁰C heat. Now I know that’s not normal. Who would go out in that heat? 

 

It turns out I would. Because the only way to properly “road trip” this frankly obscenely scenic and under-travelled part of Utah, nay under-travelled part of America, is to get out of the car. 

 

In your lockdown confinement, you likely had a travel fantasy or two. For many, it was hitting the open road. From #vanlife posts on Instagram to a desire for freedom and adventure, the road is calling. More specifically, Utah is calling. 

 

“With its wide-open spaces, stunning landscapes and unique experiences, we’re finding Utah provides the environment that many travellers are looking for post-Covid,” says Jody Blaney, global markets specialist at the Utah Office of Tourism, who says the state expects a 21.5% increase from 2019 to 2026 in international spending, noting “there is especially renewed interest in destinations like national and state parks due to people’s hesitance to be inside and around many others”.

Walking llamas in Capitol Reef National Park © Claire Dodd
Walking llamas in Capitol Reef National Park © Claire Dodd

PARK LIFE

Utah has five national parks, the third most of any US state. Zion, the oldest, received record visitor numbers topping five million in 2021, making it the country’s second most visited park. 

 

But if like me, your lockdown fantasy was being entirely away from other people, southern Utah’s lesser-known gems are for you. And if a road trip through this region is to journey into escapist fantasy, Scenic Byway 12 is our portal.

 

“The nearest stoplight is 80 miles away,” says our guide, Shybree. “We’ve definitely left everybody behind.”

 

From Salt Lake City it’s a four-hour drive through meadows, silos and homesteads to the dusty red rocks to reach the start of the road at Torrey, where you’ll find Capitol Reef national park. 

 

Byway 12 stretches 123 miles from here to Red Canyon, just beyond Bryce Canyon. Four hours more will take you to Vegas to fly home. Although you could drive all of Byway 12 in three hours, if you do it the right way – the slow way – it’ll take you at least five days.

 

Monumental, remote and under-visited, last year this national park – with its staggering plateaus and arches – attracted around a million visitors. As well as trekking its red rock plateaus with the help of my trusty llama with Wilderness Ridge Trail Llamas, here, you have to look up. 

 

“You’re going to be following a strange hairy man into the national park, so we want you to feel safe about that,” says Mason, our hirsute guide from Sleeping Rainbow Adventures, waving a torch in the darkness. Utah has the highest concentration of International Dark-Sky Association-certified locations in the US, including Capitol Reef. From late June to October the park is open for night-sky Milky Way tours. 

 

From Torrey, Byway 12 rises like the spine of a dinosaur, spanning crevices, mountains, canyons, forests and towns of only a few hundred people, reaching an elevation of 9,000ft before descending to hug the successive plunging inland cliffs of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. 

Escalante has some of the hardest-to-climb and most beautiful canyons in the world © Claire Dodd
Escalante has some of the hardest-to-climb and most beautiful canyons in the world © Claire Dodd

GRIPPING EXPERIENCE 

The town of Escalante provides access to some of the area’s most unique natural attractions. Alongside petrified forests, and dinosaur footprints immortalised in the rock, there’s the canyons. 

 

“For canyoneers, Escalante is the ultimate – worldwide,” says Rick Green, owner of Excursions of Escalante, who has been “pushing butts to these canyons” for 23 years. “It is what the north shore of Hawaii is to surfing. The hardest canyons in the world are here. Some of the most beautiful are here – and the most are here.”

 

“That’s it, donate some fabric,” Rick coaxes as I shuffle my way above a 30-metre empty void, wedged in and anchored by my bum against one wall of the canyon and my foot against the other. 

 

Here, deep in the desert, when it does rain the violence of flash floods has carved the soft slickrock of the valley floor into hundreds of intricate canyons, with folds, ledges, sudden switchbacks and gulleys. Climbing down into them is a sport. 

 

Building confidence, we clamber and rappel down dramatic drops that terrified me at the start of the day. Though a little strength and agility helps, Rick maintains some of his best customers are inexperienced groups of women in their 70s. “It’s about teamwork, that’s it,” he explains.

Claire enjoys a drive-in movie experience © Claire Dodd
Claire enjoys a drive-in movie experience © Claire Dodd

It’s time for bed, and new opening Yonder is calling. Described as an outdoor luxury resort, its collection of vintage Airstream caravans, purpose-built modern cabins, communal fire pits, food trucks and BBQs – not to mention its drive-in with a classic movie every night – tap into nostalgia for the great American road trip. Escalante is the first of many planned sites in “iconic” US destinations. 

 

“With travel becoming more experiential-led, we’re having a lot of success,” says Emma Sallquist, director of sales and marketing at Yonder, who says that though the property aimed to attract “millennial glamping types”, they’ve been overwhelmed by the number of families since it opened in March 2022.

 

“What we’re doing is really untapped, where families can experience this part of the country without having to rough it. It’s about that nostalgic component of the great American West.”

 

Nostalgic is right. Rising on the last morning to walk Bryce Canyon’s rock spires, or hoodoos, by dawn, this is a landscape shaped by time, and yet seemingly unaffected by it. In these valleys and plains, cowboys still roam, road trippers still wander and classic cars still frequent the desert. 

 

Book it: North America Travel Service offers an eight-night Scenic Byway 12 itinerary from £2,166pp, including return flights into Salt Lake City and out of Las Vegas, eight nights’ accommodation (one night in Salt Lake City, two at Broken Spur in Capitol Reef, two in Escalante, two at Ruby’s Inn Bryce Canyon and one in Kanab) and all-inclusive car hire with Hertz. northamericatravelservice.co.uk; email travel.agents@nats-uk.com

Utah snapshot

The Milky Way over Conestoga Wagons at East Canyon State Park © Ryan Andreasen
The Milky Way over Conestoga Wagons at East Canyon State Park © Ryan Andreasen

Smarter: Utah has four distinct seasons, with snow in winter and hot, dry summers. Spring (late April to mid June) and autumn (late August to mid-October) are great times to drive Byway 12, when temperatures are in the mid 20s and the road is passable. visitutah.com

 

Better: Keep the Wild West and road trip theme going by requesting accommodation including pioneer-style Conestoga Wagons at the Broken Spur Inn in Torrey, or teepees at Ruby’s Inn, Bryce Canyon. Both hotels also offer more conventional rooms. Stop for a country music show at Ebenezers Barn & Grill, Bryce Canyon. 

 

Fairer: As part of its “Forever Mighty” initiative, Utah encourages travel to lesser-visited destinations, guided experiences and off-season travel to benefit local communities and protect the environment. travel.utah.gov/forever-mighty 

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