Utah’s wildest road climbs 9,600 feet with no guardrails and zero regrets

Utah’s only All-American Road

Scenic Byway 12 cuts 124 miles through southern Utah’s Garfield and Wayne counties, and every mile looks like a different planet.

The route connects U.S. 89 near Panguitch to State Route 24 near Torrey, passing through Dixie National Forest, Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and ending near Capitol Reef.

In 2002, the Federal Highway Administration gave it All-American Road status, the only road in Utah with that distinction. A road so good, it’s the destination.

Drive through tunnels carved into red limestone

Red Canyon sits inside Dixie National Forest and marks the western gateway to the byway. Two tunnels cut straight through vermilion limestone, framing the road ahead as you pass through.

Ponderosa pines line the base while red rock formations rise above them on both sides. The Red Canyon Visitor Center opens late spring through early fall with trail maps and route info.

Several hiking and biking trails wind through the hoodoos here, including the paved Red Canyon Bicycle Trail.

The world’s largest hoodoo collection towers above you

A short detour onto State Route 63 takes you into Bryce Canyon National Park, home to the largest concentration of hoodoos on Earth. The park covers about 36,000 acres and sits at elevations up to 9,100 feet.

Millions of years of erosion and freeze-thaw cycles carved these totem pole-shaped rock spires out of the earth.

Pull up to Sunrise Point, Sunset Point, or Inspiration Point, and the Bryce Amphitheater spreads out below you like an orange and white maze.

An ancient ocean left blue badlands behind

East of Henrieville, the red rock disappears and the ground turns blue-green-gray.

These mudstone badlands, known locally as The Blues, formed from an ocean that covered this area roughly 80 million years ago.

You’re looking at the Kaiparowits Formation inside Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. From the overlooks, Powell Point’s pink limestone cliffs rise in the distance, named for explorer John Wesley Powell.

The color shift hits you fast, and the landscape barely looks like Utah anymore.

67 stone spires stand where geysers once erupted

Kodachrome Basin State Park sits about nine miles south of Cannonville, just off Highway 12. The park holds 67 monolithic stone spires called sedimentary pipes, and the tallest ones reach about 170 feet.

Geologists think ancient hot springs and geysers hardened into stone while the softer sandstone around them wore away.

In 1948, a National Geographic Society expedition named the place “Kodachrome” after the popular Kodak film because of the colors. The park opened in 1962 and now draws hikers, campers, and horseback riders.

Walk a trail lined with petrified trees

Escalante Petrified Forest State Park sits about two miles northwest of the town of Escalante.

You can hike the Petrified Forest Trail, a moderate 1.1-mile loop past fossilized ancient conifer trees in shades of red, yellow, white, and black.

The trail gives you views of Wide Hollow Reservoir below, built in 1954, where you can fish, kayak, and spot birds from over 100 recorded species.

Inside the visitor center, you’ll find petrified wood, plant and marine fossils, and dinosaur bones over 100 million years old.

One overlook shows you three mountain ranges at once

Between Escalante and Boulder, the Head of the Rocks Overlook delivers one of the widest views on the entire byway. You pull into a parking area right along Highway 12, and the landscape opens in every direction.

Slickrock canyons stretch out below you, the Boulder Mountains rise to the north, the Henry Mountains sit to the east, and Navajo Mountain marks the southwest horizon.

The overlook is free, and it sits within Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, a nearly two-million-acre expanse of canyons and natural bridges.

A 126-foot waterfall hides in the desert canyon

The 6-mile round-trip hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls starts right off Highway 12 between Escalante and Boulder.

You follow Calf Creek through a Navajo sandstone canyon, passing ancient Fremont culture granaries and pictographs on the way.

The trail stays mostly flat, but deep sand and summer heat make it harder than the distance suggests. At the end, a 126-foot waterfall drops into a cold, deep pool where you can swim.

It’s one of the few year-round waterfalls in southern Utah’s desert.

The Hogback drops off on both sides

Between Escalante and Boulder, the road narrows to a slickrock ridge called The Hogback. Steep drop-offs fall away on both sides, and there are no guardrails or shoulders.

The Civilian Conservation Corps built this section in 1935, and people called it the “Million Dollar Road” for its construction cost. The entire route from Panguitch to Boulder wasn’t fully paved until 1985.

At moderate speeds, the road is safe, and you get 360-degree views of canyon country that make the white knuckles worth it.

A 900-year-old Puebloan village sits in Boulder

Anasazi State Park Museum in Boulder preserves the Coombs Village Site, one of the largest Ancestral Puebloan communities known to have existed west of the Colorado River.

The village was home to people from about A.D. 1050 to 1200, and University of Utah archaeologists excavated it in 1958 and 1959.

You can walk a self-guided trail through the ruins and step inside a life-sized replica of a six-room ancient dwelling. The museum displays pottery, tools, and other artifacts pulled from the site.

The road climbs to North America’s highest forested plateau

North of Boulder, the byway climbs the slopes of Boulder Mountain, part of the Aquarius Plateau.

The desert floor drops behind you as the road reaches about 9,600 feet and the landscape shifts to cool forests of aspen, spruce, and fir.

Stop at the Homestead or Larb Hollow overlooks and you can see Capitol Reef National Park, the Henry Mountains, and the Waterpocket Fold spread out below.

On a clear day, the views stretch more than 100 miles into neighboring states. The byway ends at State Route 24 near Torrey, about five miles from Capitol Reef.

Capitol Reef waits at the finish line

Capitol Reef National Park sits just east of the byway’s end and belongs to Utah’s “Mighty Five” national parks.

White Navajo sandstone cliffs shaped like capitol domes gave the park its name, and the Waterpocket Fold, a nearly 100-mile-long warp in the earth’s crust, runs through its core.

You can pick fruit in the pioneer orchards at Fruita, study Native American rock art, and drive the park’s own Scenic Drive through a narrow canyon.

Capitol Reef pulls far fewer visitors than Bryce Canyon, so the quiet is real. Torrey serves as the gateway town.

Drive Scenic Byway 12 in southern Utah

You can pick up Scenic Byway 12 near Panguitch on the west end or Torrey on the east. The road stays open year-round, though winter storms can close sections on Boulder Mountain temporarily.

No fees apply to the byway itself, but parks and recreation areas along the route charge their own entrance fees.

The drive takes about two and a half to three hours without stops, but most people spend a full day or more. Escalante and Boulder have gas, food, and lodging.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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