The Lake Powell Grand Circle Tour

Like a fabulous jewel encircled by incredibly beautiful gems, Lake Powell in northern Arizona is set amidst an enchanted ring of natural spectacles: national parks and monuments with mountains cragged and thrusting to aerie heights, deep canyons, high cliffs, and fantastic arches plus a host of nostalgic old villages, ghost towns and 1000-year-old Indian ruins all begging to be explored.

It is a vacationland second to none. And, today, thanks to planning with an eye for scenic adventure and a superb all-weather highway system, you can see it all with comfort and convenience in one complete circuit.

It's called the "Grand Circle Tour." And grand it is a 900-mile blacktop and concrete loop around some of the most spectacular country on earth.

Within the tour are six national parks (Bryce, Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, the Grand Canyon, and Mesa Verde) plus six national monuments (Navajo, Natural Bridges, Cedar Breaks, Pipe Springs, Hovenweep, and Rainbow Bridge.) In addition, there is Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park and, of course, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, with its centerpiece: beautiful Lake Powell.

From the newest icing on the geological layer cake at Bryce and Cedar Breaks, around 53 million years old, to some of the oldest exposed rock on earth at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, our circle tour touches four different biogeographic zones. The span of these life zones reaches from the upper pine, spruce and aspen forests of Bryce, Kaibab, Cedar Mountain, Boulder Mountain and Mesa Verde down to the canyon-bottom Sonoran zone, as found in southern Arizona and Mexico. Each zone, with some overlapping, supports its own variety of plant and animal life.

Some of these higher zones, thrust up along the perimeter of the circuit, are always in sight, beckoning the traveler to enjoy an alpine side trip into mountainous national forests, if time permits.

The Abajo Mountains, locally called the Blue Mountains, rise just west of Monticello, Utah, with peaks upwards of 11,000 feet above sea level and nearly a mile above the base of the group.

Farther west, on the other side of Lake Powell, are the Henry's, reaching to 11,485 feet. Brian Head, on the edge of Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah, is well over 11,000 feet above sea level, and Mount Peale, in the La Sals southeast of Moab, Utah, cuts close to a 13,000 foot above-sea-level notch in the sky.

Ute Mountain and parts of the Colorado Rockies also are visible to the east and the large lone symmetrical bulge that is Navajo Mountain, on the UtahArizona border, is seen in the distance from many points along the way.

The most popular time of year for travelers to visit the parks and monuments on this circle tour is from April through October, when all accommodations are open. The peak period is throughout the traditional summer vacation months of June, July and August.

The spring, summer and fall months are mostly dry and sunny and cool at night. Temperatures, of course, vary with altitude. Though in mid-summer, lower altitudes can get uncomfortably warm on a hike in the sun, and a light sweater may be needed for the cooler evenings. Throughout most all of a summer vacation, though, you can look forward to shirt-sleeve comfort.

Since the tour can be started and ended just as well at any point of choosing, the most practical approach is to start at the place most convenient for you. Then set your own pace and enjoy. But for the purposes of this article, let's arbitrarily start our imaginary trip from the lake itself.

The 1869 square mile Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, surrounding Lake Powell, cuts diagonally across the southeast corner of Utah. (Since another section of this issue is devoted to the lake, we'll limit observations here to other points of interest in the area.) A good place to start is right at the water's edge in Arizona, at Wahweap Lodge and Marina. This is one ofAmerica's fastest growing recreation areas, visited by over a million sportsmen and vacationers annually.

If you fly in, a 2600-foot, shalesurface, landing strip at a 3800-foot altitude, is right at hand. A paved 5000foot strip with commercial airline service is just eight miles away and around 500 feet higher at Page.

Wahweap Marina is complete with a wide, paved, no-fee launching ramp, launching and haul-out service, a huge floating dock, boat fueling depot, and a store with everything from groceries, boat accessories, bait and tackle, to fishing and hunting licenses. Powerboats, houseboats, water skies and fishing tackle also are available for rent.

In addition to the modern lodge, with its spectacular lake-view rooms, the glass-walled convention and dining room offers such a sweeping panorama of scenic splendor that the 600 people it will accommodate spend as much time staring as they do eating.

There are both a pool at the lodge and a wide sandy swimming beach on the lake, in addition to all the available water activities and wide choice of special water cruises available. Or you could try a variety of four-wheel-drive land tours, also offered at the lodge.

In just a few hours, round trip, you can visit the Paria River canyon, vividly striped with as bright a spectrum of nature's geological coloring as can be found anywhere in the world, or you can prowl through a weathered movie set where many scenes were filmed for such major motion pictures as McKenna's Gold, Bandolero, Planet of the Apes and most recently, Clint Eastwood's Outlaw Josie Wales.

How about a visit to a lonely pioneer ghost town or a day in the cattle country... on a buffalo range . . . a cowboy cookout? Or a visit to the immense natural arches and strange rock formations of White Mesa, in Navajoland.

In less than an hour by jeep from the lodge, you can walk the quiet sandy floor of Sculpture Canyon. This wild exhibit of nature's artistry, carved by centuries of periodic swirling flood waters, is a fantasy of sensational stone whirls and twists, so narrow at the top you can step across it in places.

A trailer, camper and mobile home village also overlooks the lake, and a large national park service campground is close by.

Memorable site. A few moments looking over the visitor center exhibits and a selfconducted tour through the immense power plant and inner workings of the dam are both quite an experience.

The key commercial center of this remote recreation area is the town of Page, on a mesa overlooking the dam. Whatever you may have forgotten to bring along can most likely be found in the many modern well-equipped shops here.

At Greenhaven, just north of Wahweap, the improved land sweeps up from the lake. It got its name from the Art Greene family who founded and developed Wahweap Lodge and Marina over a 22 year period, in cooperation with the National Park Service. Today, the Del Webb Corporation owns the complete Wahweap Lodge and recreation facilities.

The next leg of our circuitous journey will be on recently completed Arizona State Highway 98, across a section of the Navajo Reservation. The large symmetrical mound in the distance, east of Page, that seems to follow right along with us, is the sacred Navajo Mountain.

About 52 miles out of Page, a side road to the north is marked "Inscription House Ruin. closed." This ancient Indian cliff dwelling, with 74 living quarters, was constructed somewhere around 1274 A.D. It is part of Navajo National Monument, but it is now closed indefinitely because of urgent stabilization needs. However, after reaching U.S. Highway 160, just 14 miles farther on, then traveling 12 miles north to intersecting State Highway 564, it is just 10 more miles to the visitor center of Navajo National Monument.

Here a trail leads to an overlook above the Betatakin ruin, one of the three major ruins in the monument. The hike takes less than one hour, round trip. This 135-room cliff dwelling is nestled in a 500-foot-high cave in the opposite canyon wall.

If you want a more intimate look, scheduled ranger-conducted hikes will take you there. But be prepared for a three-hour round trip. Descending the 700 feet to the canyon floor is no problem, just so you remember that it will be uphill all the way back. . . comparable to climbing the stairs of a 70-story skyscraper, at a breath-shortening altitude of over 7000 feet.

The largest cliff dwelling in Arizona, Keet Seel, also is located in Navajo National Monument. Here there are 160 rooms and six ceremonial chambers called kivas.

(Left) One of the many spectacular eroded forms that gave Natural Bridges National Monument its name. The photo, taken before the area became a monument, uniquely illustrates its massive perspective. Allen Reed (Right) Where ancient masons gave their best Hovenweep Castle, Hovenweep National Monument. James Fain It's a full-day round trip to Keet Seel. To visit this cliff dwelling, however, you must register at park headquarters at least a day in advance. Visitation is limited to 15 persons a day, April through September.

The primitive eight-mile trail to the ruin crosses the canyon stream numerous times. If all that arduous hiking with wet feet doesn't quite appeal to you, horses and Navajo guides are available.

Doubling back to U.S. 160, it's 32 miles to the Kayenta junction, then 24 miles north to the Utah border and our next scenic spectacle.

Monument Valley tour information is available, and modern accommodations are open the year around, approximately 28 miles south of the Monument Valley Visitor Center or at Mexican Hat, 24 miles north.

The closest room, meal and tour accommodations are at Goulding's Monument Valley Trading Post and Lodge, on the Utah-Arizona border, right at the valley door. A trailer and tent campground also is located there, and another is situated next to the visitor's center.

Travel into the Valley by private car is confined to a limited section of dirt road. To enjoy the innermost reaches, where you can experience the Valley at its best, to visit the Navajo at his hogan, and get to know what it is you are looking at and where you are at all times, your best bet is a four-wheel-drive tour with a licensed, well-informed guide.

This mile-high, monument-studded western scenic paradise is all in the land of the Navajo. These gentle and hospitable people, for the most part, lead a pastoral life as farmers, sheepmen and cattlemen. Their traditional cedar-log and mud-plastered hogans blend perfectly into the 1500 square miles that make up Monument Valley.

Among the Navajo women velveteen blouses in vivid blues, greens, yellows, purples and reds, laced with silver coins along with equally colorful satiny, ankle-length skirts, always seem to be in style. Treasures of handmade silver and turquoise jewelry adorn both Navajo men and women. They are well known as silversmiths and rug weavers.

In the inevitable ever-changing pattern of progress, many of the traditional Navajo hogans throughout the valley have given way to small conventional block and frame, composition-roofed dwellings.

The familiar old horse-drawn spring wagon, filled with picturesque Navajo families creeping along sandy ruts, have, in many cases, given way to shiny pickup trucks, churning up cockscombs of dust on reservation roads or zipping along the now hard-surfaced highways to Kayenta or Flagstaff.

But the "monuments" themselves seem to avoid any change at all, except that provided by the ever shifting performance of light and sky and weather, as each day flows across the monuments, on its way from dawn to dusk.

The regular evening show of dark shadows, creeping up from the base of each monument, crowding the fiery glow of the setting sun off their tips, hasn't changed at all. Neither have the orange and crimson-streaked sunsetsky backdrops.

It is a masterpiece of nature . . . and more. It is a blend of sight, sound, legend, ceremony and tranquility that together reach deep to stir the innermost feelings we've almost forgotten were there.

Heading northeast on U.S. 163, the highway crosses the San Juan River, leaving the Navajo Reservation, and passing the settlement of Mexican Hat, which got its name from an inverted stone sombrero visible on the east side of the highway.

From Monument Valley it is 25 miles to State 261, leading to the Gooseneck's State Park. Then, less than a mile west on 261, another marked turnoff leads about three and one-half miles to the canyon rim. Here the San Juan River, entrenched 1200 feet below in a terraced labyrinth, has carved out a series of incredibly tight switchbacks on its way to Lake Powell. The monoliths of Monument Valley stand in the background on the distant horizon.

Retracing the four miles to State 261, it is about five and one-half miles north to an east turnoff marked "Valley of the Gods." This is a fair-weather dirt road around 17 miles in length. It comes out on U.S. 163, five miles farther on than where we left it on our way to the Goosenecks.

The only visible human habitation on the Valley of the Gods road is the old ranch house of a grandson of pioneer John D. Lee, a few miles in. The rest of the Valley "inhabitants" are what your imagination makes them out to be.

Here, in rock, are numerous imaginary "animals," objects, stately "gods" and serenity and beauty... and a very nice experience.

The Valley of the Gods is a great place to exercise both the camera and the legs, because there is plenty of photogenic room to roam.

After the Valley our next stop is Natural Bridges National Monument. To reach Natural Bridges, without returning through the Valley of the Gods, where the dirt road meets U.S. 163, turn back four miles towards Mexican Hat and take the same turnoff on State 261, passing both the Goosenecks turnoff and the Valley of the Gods turnoff. For the next three miles the switchback highway climbs several hundred feet to the top of Cedar Mesa.

If the switchbacks don't take your breath away the view from an overlook just short of the top surely will. Below, the wide highway you just traveled is but a thin thread reaching for the horizon. Let your eyes follow it into the distance and you will get a pretty good idea of how well that often used term "land of room-enough and timeenough" describes this part of the West.

Almost immediately after topping out on Cedar Mesa, a marked dirt road leads to the left three and seven-tenths miles to Muley Point. This is another spectacular lookout over a vast panorama of San Juan canyon country, with the meandering river far below.

Returning from Muley Point to State 261, it's less than 28 miles, across the grass and cedar-covered mesa, toward two twin buttes, known as the Bears Ears, to Utah State 95. From there it is another seven miles west to Natural Bridges National Monument Visitor Center and campground. The monument is open the year around.

From the visitor's center, a scenic eight-mile, bridge-view drive takes in three spectacular natural bridges. Platforms overlooking each bridge will be just a few steps from your car door. Or if you are inclined to walk, trails lead to each bridge, and a foot path connects all three.

Two of these bridges, Sipapu and Kachina, were created by streambed erosion.

The third bridge, Owachomo, on the side of the main stream bed, was created mostly by erosion due to rain, frost action and the sandblasting effect of storm winds.

By consulting the map of this region, you'll note that Utah Route 95 goes northwest to Hanksville, cutting the circle route in half. Take this newly paved route if pressed for time.

From the Natural Bridges Visitor Center State 95 next takes us 36 miles to U.S. 163, just south of Blanding, Utah on the way to Hovenweep National Monument and Mesa Verde.

Head south on 163, approximately 11 miles, to State 262. Travel east on 262 about eight and three-tenths miles, where a marked road leads six and six-tenths miles farther to Hatch. At Hatch, a just completed bridge crosses Monte-zuma Creek and a graded dirt road continues on eight and eight-tenths miles to the Hovenweep visitor's center and campground.

Hovenweep is a Ute Indian word meaning "deserted valley." This 505-acre monument, open the year around, contains six groups of ruins, five of which are isolated and difficult to reach.

The most accessible pueblo ruins with tower walls some 20 feet high, are just steps from the visitor's center. These plus the square tower, built on the bottom of the canyon to protect the precious spring, are outstanding examples of the skills of the ancient masons.

By the late 1200s, a long period of drought, resulting in diminishing water supplies and failing crops, possibly accompanied by warfare, forced these Pueblo Indians to abandon their homes before 1300. They drifted south in search of better conditions and never returned.

From Hovenweep it is less than 50 miles through picturesque McElmo Canyon to Cortez, on the way to Mesa Verde.

Note: Hovenweep is in relatively desolate country, as compared to other national monuments on this circuit. The approach roads are graded dirt roads and are sometimes impassable during or just following storms. It is therefore advisable to make local inquiry during stormy weather regarding road conditions. If it is one of the rare occasions when the roads are muddy, simply skip Hovenweep and stay on the hard surface State 262. This all-weather route is about 17 miles longer to Cortez, Colorado, than the graded dirt road past Hovenweep to Cortez.

From Cortez it is about 101/2 miles on U.S. 160 to the junction with the Mesa Verde highway.

This mountainous road climbs over 1600 feet to 8040 feet above sea level, before dropping back down to the 7000 foot elevation, at the park headquarters and visitor center. The splendid views of the lush valleys spreading far below are worth the Mesa Verde part of the trip alone.

The museum at the visitor center, along with roadside exhibits, self-guided and guided tours and summer campfire programs, will give you an insight into the lives of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of this 52,000-acre park area. Miniature dioramas depict the evolution of the Anasazi culture from early inhabitants of the Colorado Plateau through the Great Pueblo period.

As to the actual cliff dwellings, nowhere else in America can one see so well the sequence of prehistoric architectural development as along the many miles of these ruin roads.

The cliff dwelling period lasted less than 100 years and before the close of the 13th century it is thought that, like the inhabitants at Hovenweep, severe drought drove these people from their homes forever.

Meals, lodging and camping facilities are available in the park from mid-May to mid-October.

Although the park headquarters and the museum are open and tours to the one cliff dwelling are conducted throughout winter months, all park concession facilities, including gasoline, food and lodging, are not available in the wintertime.

Mesa Verde is far enough off the main circuit to perhaps be considered a side trip. But don't miss it. It is a memorable experience in itself.

From Mesa Verde return to Cortez and then take U.S. 666, through 60 miles of rolling farm land, to Monticello, Utah, and our next vacation target.

The drama of Canyonlands National Park, with its surrealistic 525-square-mile-maze of meandering canyons, swirls of candy striped sandstone fins, bristling forests of towering monoliths, gravity defying balanced rocks, and graceful arches could be billed as 300 million years in the making. All together it's an explorer's utopia on foot, horseback, river, air or fourwheel-drive vehicle with a local guide. To reach Canyonlands National Park, take U.S. 163 north of Monticello 15 miles, to where a lone sandstone butte with a deep red base juts up on the east side of the highway. This is Church Rock, sometimes referred to as the "wine jug" because of its jug-like shape, with a little bit of red wine left in the bottom.

On the opposite side of the highway from this lone landmark, State Highway 211 leads through 38 miles of scenic canyon country to the "needles" district in the south section of the park. This is one of only two conventional passenger car roads that presently penetrate this six-year-old park, which, compared to other national parks, is still in its infancy.

Less than halfway in, the road goes right by Newspaper Rock, one of the best preserved and most intriguing groups of petroglyphs in the area. The inscriptions cut into the sandstone cliff probably span about 1000 years, and include figures made by Indians of prehistory and others more recently made by Utes and a few early white settlers. Farther on, the road enters the park near the ranger station and the Squaw Flat campground. A short distance beyond Squaw Flat the conventional road ends in an area surrounded by clusters of colorful buttes and pinnacles. From here on travel is only by foot, horseback or four-wheel-drive.

Just north of the park entrance Canyonlands Resort offers fuel, snacks, limited supplies, scenic flights, fourwheel-drive-vehicle rentals and tours. Professional guide service into this scrambled maze of scenic wonders also is available at Moab, Monticello, Blanding, Bluff, Mexican Hat and Monument Valley.

Four-wheel-drive is a good way to really see Canyonlands and its hundreds of fantastic formations, with such descriptive names as Walking Rocks, Washerwoman, Moses and Zeus, Angel Arch, Walls of Jericho and Paul Bunyan's Potty, to mention just a few. Backtracking to U.S. 163 you'll get a whole new experience, seeing this magnificent country unfold from the opposite direction.

After returning to U.S. 163 and going north about seven miles, you'll see another passenger-car roadway leading into a needle country overlook. But it does not enter the national park boundaries.

The north section of Canyonlands contains a high bench plateau between the Green and Colorado rivers. This area is called "Island in the Sky," and is reached by a 45-mile partly paved, partly graded road that intersects U.S. 163, about nine miles north of Moab, Utah.

The ranger station at the entrance to the Island has printed guide folders with information on mileage, campgrounds, scenic areas, trails and such viewpoints as Grand View Point overlooking Canyonlands, Green River Overlook, Upheaval Dome and others. Historical and geological data also is included.

Moab, located on the Colorado River, is one of the largest business centers on this grand tour. The 4000 foot Moab valley elevation is rich in scenery, minerals, and signs of the prehistoric past, from dinosaur tracks imbedded in sandstone to Anasazi Indian ruins.

Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park, Dead Horse Point State Park, our next stop on the tour, and all the scenic wonders and sports adven-tures of this western river, canyon and mountain country are easily accessible from Moab.

To reach Dead Horse Point State Park the same turnoff is taken nine miles north of Moab that leads to the above mentioned Island in the Sky area of Canyonlands. The 23-mile section of highway is paved all the way.

Dead Horse Point has a campground and picnic facilities. From the path around the edge of Dead Horse Point a magnificent sweep of hundreds of square miles of canyon lands are spread out before you, with the Colorado River in the foreground, 2000 feet below, and the La Sal Mountains as a distant horizon background.

The point, itself, is on an almost isolated island-mesa connected to the mainland by a very narrow neck of land, not much wider than the road that now crosses it.

Old-time cowboys used the island with its sheer cliffs as a natural corral trap, driving wild mustangs across the narrow neck of land and then putting up a temporary fence to prevent their escape while they roped the ones they wanted.

The point got its name when a band of horses, corralled too long by error, allegedly died of thirst.

About four miles north of Moab, on U.S. 163, is Arches National Park visitor center. The entry leads to a paved highway that takes you to view points and trail heads, from which hikers can reach the most spectacular of the 90 known arches in this 114-square-mile park.

Here again the elements have run rampant, sculpturing, balancing, and painting a majestic gallery of nature's sensational masterworks.

It would be difficult to surpass the stately splendor of Delicate Arch as it stands alone at the crest of the concave sweep of its private amphitheatre, spotlighted by an evening sun. When the La Sals, spread out in the background, are snowcapped and the sky puts on a moody act, the ultimate in nature's dramatic artistry is unveiled.

An equally sensational formation, in another section of the park, is Land-scape Arch. Here nature accomplished the near impossible. From an enormous sandstone fin she chiseled an almost straight, level span weighing thousands of tons. It's 291-feet-long but only 6-feet-thick at one end.

On your trip, don't miss stopping off at the visitor center to see the interesting displays related to the area. Here you'll also find a bronze bust of Dr.

J. W. Williams, 1853-1956, inscribed to the "Father of the Arches who for years devoted unselfishly of his time and effort toward the creation of the Arches National Monument, so that other generations could enjoy its beauty and grandeur."

As the first physician in Moab's early days, Dr. Williams had numerous occasions to treat patients in outlying districts on the other side of the arch country.

After discovering the beauty and grandeur of this area, while riding through it on horseback to make calls, he felt its wonders should be shared with the outside world. Largely through his efforts over many years, Arches became a national monument in 1929.

When he was over 100 years old, he was taken cross-country in a jeep to personally approve of his proposed highway route into the Arches. Dr. Williams lived to be 103, and the monument became a national park in 1971.

Zane Grey's novel, Robbers' Roost was inspired by the maze of blind canyons and hidden trails in this remote area.

Today, his son, Mitch, and his grandson, John Williams, are still just as dedicated, showing this country to the world through their Tag-a-long Tour operation. With guides skilled in river-running along with expert jeep-skinners they offer a wide assortment of river and overland trips, from a day to a week in length, throughout the vast spectacu-lar canyon-country wilderness of southeastern Utah.

Thirty miles north of Moab, U.S. 163 intersects Interstate 70. Traveling west 31 miles through Green River, State Highway 24 takes off from 70, heading south toward Hanksville about 47 miles away. Halfway to Hanksville, a paved road intersects from the west. Here you'll see a sign marked "Goblin Valley." Around six miles in on this road is a marked, graded dirt road going south which ends in a few miles in a large secluded sun-baked valley pep-pered with thousands of standing rocks - truly a photographer's playground.

Goblin Valley, you'll find, is a very appropriate name for this strange area, peopled with all sorts of stoney apparitions.

Though there are four-wheel-drive roads here, there is not much choice for a passenger car but to backtrack to State 24. From this intersection the next national park is about 60 miles away.

After crossing the Dirty Devil River, turn west at Hanksville and follow the scenic Fremont River canyon, past several marked historic points of inter-est, to Capitol Reef National Park.

The park's visitor center is in a ver-dant valley of pasture land and fruit orchards, walled in by towering cliffs.

In 1937, 3700 acres were set aside as a national monument. But it wasn't until 1971 that an act of congress changed the status to that of a national park with 241,671 acres.

The park encompasses almost all of a massive 100-mile-long buckling of the earth's crust, here, called the Water-pocket Fold. The name comes from numerous natural tanks and pot holes that hold huge quantities of rain water in the spring.

This gigantic upheaval of majestic domes, sheer multicolored escarpments and deeply eroded canyons continues north of the visitor's center, and south, beyond the Bullfrog Basin section of Lake Powell.

The extreme subterranean pressures that wrinkled the earth's crust into this fold exposed at least seven different layers of geological formation, laid one on top of another, over a period of 125 million years. The Capitol Reef name came from large, white, dome-shaped formations (eroded from a 1000-foot-thick layer of Navajo sandstone) that looked like the dome on the nation's capitol. But the early Indians called this canyon country "Land of the Sleeping Rainbow" because of the multi-colored outcroppings of Chinle Shale that stretch like a sprawling rainbow along the base of the cliffs.

Zane Grey's novel, Robbers' Roost was inspired by the maze of blind canyons and hidden trails in this remote area, once a favorite hideout of Butch Cassidy, "The Sundance Kid", "Big Nose" George Curry, and the rest of the Wild Bunch. But today it's doctors, lawyers, executives and their families who most often seek total escape and relaxation here. And if ever a ranch setting was befitting, one of the eloquent descriptions Zane Grey was famous for, it's the picturesque Sleep-ing Rainbow Guest Ranch cupped in the ruddy hands of skyscraping canyon walls.

Rim Rock Motel, just outside the park, as well as Sleeping Rainbow Guest Ranch inside the park, hold concessions to operate tourwheel-drive tours, and a pleasantly situated campground is located not too far from the visitors center. There also are at least a dozen hiking trails starting here and leading to scenic and historic sites.

In leaving Capitol Reef, highway 24 leads to a turnoff at the town of Torrey, about 12 miles west. Here the Boulder Mountain road offers a scenic shortcut to Bryce Canyon, the next national park on the circuit, a little over 100 miles down the line. The highway is currently undergoing grading and hard surfacing and is closed during winter months. The 32 miles of graded dirt road, from Torrey to the town of Boulder, passes over a 9200-foot forested mountain. Here a blend of pines, aspens, grassy meadows, wild flowers and mountain trout streams all add to its charm. Boulder, a quiet little farm community with a population of less than 100, is a pleasure in itself to see. It is also worth taking a few moments to visit the Anasazi Indian Village State Historical Monument and Museum at the north edge of town.

From Boulder, State Highway 12 heads 73 miles through Escalante and a number of small towns, to Bryce Canyon National Park.

Most of the picturesque little towns on this route look much the same as they did two or three generations ago. As one old-time resident put it, "the only change in this town, in the last 50 years, was when a high wind came up and twisted a house around about a foot on its foundation."

Bryce Canyon got its name from an early Mormon settler, Ebenezer Bryce, who built his cabin a few miles downcountry and claimed grazing rights in the canyon area. His often quoted, best remembered description of the canyon was "a hellova place to lose a cow," something he no doubt learned, a time or two, the hard way.

Until you park your car and walk to the rim of spectacular Bryce Canyon you are in a ponderosa, spruce, fir and aspen forest, typical of this 8000-foot altitude. Then, as you step from the forest to the "Pink Cliff" edge, you face a vast bowl of delicate, intricatelyeroded, multi-colored minarets, spires and pinnacles that, by the thousands, make up the lacy fretwork below.

There are a number of rim-drive viewpoints, and a series of trails that are invitations to wander down among the delicately carved embellishments of the inner canyons. But if the altitude of Bryce seems a little high for extendedhikes, horseback trips are conducted each morning and afternoon through the summer season. You can make arrangements at the lodge.

Bryce Canyon lodge, almost next to the rim, offers both lodging and food from mid-May to mid-October. Camping may be enjoyed at two sites within the park from around May 1 to November 1. Food and lodging accommodations are available outside the park on a year around basis.

The next arm of our circuit leads 21 miles down to Panguitch and then back upgrade to an altitude of 10,000 feet in Dixie National Forest. Here the road to Cedar Breaks National Monument winds about 31 miles through forests of pine, aspen, and rolling green alpine meadow, all of which are garnished with wild flowers during the spring and summer.

Though Cedar Breaks origination, composition and coloring is much the same as the Pink Cliffs of Bryce, you'll find that it has a personal, physical character and beauty all its own.

Here are heavy stands of juniper which the early settlers in this and many areas of the West mistook for cedars. The error gave Cedar Breaks its name.

Here again, nature has been a truly inspired artist, creating a whole new fantasy of colorful, third-dimensional decorations, and adding to the gigantic dished out foreground of color and form, forests and mountains, sweeping away to distant horizons.

Small stands of bristlecone pine, believed to be among the oldest living things on earth, grow in the limestone soil along the rim and down in the breaks. Here in the high country they endure the harshest of elements, century after century. The oldest dated pine in this area is around 1600 years old.

There are a number of inviting rim trails and forest trails in the monument, but no trails leading down to the bottom of the breaks. A five-mile road winds through the forests and meadows to the rim at four strategically located viewpoints overlooking the 10-squaremile monument. A visitor center, campground and picnic area are the extent of the accommodations. Weather usually permits comfortable camping at this altitude from late June to Labor Day. Groceries and gasoline are available at Brian Head Resort, a summer-home area and a popular winter ski-resort, eight miles north of the visitor's center.

From Cedar Breaks, on State Highway 14, we now travel east for 23 miles to U.S. 89. Signs along the way point out a variety of interesting dirt road side trips, to such scenic spots as Aspen Mirror Lake, Cascade Falls, Zion View and Navajo Lake.

From where U.S. 89 is reached at Long Valley junction, it is 21.6 miles south to Mt. Carmel junction. Here State 15 travels west 22.6 miles into Zion National Park.

The approach to Zion meanders beneath immense checkerboard rock formations that originated millions of years ago as gigantic wind-deposited sand dunes, which were later covered over and compressed into stone. They'll give you a modest clue of what's to be seen at Zion.

Unlike the more fragile, ornamental spires of Bryce, Zion is overwhelmingly massive, engulfing the valley below.Complementing the park's striking views and points of interest are many hiking trails. Some short and others long and strenuous, especially during the warmer mid-summer months.

There are two tunnels on this highway, one over a mile long. Just before the second and longest tunnel is a parking area on the left side of the highway. Across the highway from this pulloff, stone steps lead to a half-mile canyon overlook trail. The view of the canyon and the looping ribbon of the Zion-Mt. Carmel highway far below is worth the hour round-trip hike.

And if you pick up a trail guide from a dispenser at the start of the trail, you'll enhance your hike greatly. It will give you a very concise, step-by-step layman's education on the geology, plants, birds and animal life of the area.

Back at the highway, after passing through the long tunnel and driving down the winding loops that were seen from the overlook, a well marked sixmile-long highway branches north to follow the Virgin River. This will take you to the Zion Lodge campground and picnic area. Beyond the lodge, a few miles, the road terminates in a parking area, deep in the bottom of the canyon.

One of the more popular hikes is a mile-long foot path along the river, from the road's end up to the narrows and the hanging garden of Zion. Other popular and easy trails go to Weeping Rock, Emerald Pools and Hidden Canyon. Arrangements may be made at the lodge for horseback trips into some higher scenic sections of the park.

Cabin and food accommodations are available at Zion Lodge within the park. And several communities in the vicinity along State 15 offer food and lodging, year-round.

Next and last national park vacation wonderland on the tour is the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, approximately 120 highway miles away.

To get there, go back through the Zion tunnels and turn south on U.S. 89 to Kanab, a major stop on the circuit.

(Left) Sunset creates a stunning mood in the Grand Canyon, softly embracing the temples of Deva, Brahma and Zoroaster, against a dark background of the South Rim and the San Francisco Peaks. From Bright Angel Point, North Rim.

Often referred to as “Little Hollywood,” it has, over the past several decades, served as home base for at least 30 major western movies, lesser films and TV productions.

It is an early Mormon settlement, with its roots deep in history. Take time to drive through many of the side streets and enjoy the picturesque, oldfashioned homes.

From Kanab it's 80 miles and less than a two-hour drive to the world-renowned Grand Canyon.

The highway to the North Rim crosses back into Arizona three miles south of Kanab. Then it climbs up to the forested Kaibab Plateau past Jacob Lake and across wide tree-rimmed meadows to North Rim Village.

You won't know the Canyon is there until you get out of your car and take a few steps through the trees. Suddenly you're standing on the rim of an immense, deep, plunging chasm with towering sun-tinted rock forms one of nature's greatest wonders.

This incredible canyon, averaging nine miles in width, was scoured out of a mile-thick series of sedimentary stone layers by all the forces of nature's elements, working in close order with the mighty Colorado River for about 13 million years. As you look down to the river, your line of sight transects more than a dozen land-form layers and four present-day life zones. To the casual observer, the colorfully stratified formations are a work of art. But to the geologist, they are much more. In biting deeply into the earth's crust, time and the river have exposed the orderly pages of an illustrated text, telling the story of the earth's creation. Each layer, with its tell-tale fossils and composition, illustrate the stairway that life on earth climbed through the ages.

The Grand Canyon affects a lot of people in different ways. But one thing is sure, there is no more awe-inspiring, humbling place on earth.

As you look across the canyon you'll see the forested south rim on the far side, approximately 1000 feet below you. By trail, it is 14 miles from the North Rim to the Colorado River and 7.8 miles more to the South Rim Village: less than 22 miles on foot or by mule, nine miles by air, and over 200 miles by car.

If you have time, the best way to round out the Grand Canyon experience is to see it inside out, by taking a muleback ride down the North Kaibab trail to Roaring Springs. This nine and twotenths mile round trip can be completed in one day. Arrangements can be made at the lodge.

Two additional North Rim view points, reached by park highways, are Cape Royal and Point Imperial. Or, if you have the ambition and the stamina, you can hike the 14 miles down this trail to the river in one day. However, hikers are encouraged to take plenty of time and stop at one of the three campgrounds enroute. Required camping permits are available at the ranger station or the lodge.

Meals and cabins are available at the North Rim lodge. And, there also is a campground nearby all are open from mid-May to mid-October. In the fall, when snowfall begins to block the road, the North Rim highway and all accommodations are closed.

Driving back on the Grand Canyon highway to the Jacob Lake junction, alternate U.S. 89 east will soon drop us off the forested Kaibab Plateau onto the wide sweep of Houserock Valley range land. Approximately 20 miles from Jacob Lake a dirt road heading

south will take you on an interesting side trip. Stay on it for around 20 miles until you pass a lonesome cattle ranch or two. You'll be in the heart of a vast cattle range, between the Kaibab and the Colorado River, where herds of buffalo wander with all the apparent freedom they had when they were king of their domain.

Back on 89A, skirting the base of the lofty Vermilion Cliffs, a tiny oasis will appear hugging the base of the cliffs. This is Cliff Dwellers Lodge.

If you should happen to stop for gas, coffee or a night's rest take a moment to stroll a few yards from the present buildings, and take a look at what the original cliff dwellers' living was like, not too many years ago.

A few miles farther on, Navajo Bridge crosses the walled-in Colorado River, 467 feet below. The bridge is just seven miles down-river from historic Lee's Ferry. On the other side of the bridge, the highway enters back onto the Navajo Reservation. A little over 15 miles farther 89A meets with 89, which in turn climbs the Echo Cliffs, where the vast panorama of the valley, just crossed, is spread out below.

The Kaibab National Forest Plateau rests dark on the distant skyline, and the Colorado River Canyon cuts a ragged gash through Grand Canyon National Park, in the Valley between.

As the highway slices through a deep notch at the crest of the red escarpment, we're on the home stretch. From here, it's only about 20 miles back to our starting point, at Lake Powell's Glen Canyon Dam.

We've left a lot out of our journey on paper, obviously there's just not enough space to further detail the major stops or to cover all the lesser side trips and things to see and do. But that, in a way, is a benefit. When you take the trip in reality, you will have the added fun and adventure of personal discovery, in seeking out all the many historic and scenic landmarks along the way.

Places like Fisher Towers and Castle Rock up the Colorado River Canyon from Moab, Pipe Springs National Monument and Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Reserve near Kanab, Butch Cassidy's home near Circleville, The Kolb Canyon section of Zion, and much more.

There are towns to see, too, with interesting historic backgrounds and locales, such as Bluff and Blanding and others in Utah. There are antique shops and rock shops and small museums inviting you to browse.

In a sense, then, these pages might be considered as hardly more than a menu for a supreme gourmet banquet. The real treat for all your senses will come when you are there and the banquet is served.

HOW TO GET THE MOST ENJOYMENT OUT OF YOUR GRAND CIRCLE DISCOVERY TOUR

It is recommended that reservations be made ahead, whenever possible, for each night's lodging. For maps and tour information write: Utah Travel Council, Council Hall, Capitol Hill, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114. Phone (801) 533-5681 Request Utah multipurpose maps No's. 1,2,5 and 6 along with a Utah Travel Guide, and whatever else may be available on the discovery tours in the areas covered by those maps.

Additional detailed information can be obtained from: National Park Service Public Information, 125 South State Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114. Phone (801) 524-4165 The U.S. Forest Service Public Information, 125 South State Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114. Phone (801) 524-5030 Information can also be obtained from the Chambers of Commerce of any of these towns along the tour: Page, Arizona 86040, Cortez, Colorado 81321, Blanding, Utah 84511, Monticello, Utah 84535, Moab, Utah 84532, Green River, Utah 84525, Panguitch, Utah 84759, Kanab, Utah 84741.