Posey Lake Road forks off westwards, while the main route comes more winding as it approaches the Upper Box trailhead. The road rounds a wide bend then straightens, following the uppermost section of the valley alongside a sagebrush plain, before climbing more steadily, now through full-size pine woods. Views are sometimes restricted due to the trees though there are plenty of grand overlooks, in particular of the three main canyons that the road winds above - Pine Creek (The Box), Death Hollow and Sand Creek. A few side tracks branch off, most used being to Posey Lake, and there are many places suitable for free primitive camping. Only the southernmost part is within Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument the remainder is in the Dixie National Forest. The lower reaches, at either end, cross semi-desert land with bushes and exposed sandstone, though the majority is through thick pine and aspen forests, above 8,000 feet. Although often very winding, the road is wide enough for two vehicles to pass easily, with only one slightly rougher section, for a mile or two east of Hell's Backbone, where the road descends a steep hillside. The surface is regularly graded during these months. It climbs quite far up the southern slopes of Boulder Mountain, reaching a high point of 9,200 feet, and as a result is closed by snow for several months in winter, and usually impassable during the snowmelt season of late spring, but for a few months in summer the surface is smooth and dry, and the road accessible by most vehicles including small to medium RVs. ![]() The road, which is mostly unpaved, is 39 miles in length, and without stops takes nearly 2 hours to drive. Prior to construction, travel was via Hell's Backbone Road (also known as Salt Gulch Road or FR 153), an equally dramatic route built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, and named for a very narrow ridge traversed by the road, where the land falls away near-vertically on both sides, by over 500 feet. ![]() The main route between Escalante and Boulder is the scenic Highway 12, built in the 1940s, a relatively low elevation road that crosses the Escalante River canyon then follows the narrow ridge between Calf Creek and Dry Hollow, before descending to Boulder.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |