Stretching between Bryce Canyon and my next destination lay the vast, rugged Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The route: Highway 12. The road: dipping and climbing atop 1.9 million acres of squared-off mountains, surprise canyons, and wide valleys. The land was controversially placed under federal protection at the height of the 1996 presidential campaign by Bill Clinton. Politics aside, it's a spectacular expanse and ignites the imagination to thoughts of lunar exploration.
On the way to Torrey, where I stayed Wednesday night at the Capitol Reef Inn and Cafe, I made an ice cream pitstop at Nemo's, a stand in Escalante, the biggest small town in the national monument. The final thirty miles or so to Torrey rolled above a deep valley across which the Waterpocket Fold was visible. The Fold, a colorful crease in the earth as its name suggests, is the central feature of Capitol Reef National Park, one of the places I visited on Thursday.
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