A RIDE ALONG: Utah Scenic Byway 12 - a white knuckle drive - they call part of it "Hell's Backbone" for a reason!

MAY 2013

Well McTraveler (65 feet towing) had already been on part of  Scenic Byway 12 driving in from St George to Cannonville, it had some challenging parts but overall not too bad to handle ... and the scenery was beautiful.  Talking with several folks around the campground, in Bryce and at Kodachrome ... they were all raving about the spectacular drive taking Byway 12 from Cannonville to Moab, our next stop.

Look at all the cool places we're going to drive through!

We were enthused and our wanderlust said Okay, let's do this!  But we had broken one of our cardinal rules before hitting the road. We did not refer to our copy of Mountain Directory West.  If we had, we would have read this ...

UTAH HIGHWAY 12 (between US 89 and Utah Hwy 24)

     There are many steep grades along this 130 mile stretch of road.  Most of these grades are fairly short but can be in the 8 to 12% range. The longest grades are south of Torrey, UT.  About 23 mile short south of Torrey there is a summit called Round Top Flat.  The northbound descent from the summit is a curvy, stairstepping decent of about 6% for 5 1/2 miles.  Then there is a section of rolling hills for about 4 miles followed by 10 miles of stairstepping grade, some of which is 8%.  The longest single section of 8% grade is about 2 miles long and there are several sections of 1 1/2 miles or less.

     The southbound descent from Round Top Flats starts with about 1 1/2 miles of 6% grade and then 1 1/2 miles of rolling uphill grade.  After topping out the grade is back downhill at 6-8% for about 5 miles where it eases to about 4% for several miles.  At this point you are several miles north of Boulder, UT.

     Between Boulder and Escalante there are several sections of steep grade both uphill and down.  These can be as steep as 10 or 11% but they usually don't exceed 2 miles in length.  There ae more short, steep grades between Escalante and Henrieville including a one mile stretch marked at 12%.

     Just east of Bryce Canyon there is a 2 miles 8% grade and just west of Bryce Canyon there is a 2-3 mile stretch of 6% grade descending into Red Canyon.

As you can read, this route can be challenging even for a car.  After a good hour into the white knuckle drive, Jim had had enough and was cursing up a blue streak and looking for somewhere to do a U-Turn.  He was dreading that the next 4 hours would be same intense driving; McTraveler had turned into a monster to handle. Well, that U-turn was impossible on this narrow road with virtually no shoulder, no guard rails, and shear drop offs. Plus, we had gone too many miles to make turning around prudent considering the cost of fuel.

Mountain Directory calls the Hell's Backbone section of curves "stairstepping" ... several were very tight 180 degree switch backs with no shoulder or guard rails with shear drop offs ... we thought we would be able to do a Jeep tire inspection because of the tightness of the curve we'd be able to see the rear end of our toad (tow vehichle).

We did make it to Moab, a 5 hour 258 mile drive, but the byway was a white knuckle experience for Jim and he was exhausted. As the photographer in this pack, I loved the fantastic scenery but many times it was pretty unnerving to look through the bottom window of the passenger door and see no road, no shoulder, nothing but a thousand foot drop off.  Jim had to look at the photos to appreciate the beauty of what he drove through, at the time he was too busy just to keep McTraveler from going over the cliffs.

Would we take this route again?
Jim: Not only no, but Hell NO!
Maxx: No, he was quaking in his thundershirt the entire drive.
Mollie: Oh yeah, she loved sitting on the dash watching in wonder.
Pam: No, not as a driver.  But I'm sure glad I had this "one and done" experience ... I was entranced and in awe, such diversity in landscape and weather changes as we made 3,000 foot elevation changes along this scenic byway.  Plus this drive gave us a story to tell about our adventures.

Are you ready? It's time to take your Dramamine, get an extra cushion for the bumpy ride, and climb aboard McTraveler so you can ride along with us on Utah's Scenic Byway 12. Let's roll ...

Like us, you made it safe and sound all the way to Moab.  It's time to let us know what you thought, and if you'd make the same trip in your RV?  Hope you enjoyed the scenery and you'll be back again soon for more adventures.

Until then, wishing you safe travels,
Pam, Jim, Maxx and Mollie