May 27, 2010
Day 29: Bryce Canyon to Escalante
It only got down to 45F overnight. Warmer than the last 3 nights, but it was still cold in the morning because of wind. Up at 7:50, on the road at 9:20. My first stop was at the end of the 1.5 mile spur road to Fairyland Point. I walked half a mile down the trail to get a good sun angle.
Then back to the main park road and down to Ruby's Inn where I stocked up on groceries. Then down to highway 12 where I turned east, backtracking towards Tropic and Cannonville. Downhill. On the way down I stopped at the Mossy Cave trailhead. The cave was no big deal, but the trail has a very nice creek and waterfall. And on the top of the hill are some interesting looking stone windows.
It turns out that that the water in the creek is not natural. In the 1890's Mormon farmers spent two years hand-digging a 10-mile ditch to divert water from the east fork Sevier river across the Markagunit plateau to the valley east of the plateau. It's the main water supply for Tropic, Cannonville, and Henrieville. Probably for Bryce as well. After crossing the plateau the water cascades down to the valley in this once-dry wash. Now I know why that valley has so much irrigation even though there is no river. This was the first and smallest of four long-distance water diversions that I encountered during this tour.
The temperature climbed into the 80's by the time I got to the valley, 2000 feet below Bryce. Today is much warmer than the last 3 days. I had lunch again at Clarke's in Tropic.
At the park in Henrieville I met a westbound solo touring cyclist. Paul is from Calgary and is on a 3 week tour of Utah.
After Henrieville highway 12 turns northeast and climbs up the Kaiparowits plateau. The summit is 7600 feet elevation, 1600 feet above Henrieville. The road climbs through nearby badlands with a view of Powell Point to the north. 10,188 foot Powell Point is on the Aquarius plateau which is the top of the "grand staircase" of plateaus that rise from south to north.
I had a strong tailwind that kicked up sand in some parts of the badlands.
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After the summit is a 15 mile descent through a yellow rock canyon to Escalante (5820 feet elevation). It's a small town with less than 1000 people. But it has a thriving adventure tourism business catering to people who want to see the slickrock and slot canyons. I camped at Escalante Outfitters in the middle of town. Nice showers, wi-fi, good restaurant. They have cabins and walk-in tent camping, so it's a completely different clientele than the RV crowd at the state park just outside of town (I camped there during a 1992 tour).
The evening was warm and bug-free. It feels like summer now. Today was an easy cycling day but I also hiked 2 miles.
Distance: 56.6 mi. (90.5 km)
Climbing: 2657 ft. (805 m)
Average Speed: 11.9 mph (19 km/h)
Maximum Speed: 38.5 mph (62 km/h)
Hiked 2 mi. (3.2 km)
Today's ride: 57 miles (92 km)
Total: 1,323 miles (2,129 km)
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