"......I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
--- Robert Frost.
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| Temple Rocks |
Indeed it had! The Scenic by-way U.S.12 in Utah is the road less travelled by tourists perhaps owing to the fact that its the longer of the two routes to get from Capitol Reef National Park to Bryce Canyon National Park. In colder weather the narrow-winding mountainous roads and steep hair-pin bends are treacherous. But we were glad that a little adventure and the ever-insatiable human urge to see beauty led us to take 'the road not taken'. My husband holds a general belief the journey is a far more pleasurable experience than the destination itself. Even though so far in the trip we had enjoyed both, this time my husband's belief was actually about to come true.
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| Capitol Reef National Park |
The greener more fertile face of Utah is a hidden treasure between Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon National Parks. The drive through Highway 12 - the Scenic by-way is a refreshing visual treat of green forests and stunning scenery. We were going from Moab to see the Bryce Canyon National Park. At the very beginning of the route were the eye-catching Temple Rocks. A little further down was the Capitol Reef National Park. Other than what presented itself before us on our way we had no plans to explore further here. But needless to say even the little preview was beautiful.
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| Grand Stair Case Escalante National Monument |
From then on we were presented with view after view, each more striking than the other. The major landmarks on the way were Dixie National forest, Boulder Mountain and the Grand Stair Case-Escalante.
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| Grand Stair Case Escalante National Monument |
One major attraction at the Capitol Reef National Park were the view of the Goose Necks. Its a thin loop of water body surrounding a salt & peppered mass of rock-sand looking like the goose's neck. Though initially not part of our plan, we took a small detour to see the Goose Necks at Capitol Reef enticed by the pictures we saw in the Internet. It was a short climb uphill on foot but by far the toughest I had to encounter ever! The hill was covered in snow and it was extremely slippery. Each step took forever to climb and after what seemed like ages, we made it to the top braving the wind & cold. I couldn't feel my fingers even though I had them stuffed in my coat pockets all the time. They physically hurt and strangely burned(ironically) from the cold weather. We could not get the ariel view of the goose neck as it was extremely dangerous to take the risk to step over to the edge. Our little one was with her Dad, her head buried in to his shoulder. She probably wondered what in the world were we doing in a place like this! She would not lift an eye-lid to see nature's beauty and wanted to get it over with asap. For all she cared scenic by-way U.S. 12 can still do pretty fine with one less admirer.
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| Goose Neck |
The scenery was wonderful all right but what was most incredible to me was none other than my very own husband. He had flip-flops on!!! No coat, no gloves, cap or muffler!! He was simply wearing a thin cotton shirt and pants as if this was Kerala!! Carrying Devu he climbed all the way up & down. He was never a one to wear any kind of winter clothing but that was back in Seattle. The temperatures here were far below and the wind was merciless! Here Devu & I were dressed to the hilt and still shivering to the bone. Layers & layers of wool did not help. I still don't know how he did it and came out of it completely unscathed! I have got to give it to him, those guys in Man vs Wild couldn't hold a candle to you Vishal Etta!
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| /That's my dare-devil husband with my little Eskimo girl! |
We continued our journey forward and it took us all day to reach Tropic - our rest place for the night. But the journey was a memorable one as my husband believed it would be. It actually did turn out to be more pleasurable than the destination itself as we couldn't make it to Bryce Canyon National Park, because the cold finally caught up to Devu. She fell sick the next morning, vomiting continuously. We decided to skip Bryce Canyon and head straight to Flagstaff, AZ. So we took her to the nearest hospital in Panguitch, Garfield Memorial Hospital. By late afternoon she felt much better and the vomiting stopped. It was Thanksgiving Day and every single restaurant & business on the way was closed. With the exception of this year, we have always made Turkey at home for Thanksgiving.
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| Marble Canyon & Colorado River enroute Flagstaff |
At a small town called Kanab, Grandma Tina's was not only open, but was also serving Thanksgiving lunch buffet. Thoroughly famished, but thankful, we didn't think for a second and stopped there to enjoy an authentic American Thanksgiving lunch though Devu was only supposed to have electrolyte water. Amid lunch I had to sprint a couple of times to the bathroom for Devu's bouts of vomiting! The rest of the trip was uneventful and we were relieved to reach Flagstaff early evening, to a warm and welcoming hotel room.
By now it was days since we had any Indian cuisine and were really craving for some. We hadn't much luck at Moab or on the way up to Flagstaff. The cuisine closest to Indian, in any respect, available at Moab was Chinese!!! The rest of the towns were so small that they probably didn't even have Chinese. In this trip we were able to see the heart and soul of America in the small towns and villages. The population was mainly farmers and small business owners for the most part white and Native Indian(the original inhabitants of America). Beautiful small villages with no airs of major cities, farm animals freely grazing on vast acres of farmland, picket fences, small businesses, unpretentious naive people were all the major highlights here that stole our heart leaving lasting prints on our minds.
The Vishal ettan managed to find the only Indian Restaurant in Flagstaff(Thankful that it was the only open restaurant on Thanksgiving Day). We hungrily devoured Biryani & Shrimp while watching TV in our room. Fully rested our bodies for the Grand Canyon trip the next day. Good Night.
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