The view is better when you remove the guardrails.

My favorite road on this trip to date has been the route between Escalante and Kodachrome State park. The two lane road winds up a dramatic 10% grade cliff face and follows a rim line across the top. Twisting and turning the whole way. With not a guardrail to speak of, nor detract from the magnificent mountain and cliff vistas on either side. I kept finding myself in awe and quickly slapping myself back into focus with the reminder that there is only an 24 inch shoulder aka margin of error before we would tumble a few hundred feet down these marvelous cliffs. I imagine what fun it would be to have my sport bike on this trek, and then I imagine how terrifying it would be to pilot an RV on this road.  I don’t believe we have any great pictures of this drive nor would these pictures do it any justice. If you find yourself in this region of Utah, spend half a day driving this route, it was one of our favorite unexpected surprises.

We spent a single night at Kodachrome state park, which is nestled in the west part of rural Utah. Unlike most of the traditional images of the variety of Red Rocks that make up most of the scenes in Utah, Kodachrome rocks are mostly light grey. Horizontal stripes of red are streaked throughout the light grey that resemble layers of frosting in a decorative cake. The campgrounds is surrounded 360 degrees by cliffs and various rock features and formations. A neighboring camp was putting on what sounded like a youth flute and fiddle concert into the evening. We acquired a few good size bundles of firewood from the local boy scout troop and spent the evening chatting and listening to the neighboring concert. When it was time to retire and we put the remnants of the fire out we realized that it was hardly dark out. The moon was only 1/2 full yet the light grey of the cliffs reflected all the light provided by the 1/2 moon and stars made it feel more like dusk than nighttime. Kodachrome is a place that we would spend more time on our next trip.