Turning its back on the grand amphitheater of Bryce Canyon, the tiny hamlet of TROPIC , which strings along Hwy-12 eight miles east of the park entrance, seems almost embarrassed about the flamboyant geological phenomena ranged along the ridge above it. The practical-minded people of this Mormon farming community (population 380) don't especially concern themselves with tourists, but they have restored Ebenezer Bryce's log cabin, which stands next to the Bryce Pioneer Village   motel-cum-restaurant (tel 435/679-8546 or 1-800/222-038, ; $35-100). An unmarked road heads west from the cabin two miles to the park boundary, from where it's a two-mile hike up to the main formations.

Hwy-12 then curves along the edge of the Table Cliff Plateau before dropping down into the remote canyons of the Escalante River , the last river system to be discovered within the continental US and site of some of the finest backpacking routes in the Southwest. As soon as you walk even a hundred yards off the main highway, you're in a wilderness that few travelers ever see.

ESCALANTE , 33 miles east of Cannonville, was just another roadside town, until it was given a new lease on life in 1996 by the surprise Presidential proclamation that created the vast Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (free). The interagency visitor center at the west end of town (mid-March to Oct daily 7.30am-5.30pm; Nov to mid-March Mon-Fri 8am-4.30pm; tel 435/826-5499, ), is a mine of up-to-date information on all the public lands in the vicinity, and can suggest hiking or mountain biking trips into the backcountry. The most accessible local highlight is Calf Creek , sixteen miles east of Escalante, where a well-marked trail leads just under three miles upstream to a gorgeous shaded dell replete with a 125ft waterfall, and there's a nice undeveloped campground ($5). More ambitious trips start from trailheads along the dusty but usually passable Hole-in-the-Rock Road , which turns south from Hwy-12 five miles east of town. A trio of slender, storm-gouged slot canyons , including the delicate, graceful Peek-a-Boo Canyon and the downright intimidating Spooky Canyon, can be reached by a mile-long hike from the end of Dry Fork Road, 26 miles along, while from Hurricane Wash , 34 miles along, you can hike five miles to reach Coyote Gulch, and then a further five miles, passing sandstone bridges and arches, to the Escalante River. Under normal conditions, two-wheel-drive vehicles should go no further than Dance Hall Rock , 36 miles down the road, a superb natural amphitheater sculpted out of the slickrock hills. The pick of Escalante's motels is unquestionably the Prospector Inn , 380 W Main St (tel 435/826-4653; $50-75), which adjoins the friendly, high-quality Ponderosa Restaurant , 400 W Main St (tel 435/826-4658).

Until the mid-1980s, when it was paved through to Capitol Reef, Hwy-12 ended at BOULDER , thirty miles beyond Escalante. Anasazi State Park (summer daily 8am-6pm; rest of year daily 9am-5pm; $2), which holds the excavated and partially reconstructed remains of a small Ancestral Puebloan village, is set on a shallow knoll overlooking Boulder Creek. Beyond Boulder, Hwy-12 makes a gorgeous drive up onto the Aquarius Plateau, with marvelous vistas to the east across waves of gold- and red-sandstone outcrops; there's a lovely campground (tel 435/425-3702; $10) at Oak Creek, fifteen miles along. Due east from Boulder, all except twenty miles of the old dirt Burr Trail has (controversially) been paved, providing easy access to the southern reaches of Capitol Reef National Park and down to Lake Powell .

Bryce Canyon to Capitol Reef: Highway 12

• Bryce Canyon to Capitol Reef: Highway 12

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