Stops along Scenic Highway 12

Aside from the major National Parks Marc has included in our itinerary, there are may smaller parks, with interesting hikes that he has managed to fit in along the way. Breaks up the driving and adds some spice as the attractions add some variation to the trip.

One of the stops on scenic Highway 12 is Calf Creek. We stopped here for an easy three mile hike along the path of a river to a beautiful waterfall. A trail guide alerted us to some interesting petroglyphs, the history of this area, as well as the flora and fauna.

The trail and the surroundings reminded us immediately of Ein Gedi in Israel, and the waterfall and pool at the end of our hike did not disappoint.

Calf Creek has a beautiful campground, which in hindsight we should have looked into. If we had, perhaps we would have taken a dip in the cool waters of the waterfall and stayed the night. But with plans to make it to Boulder that evening, and try the highly recommended restaurant there, we spent a short time admiring the waterfall, and hiked back to our car.

We arrived in Bolder, as the sun was just about to set and found to our dismay that there was only one hotel in town and of course it was fully booked. In fact, Boulder was not much of a town at all. The restaurant had a table for us, but with no idea where we were going to sleep, we opted to stay on the road until we found a campground. The area is full of cattle farms, so traveling the road after sunset was interesting to say the least. Cows and bulls appear out of nowhere. They don't seem to be bothered at all by the traffic. They can sit in the middle of the road munching on their last mouthful of grass, starring right at you as you almost drive into them. Luckily American National Forests are chock full of small wonderfully maintained campgrounds and as the sky turned black, we turned into a camping spot, converted our car into our motel and settled in for the night.