State Route 12 or Scenic Byway 12 (SR-12), also known as ''"Highway 12 — A Journey Through Time Scenic Byway"'', is a

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

designated an

All-American Road A National Scenic Byway is a road recognized by the United States Department of Transportation for one or more of six "intrinsic qualities": archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational, and scenic. The program was established by Co ...

located in Garfield County and Wayne County,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, United States.

Route description

Proceeding west to east for 122 miles (nearly 200 km), the highway starts south of Panguitch at an intersection with

US-89 U.S. Route 89 (US 89) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway with two sections, and one former section. The southern section runs for from Flagstaff, Arizona, to the southern entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The northern section ...

, crosses part of

Dixie National Forest Dixie National Forest is a United States National Forest in Utah with headquarters in Cedar City. It occupies almost two million acres (8,000 km²) and stretches for about across southern Utah. The largest national forest in Utah, it str ...

and

Bryce Canyon National Park Bryce Canyon National Park () is an American national park located in southwestern Utah. The major feature of the park is Bryce Canyon, which despite its name, is not a canyon, but a collection of giant natural amphitheaters along the eastern ...

, continues through the small towns of

Tropic The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

, Cannonville, and Henrieville. It crosses various parts of

Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument The Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument (GSENM) is a United States national monument protecting the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau, and the Canyons of the Escalante (Escalante River) in southern Utah. It was established in 199 ...

(GS-ENM), continues northeast through

Escalante Escalante may refer to: People *Amat Escalante (born 1979), Mexican filmmaker *Bernardino de Escalante (born 1537), 16th-century Spanish writer, author of one of the first European books on China *Enrique Escalante (born 1984), Puerto Rican volley ...

and over the

Escalante River The Escalante River is a tributary of the Colorado River. It is formed by the confluence of Upper Valley and Birch Creeks near the town of Escalante in south-central Utah, and from there flows southeast for approximately before joining Lake Po ...

, then over the Hogback, a narrow ridge with no guardrails or shoulders and steep drop-offs on each side. It then proceeds north through more of GS-ENM,

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

, the

Aquarius Plateau The Aquarius Plateau is a physiographic region in the High Plateaus Section of the Colorado Plateau Province. It is located within Garfield and Wayne counties in south-central Utah. Geography The plateau, a tectonic uplift on the much larger ...

Grover Grover is a blue Muppet character on the popular PBS/ HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street''. Self-described as lovable, cute and furry, he is a blue monster who rarely uses contractions when he speaks or sings. Grover was original ...

, ending in Torrey at an intersection with SR-24, five miles (8 km) west of

Capitol Reef National Park Capitol Reef National Park is an American national park in south-central Utah. The park is approximately long on its northsouth axis and just wide on average. The park was established in 1971 to preserve of desert landscape and is open all ye ...

. The long portion of the highway that ascends and descends Boulder Mountain on the Aquarius Plateau is known as Boulder Mountain Highway. The segment of SR-12 between the US-89 and SR-63 junctions is part of the National Highway System.

Traffic volume

The Average Daily Traffic (AADT) on SR-12 is at its greatest at its western junction with US-89, where the count for 2005 was 2,430. At its other end, at the junction with SR-24, the traffic bottoms out at 435.

History

The road from Bryce Canyon Junction to

was added to the state highway system in 1914, and in 1923 a branch from Tropic Junction to

Bryce Canyon Bryce Canyon National Park () is an American national park located in southwestern Utah. The major feature of the park is Bryce Canyon, which despite its name, is not a canyon, but a collection of giant natural amphitheaters along the eastern ...

was built as a

forest road Forest tracks or forest roads are roads or tracks intended to carry motorised vehicles or horse-drawn wagons being used mainly or exclusively for forestry purposes, such as conservation or logging. Forest tracks may be open to ramblers or mounta ...

Utah Department of Transportation The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) is an agency of the state government of Utah, United States; it is usually referred to by its initials UDOT (pronounced "you-dot"). UDOT is charged with maintaining the more than of roadway that co ...

Highway Resolutions
, updated September 2007, accessed May 2008 The State Road Commission numbered the route to Bryce Canyon SR-12 in the 1920s, and in 1927 the state legislature assigned it to both branches, to Bryce Canyon and Tropic, but split off the branch to Tropic as State Route 54 in 1931. That same year, a new State Route 120 was created, continuing the road from Tropic to Henrieville, and in 1935 it became part of SR-54. Another road was also added to the state highway system in 1914, connecting SR-22 at Widtsoe with

State Route History
. Retrieved July 2007. and it was numbered State Route 23 in 1927. An extension took SR-23 northeast to

in 1941, and in 1947 SR-54 absorbed SR-23, with the Widtsoe-Escalante road dropped in favor of Henrieville-Escalante. State Route 117, running southeast from SR-24 near Teasdale to

, became a state highway in 1931, and was extended south to Boulder in 1957, becoming part of SR-54 in 1966.

Highway Resolutions
, updated November 2007, accessed May 2008 In 1969, SR-54 became part of SR-12, but most of former SR-117 was dropped, leaving SR-12 to stretch from Bryce Canyon Junction to the north limit of Boulder (at the

boundary), with a short spur to Bryce Canyon. This spur became a new SR-63 in 1975, and in 1985 the route was extended back north from Boulder to SR-24, using a different route than the old SR-117 north of Grover.

Major intersections

Gallery

Image:Escalante_river_2003.jpg, Image:Highway_12_2005.jpg, File:Moonrise over Escalante wilderness.jpg, Image:011107-Red-Canyon,-Utah.jpg, Image:Hwy_12_Overlook.jpg, Image:Calfcreek.jpg, Image:Hells Backbone-Bridge.jpg, Image:RedCanyonScenicByWay.JPG, Image:UT12East.jpg,

References

External links

Map and more
from the DOT's American Byways website
State of Utah's website
for the highway * * {{DEFAULTSORT:State Route 012 Utah State Route 012 Bryce Canyon National Park Utah State Route 012 Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument Historic American Engineering Record in Utah Landmarks in Utah National Forest Scenic Byways Utah State Route 012

012 012 may refer to: * Tyrrell 012, a Formula One racing car * The dialing code for Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassie ...

012

012 Tourist attractions in Garfield County, Utah Tourist attractions in Wayne County, Utah