Utah's scenic Highway 12 cuts through some of the most geologically dramatic landscapes in North America. On this self-guided driving tour, you'll journey through 250 million years of Earth's history, learning how volcanoes, ancient seas, and powerful faults sculpted the red rock country between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef.
The tour starts at the Red Canyon Café parking lot near the Highway 89 junction. You'll drive through Red Canyon's hoodoo forests, cross the active Sevier Fault - one of the longest fault lines in the world - and traverse the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Along the way, you'll learn to identify ancient sand dunes, seafloor deposits, and river systems just by looking at the rock. The tour ends at the junction with Highway 24 in Torrey, on the edge of Capitol Reef National Park, where the oldest dinosaur - bearing rocks in the region await exploration.