Traversing the strange and wonderful landscapes of Utah's national parks – our second day's course plotted:

While the team's on the road to Hanksville, a bit of late night viewing is in order from some classic movies set and/or filmed in Utah.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade begins in Moab, Utah – Marcel's destination tomorrow – with the young Indy evading grave robbers by horse, train, bullwhip and any other means necessary.

All those blasted and alien-looking landscapes the team passed today were perfect for Charlton Heston to gripe about equestrian gorillas in Planet of the Apes. No word as to whether the team has met any eloquent orangutans.

And finally, in what may be the greatest baseball movie ever, Glendale, Salt Lake City, served as the home of The Sandlot, a film whose insults, banter and tall tales can be quoted for-ev-er.

The Escalante Petrified Forest: For trout fishing, canoeing, swimming or trekking around the petrified forest in search of dinosaur fossils, this small park between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef looks like a nice respite from the more arduous hikes of the national parks.

Anasazi Museum: Near the town of Boulder, this park contains the ruins of an ancient Anasazi village from a little less than a thousand years ago. Anasazi is a Navajo word "interpreted to mean ancient enemies or enemy ancestors" but now is used simply meaning "the ancient ones." Their famous cliff dwellings and pueblo ruins are scattered all over the region, and Marcel is sure to have a chance to see some in person.

Refreshed, we're going to head east with the last of the light, aiming for Hanksville.

The plan is to set ourselves up to get to Moab in good time tomorrow.

In honor of the fine folks at Cafe Diablo, a musical interlude with Jagger doing his best impression of a rattlesnake:

This was a great recommendation. Thanks, @SiccarPoint!

Look, my gazpacho has come in an ice bowl!

So we've tried the rattlesnake.

I say it tastes like chicken. Jacob says it's beany. Andy says savoury rissole.

Guess which one of us is from Widnes.

Sitting outside Diablo, waiting for our rattlesnake cakes, we're remembering the highpoints of today. 

Jacob's favourite things were the graveyard in Grafton and the deer we passed along Route 12. Andy's top moment was catching the monster hubcap from the RV. He says a drunk student would have taken it back to his residence hall and proudly displayed it. Or incorporated it in some sort of bong.

For me, it was the many moods of Route 12. Every five minutes it was a completely different landscape. It's like a compilation album of the world's great scenic drives. Now That's What I Call A Highway, Vol 1.

Maclure on the margaritas, Jacob on the microbrewed ale, therefore me behind the wheel …

There it is! It looks packed. We'll eat here and then think about where to stay.

And on the menu … it's rattlesnake cakes! "Two patties of free range desert rattler." Do we need to try them? Won't they inevitably taste of chicken?

This road's got everything. We've driven through hot dusty desertscapes, then the road has climbed up to 10,000 feet and we've seen deer in alpine pasture. You could spend a whole day driving this route.

We're descending once again towards Torrey and the outside temperature has crept back up to 80 degrees (it was in the low 60s at altitude).

Turning off onto 24 to Torrey as I type (Andy is driving again).

Trying to make progress, but there are too many places where it would be criminal not to stop.

I am now is a viewpoint overlooking a valley called The Blues. It wasn't mapped until 1871 – the last uncharted territory in the US.

Feeling some nostalgia for the times when Marcel and Andy had cell reception …

@SiccarPoint continues to provide great advice, and with any luck, Marcel (who's drifted out of cell range at the moment) will soon be enjoying Cafe Diablo in Torrey, which was given this ringing – or perhaps rattling? – endorsement:

basically everything will be delicious, but you probably won't forgive yourselves if you don't get the rattlesnake-based starter. As I recall, it was quite like a spicy crab cake. Except with... rattlesnake?

Much nicer than I'm making it sound, anyway. And where else would you get to eat a rattler?

Marcel, Jacob and Andy have hiked, wandered and driven through vast expanses of canyons and plains in the past two days – but they've only scratched the surface. Utah has five national parks and a slew of national monuments to its name, most of which has some curious defining feature, like the aforementioned 'hoodoo-iferous' parks of Bryce Canyon and Goblin Valley. 

Arches, for instance, not only has the naturally formed arches you'd expect but such excitingly named formations as the Tower of Babel and the Fiery Furnace. (Thanks, @BoulderLiberal!)

Dinosaur National Monument has a quarry of fossils, where stegosaurus and allosaurus have been found, and digs remain ongoing. Velociraptor's bigger, meaner cousin, the utahraptor, owes its name to the state of its discovery, but none have been found so far at the quarry. 

Capitol Reef, near tonight's destination of Torrey, and which comes highly recommended by @notmurdoch and @braciole. The park apparently has incredible views of the night sky and even offers 'night sky tours', and has stunning campground called Cathedral Valley.

There's also Rainbow Bridge, the world's largest natural bridge, and if you feel like climbing towards some archaeology, there are the Anasazi Moon House ruins in Cedar Mesa.

Some more tunes for a day of ghosting out of cell range and trippin' down the Utah road, along with a photo from this morning in Zion:

The "All American Road", scenic Highway 12, has proven as impressive as readers like @DrLindaRalston and @SiccarPoint made it out to be. The route has let Jacob snap some shots of Utah's stunning and occasionally surreal landscapes.

Bryce Canyon has been touted as even more majestic and beautiful than Zion, but many of its most distinctive features are too far off the road for Marcel to reach today. Among them, what might be the most fantastically named geological curio of all: the hoodoo.

Hoodoos are apparently "nowhere in the world … as abundant as in the northern section of Bryce Canyon National Park." (Hat to the National Park service, as usual.)

Wonderfully, these rock formations are also called 'tent rocks', 'fairy chimneys' and 'goblins'. The odd, mushroom-like rocks range from a human's height to that of a 10-story building; water actually makes more colourful, prompting the good ol' NPS to wax lyrical: 

Viewing hoodoos in the winter is especially rewarding. Not only does melting snow enrich the colors but the blanket of white adds another dimension to the beauty under the crisp blue sky.

The state has an entire park named after them: Goblin Valley, near the border with Colorado.

Coincidentally, the cult horror film Troll 2, which features no trolls – only goblins in the fictional town of 'Nilbog' – was filmed here in Utah. A glimpse from just about any scene might explain why it was dubbed the 'Best Worst Movie' …

This is probably the last stretch of the day: 100 miles of Highway 12, taking us to Torrey.

The rainclouds are clearing and it's a beautiful warm evening.

A rented RV has just shed a hubcap on the road by the convenience store! D'oh!

You need this to get your deposit back, mister!

Here's Andy with the rogue hubcap.

Looking at this map, it's like a menu I'm not allowed to order from. All these tantalizing choices: Hole in the Rock Road, Lake Powell, Glen Canyon, Ticaboo – never mind all the stuff in Zion and Bryce we didn't get to see. There is too much of you, Utah!

A playlist for the long and rainy road:

Okay, we're going to aim for Torrey tonight and El Diablo cafe specifically, per the recommendation of SiccarPoint.

I've heard that tomorrow has some special significance in Utah. Is it an anniversary of some kind?

I'm going to eat this spicy jerky now. Apologies to Jacob and Andy.

Heading due east now on 12 towards those big red rocks, we had to stop …

Mugwumps. (Editor's note: according to Jacob's caption, that is; technically a mugwump is a person who remains neutral, politically – or a supporter of Grover Cleveland in 1884. At any rate, it's a great word.)

And a portrait of the photographer as a young gunslinger

To the north the landscape's totally obscured by rain. I think Beachy Head is actually Pink Cliffs, but it's only partly pink, it looks like Neapolitan ice cream.

Anyone have any tips for where to stay near Bryce Canyon? Let us know below the line or @Therouvian!

I can't get over how luminous the rock is, even in the rain.

We're through the valley and in the distance is what appears to be Beachy Head, but can't be.

This is the much anticipated Red Canyon. It's amazing, other-worldly, Martian.

Some of the limestone stacks look like they've been turned on lathes.

Oops, it's raining!

We'll be turning left onto 12 in about 15 minutes. I'm excited. The sun has burned off the clouds and the rocks to our east are blazing red.

I'm going to miss you, 89, and your combination of ravishing landscapes and intriguing roadside gew-gaws and what my Welsh wife calls "twt".

I'm digging the 89. It's got a full quota of roadside Americana: neon motel signs, Native American trading posts, porcelain doll shops, abandoned cars, saddle repair shops and loads of apple trees, and did I mention that we are surrounded by mountains and mesas.

@bluecorn concurs with Marcel: blame the Guardian!

You could spend a lifetime in the canyons mountains of that region and not see half of it. It's almost a punishment to only have 2 days.

So maybe there's not enough time to see everything – the good news is there's no dearth of YouTube videos through south west Utah for your vicarious driving pleasure:

I'm going to take the wheel for a bit and give Mr Maclure a break. He's done sterling work and generated a new playlist, inspired by visiting Grafton.

Very keen to make it to Bryce today. Will it make these grown men cry?

Angels Landing will have to wait for another time. Yes, I have a poor head for heights, but the more compelling reason is that we haven't got the spare half-day it would take. Blame the Guardian and its punishing itinerary!

Is there anything comparable ahead of us?

As the team traipses through Zion, it's probably a good time to point out that the park and Springdale host an annual music festival, this year taking place 27-28 September. Here's a mix of its performers past and future:

Thanks to ID070332 over on GuardianWitness for this stunning photograph to strengthen the case for Bryce Canyon.

Everybody say oooh!

Entering Zion

If @Paul_D_Murphy's emotional entreaty (below) doesn't do the trick, then this toothsome beauty from @emiliaantiglio should swing it. Let's hear it for the Bruce Canyon Pines Massive.

@Paul_D_Murphy urges the Marcel and the team to:

Get to Bryce. The only landscape that made me cry, as soppy as that sounds. You can do it and still make it to Arches for sunset

Ah!

You don't see this in Tooting SW17: hummingbirds on the feeder outside the gas station.

Marcel has ghosted out of cell range again. So we're turning the blog over to our readers who are sending in tips via Twitter (@GuardianTravel #TwiTrips), GuardianWitness and in the comments below.

First up, it's become a bit of a Twitter Trip ritual to lay down a challenge for our roving blogger. The Western section is no exception. The gauntlet has been thrown by @tryvlans.

Angels Landing, Marcel. Here's a bit of Wiki about it:

"Angels Landing, known earlier as the Temple of Aeolus, is a rock formation measuring 1,488-foot (454 m) in Zion National Park in southern Utah. A trail, cut into solid rock in 1926, leads to the top of Angels Landing and provides a spectacular view of Zion Canyon"

And there's a bit of footage called EXTREME HIKING below.

It's 2.5-mile hike.

Do-able.

Marcel - HIKE IT! 

The story is that Butch Cassidy frequented Grafton in the 19th century.  A visitor here tells me Butch was a Mormon. 

Can that be true?

Some of the houses adobe brick - made out of the same red dust as the rest of the landscape. Others very roughly hewn logs which still show the marks of the hand tools they were shaped with.

Our thanks to @DJHarleyQuinn for this suggestion (and more) via Twitter.

Ok, so The Killers are from Nevada. This song was used for a Nevada commercial. And we're in Utah. But, hey, Don't Fence Me In!

Now wandering around Grafton proper. 

There's an extraordinary adobe school house, a couple of farm houses, all beautifully restored. Not a soul around.

You get a moving sense of settlers who lived very tough lives here.

And this is Grafton cemetery...

Amazingly eerie cemetery! To the north there's the huge slab of Mount Kinesava towering over us. The simplest graves are marked with weathered pine. This one for Asa Uriah York who died aged 4 in 1866.

We've run out of tarmac. It's a single track of dirt. Sandstone formations like anthills. A few surprised hares.

Easy to miss this turning...

Marcel and the team are heading for the ghost town of Grafton - if they can manage to find it. Spooky.

Here's what a couple of readers (jae426, davecamden) have told us about the area.

The area around St George in SW Utah (near Zion) went through the silver boom in the late 19th century (and again in the 1950s, when they also mined for uranium) so if you drive out of the city for a short while, you can still come across the ruins of mining ghost towns. They're not tourist attractions (indeed, some of them are enjoying new life as people wanting a quiet place to live with a spectacular view buy up the unwanted land nearby) but if seeing a side of America your average traveller never sees, then it pays to venture off the beaten track (even better if you know/find some Americans willing to show you the real America).

Must have missed the turning - U-turn and heading east again. I guess it's not a ghost town unless it's a bit elusive.

Light rain falling as we draw closer to the ghost town of Grafton. We're backtracking along Route 9.