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The 2020 Toyota C-HR sits behind Deanne Conover with their two grandkids Jensen and Hayden Conover, in Eureka.

Craig Conover, Daily Herald

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Deanne with the C-HR as we prepared to leave Eureka on our way south towards Delta.

Craig Conover, Daily Herald

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The 2020 Toyota C-HR at the bottom of the trail to Paul Bunyan’s Woodpile in Juab County.

Craig Conover, Daily Herald

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Deanne and the Toyota C-HR in front of Fort Desert just south of Delta.

Craig Conover, Daily Herald

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Hiking up to Face Rock between Delta and Milford was a great hike to see this face made of lava rock.

Craig Conover, Daily Herald

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The new 2020 Toyota C-HR at the cemetery in the old ghost town of Frisco, Utah.

Craig Conover, Daily Herald

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It has been about three years since we had the chance to drive the Toyota C-HR (Coupe High-Rider) when it was first introduced into the U.S. market. What we really love about this compact crossover is it’s over-the-top unique looks.

We have always been fans of creating something different and standing out in the pack with a unique style and design. Though sometimes that has not worked, such as in the case of the Nissan Juke, which we really enjoyed for its aesthetics; however, look at the small Fiat 500, it’s still here and getting better!

With a unique automobile we needed a unique location to adventure out to on Saturday so we chose to head south on Highway 6, eventually making our way to Milford, and then west to the old ghost town of Frisco.

This was a solid 400 mile-day trip and great opportunity to spend some real seat time in the new C-HR with the new limited trim. This year Toyota has offered this new trim along with a new front end design that we thought gave it an almost Lexus-like appearance up front.

Along with that design came new headlamps that were auto-leveling and would push themselves into our turns at night. An additional wow factor was that the designers have added down projection puddle lamps into the side mirrors that put the C-HR logo on the ground as a logo lamp at night.

This was awesome, as it’s an addition we have only seen on very high-end vehicles. Toyota seems to always lead the way with technology coming down from their higher end offerings making it into models that many can afford.

Another great example of this would be the Toyota Safety Sense package that comes as a standard part of the C-HR along with many other of their new products. Our test ride also came with a new color — Hot Lava — which was a very deep orange that really got heads turning along our way.

As we were about to embark on our adventure our son Landon turned up with two of our grandkids, Jensen and Hayden, so we decided to make a detour along the way and hike to Paul Bunyan’s woodpile in Juab County with them. They were able to follow along quite nicely, keeping the unique orange C-HR in sight the whole way there.

Inside, the Toyota continued to impress us with is great looks and open feel up front in the cabin, with pretty good in the space provided for rear seat passengers that would work for shorter rides but maybe not for our planned 400-plus mile adventure.

The hatchback provided ample room behind the rear seat, up to 19 cubic feet, to store items, and with the two seats folded down that increased to 36.4 cubic feet of hauling space. We were able to include a small cooler for our lunch and other treats along with a grocery sack full of hiking poles, coats and other small items we might need. There would have been plenty of room for us to have included luggage for a weekend trip with no problem.

The 2020 Limited came with a 8-inch touchscreen that is located high in the dash, making it the focal point and also easier to use without having to take our eyes of the road for an extended period. The climate controls were simple to understand and use along with the fact that they were dual zone, so both of us could enjoy our own temperature, which worked well on a day that went from 50 to the mid 80s.

As we mentioned, included was the Toyota Safety Sense package with adaptive cruise control, a pre-collision braking system with pedestrian detection and lane departure warning with steering assist and automatic high beam headlamps. These are standard safety additions that come with the C-HR no matter which trim level is chosen. We are always hoping that more manufactures will follow Toyota by adding these kinds of life-saving features no matter what level of vehicle is purchased.

With the long trip, the adaptive cruise was a blessing as some of the stretches of road between Delta and Milford were made easier and kept our speed in check by setting this system. During this segment we did find a couple of odd Utah locations, one being a place named Face Rock and the other an old ghost town named Clear Lake that was a train stop between the two towns long ago.

We took the 6-mile dirt road to Face Rock and even hiked to the top of a midsized hill to get an up-close look at it. It turned out to be a large chunk of lava that really resembled a face. The Toyota took the dirt all in stride even though it was a front wheel drive only SUV, handling it expertly.

We were eventually able to navigate to what is left of the town of Frisco where we again got some time on the dirt in the C-HR. There were no trespassing signs on most of the old ghost town but it was very interesting checking out the old cemetery located there. Turns out that at one time there were over 6000 people that lived there, with the community having the designation of the Murder Capitol of Utah as for a stretch there were up to 12 every day!

We chose to take the quicker way home through Beaver and onto Interstate 15 with the 80 mph speed limits. With a 2.0-liter engine that produces 144 horsepower, in the C-HR we wanted to see how it would handle the higher speed and long drive.

It did great with the adaptive control keeping us right at 83 mph for the entire trip even over the steep grades. And the best part was we averaged 33.4 miles per gallon for the week, which turned out to be way over the 29 mpg shown by the EPA!

We had a great adventure and enjoyed every moment with the C-HR. The unique looks and design will always resonate with us. See one today at the local Toyota dealer.

Base Price: $26,360

Price as Driven: $28,436