Cathedral Valley...So Stuck

So, the really big adventure. About a week ago, as soon as we got to Torrey, we decided we would take a guided 4x4 tour of the backcountry where even the daring Ms. Subaru could not go.  We made a reservation with one of the two local outfitters for a photography tour either in the early morning or the evening - their choice. Our guide Julie contacted us a few days ago and told us we'd be going to Cathedral Valley for a sunset tour and we'd be leaving at 1:45 pm.

The day came, (we decided to leave Kona at home in the RV to spare her all the jostling and potential heat) we headed across the street to the Backcountry Outfitters office where we met Julie, and loaded up in their 1997 Chevy Tahoe. As advised, we brought along lots of water, had slathered up with sunscreen, and I had my cowboy hat, of course.

Off we went, east through Capitol Reef on 24, and left onto Cathedral Valley/Hartnet Rd.  Right away we bumped over a muddy wash and charged through the Fremont River Ford.  Definitely not somewhere Ms. Subaru wants to go.

In one side...

and out the other.

Sometimes the road followed some wash for awhile and other times it crossed the dry desert. 

After splashing through the Fremont River, the windows got a little messy.

Our guide Julie and the Tahoe.

In a particularly dry and flat part of what may have been the North Blue Flats (or maybe it was the Red Desert), is Truck Spring, named for the truck abandoned there long ago.

It's a pretty unusual truck, outfitted with old machinery on the back. It looks like it might have been used for well drilling. 

Right next to the truck is the spring that still runs clean water up to this trough for cattle.

A few miles further the Bentonite Hills came into view, 

and pretty soon we were driving right through them.

Bentonite is a kind of clay that when wet, is extremely difficult to navigate through, and when dry looks like clumps of worm castings. Its one of the primary ingredients in kitty litter.

Next we arrived at the Lower South Desert Overlook.  Notice there are no residences, or power lines. We hardly even saw any planes. It was really silent. We didn't see a soul all day. This area is one of the most remote in the lower 48.

These little mud headed gremlins were fun.

The light was gorgeous for our next stop at Upper South Desert Overlook. 

You can see how green the desert is at this time of year in this valley,

and in our destination - the Cathedral Valley.

It was getting close to sunset when we drove down into the Upper Cathedral Valley.  Julie was feeling a little pressed for time because she wanted to get to the Lower Cathedral Valley and the Temples of the Sun and the Moon before it was dark.

It was a race with the sun across the valley, and the sun was winning.  It was still light enough to get some interesting shots of this lava dike, and dark ridge splitting the tall red cathedralesque spires.

Moving along as quickly as one can under these conditions, we headed into this wash, that looked a little challenging....

...and guess what happened.

What everyone hopes won't - back right wheel spinning deep in the mud, front left wheel spinning in the air and rear end jammed in the dirt.  Julie was a real trooper. Out came the shovel, a couple of boards, flashlights, rocks, sand, and even dry desert vegetation to shove under the wheels.  The three of us spent the next few hours applying brawn and brains until Julie was finally able to back out of the mud.  By the time we got out it was pitch black.  Julie felt it was wiser to go back the long way we had come rather than complete the loop, (as we didn't want to try going across that wash again) so it was midnight by the time we got home.  

But the stars in the desert were amazing.

Kodachro-oh-ome!

Kodachrome State Park was named by a National Geographic photographic team after the Kodak film that was being used at the time.  Remember film?

"You give us those nice bright colors.

You give us the greens of summers. 

Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah! 

I got a Nikon camera. 

I love to take a photograph. 

So Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away." 

                                                                                        - Paul Simon "Kodachrome"


I found myself, as I'm sure others have, singing this song while visiting the park. Yes, the colors are great, though I can't say they are any better than the other parks in this amazing part of the country.

We started our ambitious day of driving south on Rt. 12, passing over Boulder Mountain...

through aspens and free range land...

...and into the town of Boulder.  We've stopped at the Hollows & Hills gas station three times now, to use their fine rustic restrooms and fill up with gas and water. 

This is the first time that we've headed west on 12 out of Boulder though, and we looked back at the town and the surrounding outcroppings of Navajo sandstone from an overlook. (Rubber rabbit bush in the foreground.)

Route 12 is well known for its scenic beauty, but one if its most famous features is the Hogback, a very narrow, high ridge over which Rt. 12 passes, all the while overlooking spectacular canyons and cliffs on either side.

There are a few very popular pull offs where it is wide enough to stop and take a long, safe look at the views.

 We've been really surprised at how green it is in the area. It is monsoon season from July through September, and there's been plenty of rain. The rivers are muddy and full, and the washes are regularly washed, though they're empty quickly afterwards.  From this overlook we could see Rt. 12 further down in the valley. One sign warned us of a 14% grade as we headed down.

A few miles later we headed back up again, following a caravan of Airstreams to the Head of the Rocks overlook.  We discovered later that they were heading for the Shooting Star Drive-In, an Airstreams only RV park near Escalante. What an unusual place. In addition to a nice looking camping park, they have a collection of 60's convertibles lined up in front of a huge outdoor screen, and guests can take their pick and watch a drive-in movie! It makes me wish we had an airstream.

At the Head of the Rocks there's yet another great view of the slick rock valleys to the east and Grand Staircase- Escalante, as far as Navajo Mountain.

Further along Rt. 12 we came to the town of Escalante. Just before town is the Escalante Heritage Center with this covered wagon out front.  (Is it the first Airstream?). The story of the San Juan pioneers traveling through Hole in the Rock in 1879-80 is explained and illustrated in the Center. Eighty three wagons were pulled, pushed, levered and winched through the steep crack in the rock.  Their website has some great illustrations.

We stopped at Nemo's for an ice cream cone and kept heading west through more incredible scenery until we made it to Kodachrome Basin State Park. By that time we were feeling almost as tired as pioneers, but we had enough energy for a little hike on Angels' Palace Trail. 

Weathered silver piñon wood lying along the trail.

The trail got us high enough to have some good views of the rock formations that Kodachrome is known for. 

We just looked at this part of the trail and were happy with what we could see from a more substantial lookout. 

Supposedly this area was once like Yellowstone, with geysers and hot springs that got filled over time with minerals and sediment. When the surrounding sandstone eroded it left the grey "sand tubes" standing.  

The view of the park from Angels' Palace.

After our hike we started the long drive back on Rt. 12 to Torrey, catching just a few more shots on the way home.  Funny how the same road can look new and different going the other way.

Tomorrow we're taking a really big adventure. Stay tuned!

Grand Wash and Hickman Bridge Trails

There are many great hikes in Capital Reef, and plenty of information about them to help make good choices.  So far I'm going for those identified as "easy," to get my hiking legs on.  Rick was watching football and tennis this weekend, so I struck out on my own one day for a long hike at the Grand Wash, a flat walk on a usually dry river bed going through one of the larger canyons in the  park.

Right away I encountered this little fella, and I do mean little. He was maybe 3" long, max.  He and his buddies were the only wildlife I saw in the canyon.

The canyon begins kind of open and rough, with typical vegetation that grows along the rivers and washes here...

but increasingly constricts down to high cliffs and a narrow, flat bottom. 

Because the cliff sides are slick rock in many places, it sometimes looks like they are spiraling in as they narrow. There was some nice shade along the way, offering a break from the intense sun and heat, like under this huge arched overhang.

It's a one way trail, so after about two miles I came back out along the same path...

but it always looks a little different going the other way.  It was almost a three hour walk, so I was glad I had lots of water with me.

  On Monday Rick took a break form the sports and we hiked together on the Hickman Bridge Trail.  

It's got a little more altitude and gets you to some views of the cream colored domes that the park is named for. The bridge is the endpoint of the hike.  Down in the valley is the road that passes through Fruita, the historic Mormon settlement in heart of the park. There are fruit orchards there (thus the name) and lots of deer who like the green grass and the apples. 

Another evening we took a short sunset drive into the park to see how the familiar features looked in that light. 

I sure wish I had noticed that black SUV when I was taking the above picture.  On all these trips into the park we see so few other people, partly because the peak season is over, and partly because this park is just so remote and kind of overlooked compared to Bryce and Zion. 

I think this area is every bit as dramatic at other National Parks we've been to, and more so than some. 

The towns around it are also not anywhere near as developed for tourism as those around Zion or Arches. We just had to drive 25 miles to the grocery store today. 

Well, since we are officially in the southwest, I changed the look of the blog again, and I'm getting my cowgirl on.  See ya round the corral.

Capitol Reef National Park and Beyond

Yesterday was one of those mind blowing visual experiences that only the American southwest can provide. We are staying in Torrey, UT, at the Wonderland RV Park, which is right outside of Capitol Reef National Park.  One of the scenic drives in the area is a loop that starts on Rt. 24 in Capitol Reef, travels south on Notom Rd, turns west across Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on Burr Trail Rd. and finally north on Rt. 12 through Dixie National Forest and back to Torrey. It's a full day. I'll try to share the highlights with you.

The day started overcast and hazy as we headed through the parts of Capitol Reef we'd visited before, so we didn't take any pictures there. Once we turned south on Notom Rd. the vista opens up to reveal several mesas to the east and the Henry Mountains in the distance.

It was still kind of cloudy when we got a good look at some of the most interesting rock formations we've seen. As we watched, the clouds started to break up a bit, so we got some interesting light on them. The locals call them the cinnamon rolls and I think that's an apt name. They are part of the Waterpocket Fold (more about that later) and are huge. Not sure you can get a sense of scale here, but they are quite far away in this picture, and each "roll" is mountain sized.

A little further on we passed this isolated formation on the left, and thought "Oh Boy, we're getting into some interesting stuff now!"  But this was just a tiny preview.

Notom Rd. turns into dirt after awhile, and does go through a few washes, which were dry fortunately. After rains this road would be impassable without high clearance and four wheel drive.





About half way to the Burr Trail turn off, the road passes through Sandy Ranch and a green valley fed by Sandy Creek and Oak Creek.

Irrigation from these two creeks allows for grasses and grains for cattle and horses in this area.  In the distance is more of the Waterpocket Fold.

The terrain in this area is not just a lot of red rocks; it is tremendously varied.  In this view alone you can see high mesas with forests, red cliffs, cream colored Navajo sandstone, multicolored badlands, sand dunes, and piñon-juniper shrub. 

Now, about the Waterpocket Fold, which is the 100 mile long defining geological feature of Capitol Reef Park.  It is a place where the earth's crust has basically wrinkled, uplifting and exposing ancient layers of sedimentary rock, and then eroding to create a basin that gathers water.  The link I've inserted here will tell you in more scientifically accurate language what the Fold actually is.

The Fold is so huge, you can usually only see small parts of it from any location. There are exceptions from a few overlooks that we hope to get to before we leave.  There are places where we were able to look down along one of the ridges to see the different layers of rock and get some sense of the whole.

The stop we made that resulted in the above and following pictures was on the Notom Rd. north of where it meets Burr Trail Rd.  We got out and climbed among the rocks, up over a ridge, and the view above opened up for us. The day had cleared up completely by this time.

Here we are basically looking down into the Waterpocket Fold.  Based on the descriptions we had read we kind of expected to see water, but obviously that's not the case. 

The white colored rocks are part of what's called the Oyster Shell Reef.

The layers of rock and the different ways they respond to erosion are evident in places like this.

The Burr Trail Scenic Backway is named after the trail established by John Atlantic Burr in the late 19th century to drive his cattle from winter to summer ranges through almost impassable territory. You can see the ribbon of dirt road in the next picture, taken from a viewpoint looking east and down at the Burr Trail switchbacks. 

After ascending the heights of the Waterpocket Fold there is a hike to the Strike Valley Overlook that we chose not to take, but it supposedly provides a "striking" perspective of the Fold. 

Shortly after that, Peek-a-Boo Rock comes into view, which we had just barely seen from below. This view is from its west side.  

The Burr Trail takes you into the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the northern border of which is the marked by the Circle Cliffs, visible in the distance from the road, but not in any of my photos.  About halfway to Boulder we came to the Long Canyon Overlook, which I assumed meant we were looking over Long Canyon, right? Well no, it's at the end of the canyon, but for us it was the beginning. We were looking back at piñon-juniper scrub land and eroded multicolored sands.  The Long Canyon was next.

The Long Canyon is something like that in Zion National Park, except you can drive through this one and its much longer. The cliffs are immense and beautifully shaped by the splitting and shearing of the rock.  

In many places there are arched caves being created. 

We stopped for a look back at Long Canyon.

Burr Trail ends in Boulder, UT, a very small town with a gas station, and a couple of restaurants and lodges.  We stopped for some gas and headed north on Rt. 12.  Boulder is surrounded by large outcroppings of slick rock.

Slick rock is basically exposed petrified sand dunes, and the cross cut ridges are evidence of wind action on the sand.   Heading north took us up into the high chaparral and cotttonwood groves of the Dixie National Forest.  Our last stop was an overlook back at where we had been, and the Lower Bowns Reservoir.

Route 12 took us to back to our home in Torrey for the next 10 days. We each took a long nap. We'll be exploring more of the Capitol Reef area and should have some nice pictures.  Thanks for reading!