Visit Again to Capitol Reef National Park

Rain, rain, go away.  Every afternoon we have had rain, not hard driving, just very overcast, dismal/gray.  And gloomy.  Some afternoons we remark that the sky looks like a November day in Ohio.  Never the less, we decided to visit the park again yesterday, to see some of the sights that looked interesting from the previous visit.

Our first stop was to Gooseneck Point.  Did not know much about it, it is located just inside the park's boundary, and I remember from the orientation movie that there were fantastic views.  And we were not disappointed.  We stared down 800 feet into the bottom of the canyon, saw and heard Sulphur Creek meandering through.  Absolutely breathtaking!

Cute but very huge!

Looking down 800 feet to the Sulphur Creek

Visited Gifford House and Museum, was a tidge disappointed that it was a store to sell baked goods and such, not a museum per se as to historical things. This is an original home from 1880 when the Gifford family moved here to settle the area and start fruit orchards.  There were 10 families and fruit farms were the mainstay, using the crops as barter for other food stuffs with other towns.
Then walked down to the Fremont River and awed over the views not just of the river but of the towering cliffs overhead.

Gifford House

Lovely Fremont River

Fruit orchards nestled into the towering cliffs of Capitol Reef

One of two walks/hikes we wanted to do was stroll along the Grand Wash trail for a bit.  With such amazement as to just how tall the walls of sandstone and limestone are - you just cannot put it into words!  And some look like they will fall any minute - arching over you. Pictures do not reflect the formations and immenseness.  This is an ancient river bed and along some of the walls of the cliffs you could see stones tucked into holes that were left from the water gushing by.  By 3pm a thunderstorm was heading in so we got back to the campground just in time.

Grand Wash hike

Walking on an old ancient river bed

Towering sandstone cliffs

Looking overhead of us

Most holes had small stones in them

These holes are about 20 feet up - see stones in holes?

The magnitude of the rocks - amazing

A different Chimney Rock

We both agreed that Capitol Reef has the most WOW factor followed by Vermilion Cliffs National Monument of all the Colorado Plateau's 22 national parks/monuments in the area.  We have only seen 14 of the 22 so maybe we will hold that judgment until all 22 are visited.

Escalante River Canyon and the National Monument

We have not ventured out to sight see since last weekend for a couple of reasons:  it has rained every day for the last 7, and, Dave had to have dental work done.  Thank goodness for the campground owner's recommendation - not only did Dave get into the dentist Tuesday, but was able to get all the work done and not wait.  Yesterday he wanted to get out and do something, not allowed to do any physical activity so off we went driving south Scenic Route 12 again and up over the mountains, heading towards the town of Escalante, 65 miles south of where we are camping.

No sniveling allowed - just do it!

Hogbacks - very narrow, steep!

This little town is nestled deep in the canyons of Escalante Staircase National Monument.  Talk about vivid landscape!  The road took us through an area called the Hogbacks - seems the road was put on top of one of the canyon walls and on either side of the road was a steep, steep drop off.  Heaven forbid if you had to stop - no such luck. And - a couple of 14% steep grades to drive!  At one pulloff/scenic view there were over a dozen Quebec bikers.  French rapidly spoken of those folks - I think they were just as amazed as us with the view. This is a major road for bikers - sometimes we have seen 15 in a group traveling down 12.

Ouis? Eh? Quebec bikers

Wonder where the road will go?

Beautiful!

Near where the Escalante River crosses

On our way back north on 12 we stopped at the "Hole-In-The-Rock' welcome center.  Had no clue what this was about.  Back in the 1870's the Mormon leaders asked people to volunteer to blaze a short cut trail to eastern Utah, over the Escalante landscape.  The Hole in the rock refers to when they got to the Colorado River, the only way to get across it was to literally slide down from above the plateau at a 90 degree angle.  Ox carts, horses, people, wagons, cattle.  How did they do it?  Crazy.
The woman we talked to at the center explained that her great-great-great grandfather was one of those pioneers.  Small world.

Drawing of Hole-In-The-Wall journey 

How did they do it? My goodness!

On our way back north we stopped at the Escalante River Canyon and decided to walk a tidge.  Very pretty and had towering cliffs to our left.  Looked up and saw ruins of Ancient Pueblon people - a photo we saw during the orientation movie.  How lucky were we?  Had a quick lunch, headed back to car and again drove over the Hogbacks, past the Anasazi State Park in Boulder, and back over the mountains.  With the steep grades and the Hogbacks, the overhanging cliffs through the Escalante River area, certainly glad we did not bring the RV this way when we came to Capitol Reel National Park.

Happened to look up at the right spot!

Our lunch setting - Escalante River

Magnificent views along the trail

After we got back from our trip and settled down, we looked out our front window and saw this. Yep, we are in a small, very rural, town!  Entertainment.

Owner, wife, and son - needed extra horse power!

Scenic Byway 12 and Anasazi State Park

Around noon we decided to take a drive south on Byway 12 - known as one of America's Scenic Roads - traveling from Torrey, winding 124 miles in and around and up and down through mountains,  lush forests, through quaint towns, home to 2 national parks, 3 state parks, a national monument, a national forest, and a national recreation area, and if you drove the entire byway - would come out by Hatch, a town we drove through on our way here.  Our destination for this trip was to go to Boulder where the Anasazi State Park Museum resides, about 35 miles south on 12.

Traveled up to a whopping 9800 feet over Boulder Mountain, again back in snow, spring has not reached the upper reaches and snow pack is still evident.  We stopped at a couple of scenic overlooks - talk about seeing for miles and miles.  We could make out the Waterpocket Fold of Capitol Reef National Park, saw towering Navajo Mountain we think about 50 miles away, had to be diligent again with deer grazing right near the road, too bad the sun was not out, but was still pretty awesome to see. This byway was a dirt road until 1985 when it was finally paved.  Can't imagine driving this road in the dirt and mud, at times we were hugging the road with steep drop offs on both sides - sorta riding along on a ridge.  Glad we did not drive the RV this way - an option we were seriously thinking about when we came here to Torrey.

Vista views towards Capitol Reef NP

Navajo Mountain on left side

Visited the Anasazi State Park Museum.  The museum is on a site that Ancestral Puebloan people lived sometime between 1050 and 1175 CE.  Consisted of 100 rooms, the site has been partially excavated and restored, and had a reconstructed living area to demonstrate how these people lived.  The museum was very well documented and showed actual artifacts from the dig.

Coombs site - Ancient Puebloan people's village

Actual pit house discovered

Traveled back over the mountain to get home and stopped again at the scenic overlooks - was very impressive.  Literally drove ahead of snow!

Dodged snow at 9800 feet! Notice no greenery? Dull gray.

Orientation to Capitol Reel National Park

We have had lousy rainy, cold weather for days and decided with a promising forecast yesterday, to head to Capitol Reel NP's visitor's center to see and hear what there is to do.  Were we blown away with the red rock and formations?  Wow! We have now completed the 'circle of five' national parks in Utah, and we both agree that this park is by far our favorite of the 5 - Zion, Bryce, Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reel.  We did not know what this park was about and why it is a national park - it is the largest buckle of the Earth's crust in North America, created 65 million years ago which also created the Colorado Plateau, and this buckle is called the Waterpocket Fold.  Became quite evident as we ventured south into the park, you could see the huge monolithic wrinkle (sorta a Z shape) as we stood looking northward from a great view point. Amazing thing - none of the rock formations was from volcano eruptions - strictly the uplift force from the earth's crust, and obviously erosion over a very long time.

The Capitol

Petroglyphs

Stopped along the way and took pictures of the Fremont River as it meandered along the cliffs, saw petroglyphs, got a great orientation of the park.  Lots of people now since it's the holiday, so we decided that we would do a tidge of sightseeing then take another day with brighter skies to come back and hike some trails.  There a many trails to hike, with great warnings about flash floods.  We could see as we drove along the scenic road where washes were mud covered.  Learned that if the Park has to come tow you out of mud - $500 just for them to show up, does not include the cost to actually pull you out.  Rain showers were coming in again so we headed back to town.

Egyptian Temple

The Waterpocket Fold

Fremont River meandering through park

We drove around Torrey to see what else the town has to offer besides a couple of hotels and restaurants.  Got caught in a traffic jam - the locals were driving a herd of cows to summer pasture (we think).  Pretty cool, got a great flavor of life in a very very small town, timing was everything! Another car who was also stopped to watch the parade, remarked to us as she got out of the car and walked up past us to take pictures - 'you're from Texas, this should be a normal thing for you.' Well, did not want to inform her that we are really from Ohio, and no, this was not an everyday thing for us. Was impressed with the border collie who was running around biting the cows and calves feet and butts who strayed away from the main pack, to get them back into the crowd.  Reminded us of Player (friend's Brenda and Bob's dog) who is also a herder, he loves to herd Buddy when he is over visiting us.

Get along, little dogie!

Moved to Central Utah

Thursday we drove back to the Navajo Bridge where Lee's Landing is so we could make some cell phone calls and I took pictures of rafters coming down the Colorado River.  Definitely want to do this some day!

Here they come!

Would be an amazing trip!

Passed under Navajo Bridge

With the Memorial Holiday weekend upon us, we had to move from Jacob Lake's Kaibab Camper RV Park due to our spot being reserved for someone else.  That's okay, we needed to move to where there was sunshine, warmer weather, new scenery.  We made reservations for the campground we are in 2 weeks ago, knowing how fast the sites fill, Memorial Weekend being the official start of camping for most weekenders.  We did not know what our weather would be as we moved, rained off and on, and cold - only reached 51 yesterday, our travel day.  Sort of a dismal day to move - and a long one.  We left the campground by 9am, moved into Daylight Savings Time within 45 minutes traveling north and crossing into Utah, and slowly worked our way north and east to central part of the state.

The ride was uneventful, only managed to run over 1 snake (a big one!) and saw more of Utah than we had seen before.  Snow capped mountains in the distance near Salt Lake City, but now we are sitting 3 miles from the entrance to Capitol Reef National Park.  After visiting this park sometime in the next week we would have completed another 'bucket list' of a place to visit. This park, along with Zion, Bryce, Canyonlands, and Arches completes the "Grand Circle of Utah" that these parks are known as.  We also took in a couple of monuments that also are within reach - Escalante, Vermilion Cliffs, Glen Canyon, touched Monument Valley.  So much to see just in this area.

Ancient Sand Dunes - solidified

Escalante Staircase - Utah 

Beautiful!

Hopefully the weather will clear enough - forecast for rain for next 4 days, so we will see.  We are in the middle of nowhere - have to drive at least 2 hours to get to an airport or large city.

North Rim Grand Canyon Visited Again

The first time we visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon 3 years ago, we spent about 5 hours total, surely not enough to see everything.  So visiting this time around we made sure we went to all lookout points, walked some trails, and experience all we could.  On the drive to the Rim you pass through large meadows and we both said that area reminded us of Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park.  Lots of deer out, you really have to be diligent because they are everywhere.  Did not see the Tatankas (buffalo) that we saw 3 years ago but the warning signs along the road told you to beware, do not approach.  Yesterday we spent at the Rim picking the most clear day to hopefully see the vista views.  Absolutely gorgeous day - when we left the campground it was a chilly 48 degrees but by the time we got to Cape Royal and the trails there, it was 61.  Big puffy clouds, slight wind, very clear.

Angel's Window - walk out to point

Beautiful! 

Imperial Point

The North Rim has only been open for a week but there were plenty of people there.  We experienced the Cape Royal views and hiked over to Angels Window, a wonderful viewpoint that has fantastic views of the Colorado River.  From there we went to Imperial Point and was stunned at the vista view there.  We were at the highest point in the entire park - both South and North sides, 8804 feet, and was the deepest point looking down into the canyon. We could see in the distance the Vermilion Cliffs that we visited the other day.

Colorado River - look center of photo

Been a nice relaxing visit here, cold at night dropping down to 33 with frost on the vehicles, but during the day was pleasant.  Have had to run the space heaters to keep the chill out of the RV but we have been comfortable.

We pack up Friday morning and head to Torrey, Utah, where we will be 3 miles from Capitol Reef National Park. Grand Canyon is a beautiful place to visit, would put it on any one's list of things to see but we both agree that the North Rim, for nature and less people, is our favorite of either rims.  South Rim is more people friendly, more interpretive trails and hikes, more things to do and experience but North Rim is so pristine and natural, you really need to experience both.