Capitol Reef

Thursday, August 28^th, 2014 – Day 79

Upon waking, we realized there was something wrong with the refrigerator.   It had been acting a little weird since filling it to capacity with organic meats, wonderful wild Alaskan Salmon, and other culinary delights from Wholefoods and Costco in Salt Lake.  The refrigeration system had a glitch in it unless it was plugged into power, so we were not too worried. We were booked into sites with plenty of power.  It needed to be checked out for sure, but it was not an emergency.  We proceeded to drive from Palisade State Park to Capitol Reef National Park in Torrey, Utah which was a pretty uneventful two hour drive.

Capitol Reef National Park, Torrey Utah

Wonderland RV Park, our headquarters for the next few days, is situated right at the intersection of the famous Scenic Byway 12, and route 24.  It is well maintained, full serviced, and about a 20 minute drive to Capitol Reef National Park.  Traffic, particularly motorcycles, can be heard throughout the day, and occasionally during the night. There is a lush, green strip of grass between campsites that appear to be watered 24/7.  This grass gives the campground a lovely, manicured look but at the price of having soggy ground around the motorhomes - soaking the chairs, tables, etc.  We personally would prefer a less manicured, but usable site.

When we plugged the motorhome into power, we were horrified to realize the refrigerator was completely dead!  We started calling the factory (which had closed due to the time zone difference), and frantically searched for a repair guy out here in no-man’s land who might help.  Time was of the essence, because of the food getting warm.

The dessert and distant cliffs of Capitol Reef National Park

There was a wonderful man just 8 miles down the road who was willing to stay late and have a look.  He was able to get it going, but due to the long weekend could not possibly get the needed part until after we had long-gone.  He fixed it ( by by-passing a safety switch which made me extremely worried ) and now our food was safe, but are we? We looked ahead, and the only place where there is an authorized Norcold Refrigerator service center was in Las Vegas – a week and a half away! Are we feeling lucky? I sure hope so! 

This internet photo is of the "Waterpocket Fold" geological phenomenon unique
to the Capitol Reef area. It extends for a 100 miles

Capitol Reef National park lies in the heart of Utah’s canyon country.  It has a strange, beautiful landscape of multi-hued rock layers. This area is known for a geologic phenomenon neither Norm nor I had ever heard of.  A “Waterpocket Fold”.  It is a giant buckle in Earth’s crust stretching across south-central Utah.  It was made by a warping of rock, created 65 million years ago by the same great forces later uplifting the Colorado Plateau.  This area is a jumble of cliffs, giant spires, monoliths and graceful arches.  Dirt roads that wind either into the horizon or twist their way through canyons; beckoning the adventurous who don’t mind getting their car a little dirty.  Norm and I, of course, just had to see what lies beyond the pavement.

Due to our having played 9 holes of golf before we left Palisades State Park that morning, we only had time to gas up (at an outrageous $4.29 per gallon) and do some laundry when we arrived.

Friday, August 29^th, 2014 – Day 80

The Hickman Bridge, a "natural bridge" viewed on our hike

We got up and out fairly early to get to the Visitor’s Center by 8AM and develop a plan for the next few days. We had armed ourselves with plenty of water, a picnic lunch (getting really tired of these), and necessary hiking gear, sans bear spray.  Yeah!  We traded it for the lighter and easier to pack, snake bite kit.

After speaking with the Park Ranger, we decided to do exactly what he suggested.  We hiked a mile to the Natural Bridge (actually called Hickman Bridge) which was much more difficult a hike in the intense sun and high (about 90 degree) heat.  Perhaps it was the fact that we have had virtually no exercise in the last month while traveling and the higher altitude has made it a little tougher. (Boston and Florida are nearly at sea level).

My goodness, there are a lot of apples!

Next we decided to check out the old Mormon settlement in the Fruita District on the banks of the Fremont River.  Here there are orchards containing 2700 fruit trees, including apple, cherry, apricot, peach and pear.  You could help yourself to anything you could eat while there, or pay $1.25 per pound for that which you took home.  There was a scale to weigh your fruit and asked to pay by the “honor system”.   What really amazed us was how these trees, with hardly any irrigation, could be so heavy with fruit without any fertilizers!  There is one pesticide applied once per year against a particular bug that they spray for and that’s it.

It amazes us how these trees flourish in this harsh environment.

Norm and I ate our fill and purchased about 5 pounds more.  Yumm…..

 When there is a road called “Scenic Drive“you have to drive it, right?  We did just that all the way to the end of the pavement, and then continued on to Capitol Gorge Road. This was a two and a half mile dusty, rutted road, lined with twisting, water-carved, sheer walled canyons. At the end was a hike to the Pioneer Register where the names of the canyon’s travelers after 1871 line a rock wall, as well as the Petroglyphs that interested Norm.

A lovely old wagon sitting in the middle of nowhere.

This is a road?  For cars?

 The sky was such a brilliant blue and with it came 97 degree heat and a sun intensity that was dangerous.  My body has a hard time regulating in this weather, but Norm has no problem with it, so he headed down the trail.  I happily stayed, seizing the opportunity to gab with other tourists in the shade.

About an hour later Norm returned, and we headed toward home taking yet another side trip up Grand Wash Road.  This area is plagued with flash floods, and we are warned NOT to take these roads if there is any threat of rain.  You can plainly see where water came through these canyons with such force!    What is amazing to me is how a storm 100 miles away can cause a tsunami–type surge of water- possibly sweeping you away in 10 feet of water!

It was a great and very long day - each bend of the road being more beautiful than the last.

Saturday, August 30, 2014 – Day 81

Today we will again follow the advice of the Ranger, which was to take a hike up a “wash”. ( Looks like a dried riverbed, but actually is a huge sluice way that rain from the hills runs through ). We started at what felt like the crack of dawn.  7 am must be pretty early, because there was almost no one on the road and certainly not on the trail at that hour.  We loved the solitude, but it was more about avoiding the sun.

Hey Norm!  Do you really want to be climbing over those huge boulders?

Norm and I knew this would be a long day, so we took not only lunches, but packed breakfast as well.  It took nearly an hour to get to the trail head down the nicely paved, Norton-Bullfrog Road.  We chose one of three recommend trails and hiked a couple of miles up a huge wash-out. 

Norm hiked out the entire way on the “riverbed” scrambling over huge boulders and climbing over fallen trees.  I, on the other hand, saw a trail leading high up along a ledge overlooking the wash where Norm was.  My trail was pretty scary in places due to the slippery nature of this red clay and the narrow ledge, but it was clearly less tiring. (I do not have a fear of heights, which helps in a lot of our hikes.)

This is the little ledge I was hiking on.  Norm would be traveling below.

I hope there aren't any snakes or scorpions in here!

This was a great hike, and we would have loved to continue (although Norm’s knee was starting to bother him) but looking toward the darkening sky it seemed prudent to hurry out of there.

This is a " wash".  You can see where the water had flowed through this for years carving these canyons.

Since we had driven quite a distance to this point, we decided to take our chances and trust the forecast of zero percent chance of rain, and continue on to the Burr Trail Road that would take us west to the beautiful (paved) Scenic Route 12.

Our car is not this bad yet, but we are working on it!

The road soon became a very rutted, washboard clay road.  I was driving about 10 miles per hour and still the car rattled and shook!  The poor little HHR! I had visions of the bumper and fenders falling off!

We drove through dozens of gullies and it was quite evident that this road would be so slick if wet even a four wheel drive would not get out!  What was most nerve-wracking was watching the clouds, and realizing if a storm came upon us we probably would not get out of there for a week!   I wondered if we should ration our lunches just in case……

TAfter two hours of rattling our teeth, we finally took a turn onto the Burr Trail Road.  It looked a little better, and at last we were making some progress!  All of a sudden, the views were unbelievable!  We wound our way through tight rock formations and headed up an incredible incline!  We could not believe that the road ahead was actually for cars!  These clay-based (aka slippery) switchbacks were extremely narrow with only a two foot soft shoulder between you and hundreds of feet down!  In fact, this road climbed 800 feet in only a half mile!  Trust me, that is steep!  But so much fun!    At this point we had the comfort of seeing a few cars.

We don't know what type of formation this is, we just called it "Unbelievably beautiful"!

We turned onto Route 12 and about 10 hours after we started we finally made it back to the campground.

 

This amazing group of French bicyclists started their trip
in Fairbanks, Alaska!  We have spotted them as far south as
Bryce Canyon.  They plan to finish in Chile!  Can you imagine?