Capitol Reef National Park
May 7, 2021
Today we drove to Torrey, Utah
Which meant another stint along highway 50, The Loneliest Highway in America
with views like this I am not sure why, except that it is long stretches between small towns.
Highway 70 also had some great scenery.
Jim was cruising along on Highway 24 soaking up more great scenery.
We arrived at our site and are pleased with the view from our site.
The view behind the campground is sweet.
Half of the view in front of the campground.
The other half of the view in front of the campground.
All around I am very happy with this campground location.
May 8, 2021
WOW!
Before getting into Capitol Reef National Park the views on Highway 24 are incredible.
Once in the park, the scenery is non-stop.
"My name is Dewey Gifford, and I was a farmer and rancher in Fruita from 1928 until 1969. For much of that time, we had no running water, electricity, or telephone. There was little cash to be had from farming, so I had to be away when I was young. I worked on the state roads, herded sheep, and ran cattle in the South Desert. But the most pleasant memories I have were those of family, farming and friends here in Fruita. Until 1940, we used all teams and horse-drawn implements, mostly for growing and cutting alfalfa for animal feed.
"The orchards of course, took a lot of work, but we had beautiful fruit: apricots, peaches, pears, apples, plums and cherries. We trucked a lot of it out of Fruita for cash sale or traded for grain with other farmers near Loa and Lyman"
"Mormon pioneers planted thousands of fruit trees in the fertile Fremont River Valley. From the 1880s to 1960s, these trees provided food and income to the ten or so families who called this area home. Apples, apricots, cherries, peaches, pears, and plums dotted each family's orchards."
"The massive Fremont cottonwood trees before you have had meaningful lives. Local knowledge states that starting in 1918, the large tree nearest the road was the place where mail was transferred from a carrier in Torrey to another carrier who continued downriver. Later, mailboxes were attached to the tree, giving the settlers a convenient location from which to maintain contact with the outside world. "
"The Mail Tree and its large companion are not just historical icons but also examples of an important member of a desert riparian (stream ecosystem). The Fremont cottonwood has extensive taproot systems that hold sandy soils in place while seeking precious water. Their absorbent wood holds moisture during dry periods. The large trunks and broad, leafy crowns shade the ground, creating suitable growing conditions for other plants."
"All my children were raised here, and attended the one-room school. Life wasn't much different from 1880, when pioneers first settled here. You had to be very self-sufficient to make it. Most everybody here had been raised as Latter Day Saints, but some weren't very active. We held Sunday School over in the schoolhouse."
"This modest building played a significant role in the Fruita community. Built in 1896, this one-room schoolhouse was Fruita's only public structure. Besides being their only school, it served as a church meeting house, since Fruita's Mormon settlers never had their own church building. The building also functioned as the community center. The students desks were not attached to the floor, so they could be moved to make room for dances, meetings, church gatherings, and other social events."
The Fremont River runs thru what once was the town of Fruita.
House that now serves as pie shop and gift shop.
"Mormon pioneers survived with self-reliance. Starting in he 1880s, they built gravity-fed irrigation systems to deliver water to orchards. They used horse-drawn equipment to plow fields and maintain roads. The first tractor didn't arrive in Fruita until 1940. Pioneers grew raised nearly all of their own food-from produce to tock. Work days were long and hard."
"Both men and women worked hard here, but we took time to play. Our family enjoyed high country hunts and fishing. The women quilted. We read a lot in the winter and enjoyed baseball in the summer. We saw few travelers here until after 1937, when the park came."
PENDLETON-JORGENSON-GIFFORD BARN STORY
"Calvin D. Pendleton, who arrived in Junction (Fruita) in the twilight of the 19th century, built a barn here before World War I. He left other structures on the land, especially the meandering, black stone drift fences on the side of the mesa behind you. Pendleton sold his land to Jorgan Jorgenson in 1919 and the barn was changed over the years. The last owner - G. Dewey Gifford used the barn for over 40 years and rolled loose, cut hay from a wagon into the barn using an "A" rope with team or tractor."
Here is the view from the Gifford House.
I want to move to Fruita, even if it is in a National Park.
"Capitol Reef's Scenic Drive follows the dramatic western escarpment of the Waterpocket Fold, a nearly 100-mile long wrinkle in the earth's crust. This road began as a wagon trail in the late 1800s, providing early travelers access to remote locations and a passage through the rugged Waterpocket Fold via Capitol Gorge."
"With the arrival of automobiles, the road served as the only drivable route through the heart of Capitol Reef. For many years, travelers tolerated rough driving conditions through Capitol Gorge, risking breakdowns and getting stuck in the rocks, sand, and mud of the canyon's streambed."
"In 1962, the last segment of Utah State Highway 24 was completed through the Fremont River canyon, linking both sides of Capitol Reef and providing an important transportation corridor through a formidable geographic barrier."
"Today, Scenic Drive is paved but narrow, with sharp corners and blind curves. Drive slowly and watch for bicyclists, hikers, oncoming traffic, and wildlife. Unpaved spur roads lead to trailheads in Grand Wash and Capitol Gorge."
Jim & I headed down the unpaved Capital Gorge spur road.
It felt like being in a canyon, the walls were right along the side of the road.
Every turn revealed another great feature.
At the end of the road was the Capitol Grove Trail which has 4 features as noted on the sign.
The canyon is too narrow for a road at this point so the trail is surrounded by rock features.
The narrows
A petroglyph. The wall of petroglyphs is fading, only a few are visible now.
We are having a great time on this trail.
"These names belong to surveyors. One of their descendants, Pam Stewart, provides the story behind them. Her great-uncle, John R. Stewart, and his half-brother Quinby, worked for the state of Utah as land surveyors in 1912. They had contracted a crew of University of Utah geology students to help them over the summer. According to Pam and her family, “It is said that Quinby got the idea of fooling the new bunch, commenting on the speed of erosion in the Reef. One evening, leaning on the buck board, he said to his youthful and unexperienced crew, "My how it erodes down here." After a pause he consulted John R., "Isn't this the place we were at this time last year?" Later, after dark, when the rest of the camp were asleep, Quinby and John R. took some ropes, hammers, and chisels and snuck off down the draw to where canyon wall was a sheer rock face about 50 feet high. There, they climbed to the top where Quinby was lowered over the edge and down the face. There he dangled in a rope chair, while he chiseled their names and last year's date in good engineering letters two feet high on the rock face. The next day as they were working in the canyon, Quinby remarked, "I think we were standing about here when we carved our names in some rock face..." He then pointed out the names and date to his hapless audience, with the comment that he had stood on the bed of a wagon to do the inscribing. This would have required about 40 feet of erosion in one year."
Pioneer Register
"Prospectors, explorers, surveyors, cowboys, area settlers, and early visitors would often stand on their wagons to carve their names into the canyon wall. They were leaving their mark above flash flood danger, likely hoping their names would survive for centuries."
Jim continues on the trail to the tanks
Going to the tanks has us climbing up on the canyon wall.
Jim in one of the tanks - not holding any rainwater today.
It's a beautiful sunny day so once up here we found a shady spot to take a rest.
The view on the way back down from the tanks was very cool.
Here is a video for you to see a little of what we saw.
Views on the way out.
I really had to restrain and not take too many pictures.
I love the angle and colors. We will be back tomorrow for more.
May 9, 2021
Happy Mother's Day
Gifford House was out of pie yesterday by lunchtime, so for Mother's Day breakfast we got up early and had some warm pie for breakfast before heading out on the trail. I mean if you pick up a pie and it is still warm you have to dig right in.
Come up the hill with us to Cohab Canyon
"The Cohab Canyon Trail offers vividly-colored rock formations, hidden side canyons, and spur trails to scenic viewpoints above the Fremont River Valley. After a steep climb for the first 0.3 mile, the hiking is moderate within the canyon."
On the way up we get great views over the Fruita area of the park.
It's cloudy today but the hills are still grand.
It's a narrow entrance into the canyon, which makes you feel a part of it.
I like these columns of orange and cream.
The cavities in the rocks make images like this snarly monkey face.
A bright white flower in the sandy soil.
Rocks in the distance are almost all white
Anyone have a good name for this tower?
Just leave your suggestion in the comments
Here is a video for you to see a 360 degree look around here.
It is time to climb up again to the North and South Overlook.
In the distance the rocks are almost all white.
Jim heads off to the North Overlook
Scenic drive on the left, orchards of Fruita center, and highway 24 on the right.
View from the North Overlook.
A white dome (like a Capitol building)
The white tops are at eye level from up here.
It is nice to be up at the top of the hills.
Fortunately the trail is marked with some rocks to keep you on the path.
Jim is happy to be up here.
It's a wild terrain.
A peek of blue sky is all we are going to get today.
We have seen these cavities here and there, but this is the greatest concentration of them in one place.
The rocks go on to the horizon.
We headed home after a picnic lunch in the park we read a little by the Fremont River until the cloudy skies and the temperatures proved to chilly.
Once back at the RV Jim installed the new water pump.
After a couple of tweaks, success, we can once again pump water out of our fresh water tank.
May 10, 2021
The Grand Wash is our destination today.
We turn off the scenic road onto a rough unpaved road for 1.3 miles to get to the trailhead.
An imbedded arch along the road in.
The cloudy skies make the walls look even more formidable.
We parked the truck up the road a little bit as the parking area was full.
The view from our parking spot.
We are happy to set out on the trail.
A classic white dome greets us early on.
This side wall has a landscaped look to it with all the terraced trees on it.
The trail is relatively flat and easy going.
Walls of white, orange and black.
The smaller of these two two towers looked like a mummy to me, can you see it?
We approach the Narrows section where the walls are only 20 feet apart.
Here's a video of part of the Grand Wash
Side canyons can also be seen along the way.
And of course I had to climb into this spacious rock formation.
Utah, the Beehive state is named after this type of rock formation.
Spring has brought some wildflowers to life.
Some of the white hills look like whipped meringue.
Some blue skies start to break through for a short bit.
It was all beautiful.
A fellow hiker snapped this picture of us.
A nice rock formation on the way out of the Grand Wash.
And a couple of closed off Uranium Mines.
"The thin band of yellow-gray rock before you tempted the nation with promises. This is the Shinarump Member of the Chinle Formation, a layer of ancient, river-deposited sandstone containing trace amounts of uranium. Lured by the promise of health and profits, early prospectors began searching here for uranium in 1904. Originally, uranium was thought to have valuable medicinal properties against rheumatism and other ailments. Radioactive ore from these mines was packed into pouches and worn around the neck, or crushed and mixed into water and consumed as a "health tonic"."
I don't know about you, but that stick holding up that rock seems circumspect.
"Uranium offered the promise of protecting the nation. Exploration and milling of uranium was encouraged by the US Atomic Energy Commission in the 1950s during the Cold War. Prospectors flocked to the Colorado Plateau. Even protected National Park Service lands were opened to mining. Despite strong opposition from park managers, companies were allowed to build roads, dig mines, and construct camps in previously undisturbed lands. Ultimately, little uranium was found here, little profit was made, and the promise of health and protection grew silent."
This red clay like wall can be seen throughout the park.
In fact it is right outside my window as I type of the blog from my RV at the campground.
The colorful stripes of different layers is my favorite.
Across from the visitor center is this formation, called the "Castle"
We drove over to see some Petroglyphs in the park.
"The stories present detailed information regarding geography, demography, economy, and religion. They describe activities common to daily life, maps and journeys, clan symbols, deities, animals that were hunted, calendars, and other features."
Some of these look like aliens with jazz hands.
"Other tribes associated with Capitol Reef say the markings may be considered as libraries that speak to American Indians about past events, legends, journeys, and genealogy, among other topics."
While I was not overwhelmed by the petroglyphs I did like this t-shirt with them.
Not yet done with our action packed day we hit another spot along the scenic drive, Goosenecks Point.
.Amazing, it is a canyon
A deep canyon with Sulphur Creek winding its way through the bottom.
"Sulphur Creek continues to shape this dramatic canyon. The stream is a tributary of the Colorado River, which has been eroding downward into rock layers, and effectively lowering the landscape of the Colorado Plateau, for about six million years. There are two possible explanations for the formation of this canyon's tight curves, known as the Goosenecks."
"Is it a superimposed stream? This model suggests that a meandering stream developed on a flat-lying land surface thousands of feet above the present landscape. As Sulphur Creek cut downward through time, it superimposed the meandering pattern on the rock layers beneath."
"Is it a subsequent stream? This model suggests that during its downward erosion, Sulphur Creek intersected angular fractures within the rock layer upon which you stand. The stream then followed the direction of the fractures, creating a new flow pattern (the Goosenecks) subsequent to its original pattern."
That's quite a lot to think about, I think we will just sit here and have some lunch and ponder on it.
Jim is pondering on it too.
We've decided either way its great to look at.
View from Goosenecks
And at the same turnoff for Goosenecks is Panorama Point.
I see were Panorama Point gets its name.
The day is not over yet. After having some dinner back at the campground we head back for the 10:00 pm Ranger Talk, The Night Sky.
Yes, sadly this is the best picture I can get of the night sky here. Trust me, its more stars then I see in my backyard. So many that it is hard to make out easy constellations like the Big Dipper.
Phew, that's more than enough for one day.
May 11,2021
Today we are doing a driving tour: Looping the Fold - come and see what we saw.
"The spectacular Waterpocket District (or southern section) of Capitol Reef National Park is fairly remote and rugged, and open year-round. Most passenger cars, pickups, and vans can usually negotiate the roads without difficulty." We start going south on Highway 12
First stop on Highway 12, Larb Hollow Overlook
"State Route 12 or Scenic Byway 12, also known as "Highway 12 — A Journey Through Time Scenic Byway", is a 122.863-mile-long state highway designated an All-American Road "
Yes, those are the Henry mountains on the horizon.
"Torrey lies just 37 miles from Boulder over Highway 12. But if this mountain route was closed, you'd have to drive more than 200 miles to get there by way of Panguitch. Before the Boulder Mountain section of Highway 12 was paved, snow and mud closed the dirt road from late November until late May. Even in the summer months, traveling the unpaved road over Boulder Mountain could be a bone-rattling adventure."
Next stop Steep Creek Overlook
"In 1977, this stretch of road was the only remaining unpaved section of Highway 12. That year, the Utah Department of Transportation began to prepare the Boulder Mountain road for paving. Eight years later, in 1985, nearby residents gathered with highway officials on Boulder Mountain to celebrate the completion of Highway 12 pavement."
Homestead Overlook
We reached Boulder, Utah and turned unto Burr Trail Road.
Dashboard camera shot
Nonstop views
We stopped for lunch in a very picturesque spot
Here is some of our lunch view
More views from our lunch spot
Back on Burr Trail Road after lunch
Before long it becomes an unimproved road
A dashboard camera picture
and then there are three tight switchbacks
This is the side of the road, no shoulder
even the rocks look like they are going down the switchback
we can see the road ahead of us
We head north on Notom-Bullfrog Road
Sandy Creek Benches on the horizon
Green provided by irrigation
And once we have turned on Highway 24 we see the Behunin Cabin
"The modest home before you stands as a reminder of the hardships of early settlers. The desire to exercise religious freedom and create new self-sufficient communities ultimately led many Mormon settlers to this remote part of Utah. This one-room cabin was built in 1882 by Elijah Cutler Behunin and his family. They were some of the earliest pioneers to attempt to establish homesteads in the Capitol Reef area. Within a year of building this cabin, the Behunin family moved away in search of a more suitable location. Repeated floods on the Fremont River had quickly ruined their irrigation system and washed out their crops. "
We took highway 24 back to the RV campground.
Wow, what a day.
If you would like to ride along with us watch this, (you can adjust the speed)
A time lapse of our drive today.
May 12, 2021
Today we hiked Sulphur Creek Route. It is not actually a trail, it is not maintained by the park, it is not back country hiking as there is no place to camp, so it is a route technically. Most of the route is Sulphur Creek.
Jim amongst some fallen rocks on the side of the trail.
An interesting wall formation showing its history of being submerged.
Jim taking a tight turn and descent on the trail.
After almost two miles we reach Sulphur Creek.
This requires a change of shoes, as the route is the creek.
Jim hikes down a sandbar in the middle of the creek.
Us having a great time on this creek route. The creek twists and turns a lot.
The portion before we get to the creek follows a wash so it is twisty
then the creek does several oxbow turns.
Here is a short video from the trail.
It is not too deep here.
It's a beautiful trail.
We reach this waterfall, our turning point.
Time to head back.
Not quite the Narrows in Zion, but a fun trail, it would have been more like the Narrows if we went all the way to the end which would have required getting down from the first waterfall into 4 foot deep water then at waterfall two swimming is required and finally a third waterfall before the end.
And right at the end of the trail, Jim spots this flowering Prickly Pear Cactus.
After the hike we attended a Ranger Talk on the Geology of Capitol Reef.
You have to love the visual aid of the mountains right behind him.
May 13, 2021
A long hike yesterday, a travel day tomorrow, rest day today.
Jim takes the time to enjoy a good book.
I did a load of laundry, vacuumed the RV and then soaked up some sun.
And in the interest of supporting the local economy we stopped by Etta Place Cidery and picked up some hard cider. The Cidery is new and still awaiting approval to do tastings so we bought some to taste back at the RV. (Butch Cassidy lived in this area and Etta Place travelled to Bolivia with him)
And there is a BBQ place here in the campground, Torrey Grill & Barbeque
We split an order of Pork Ribs and an order of Beef Tips
Cheddar Mashed Potatoes and Hawaiian Coleslaw as the sides choice
Southern Pimento Cheese with celery, carrot, broccoli and sesame stick
As well as a cornbread muffin with honey butter.
Very tasty and super convenient being steps away from our campsite.
You can dine in or carry out
here is a look at the BBQ pavilion from the inside.
We have really enjoyed it here at Capitol Reef National Park,
if you are in Utah, definitely come and see it.
nice to see Ranger talks back on the agenda
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