09-21-2021 A Gorgeous Day in Capitol Reef

This photo of the Gifford House is from our visit camping in the Fruita campground in 2019

I knew from past experience that it was important to arrive at the Gifford House in Fruita very early if we wanted to score some of the famous pies.  We made sure we were on the road traveling the 11 miles into the central portion of Capitol Reef NP by 7:45.  When we arrived at the parking lot it was nearly full, with folks entering the little shop that had signs saying no more than 12 people could be inside at once.  Sure enough, pies were still plentiful, with 5 varieties available. I didn’t manage to take photos of the big buck deer with a nice rack wandering around to greet us. 

After Chere and I bought our pies, we jumped in the car to quickly get on the Scenic Drive that begins adjacent to the Gifford House barns just east of the main Fruita campground.  We first took a quick drive around the campground so that Dan and Chere could check it out. It was full and had been completely booked for months.  No matter, Mo and I have enjoyed the campground in the past and this time our camp with an open view and hookups at Thousand Lakes RV Park is perfect.

The Scenic Drive is 20 miles round trip, and ends at the trail leading into Capitol Gorge.  There are no words or photos that can actually capture the intensity of the vermillion, burgundy, carmine, and coral variations of color on the various rock formations of Capitol Reef.  There are 19 different geologic stratigraphic formations identified in Capitol Reef.  What I learned on this trip, with the purchase of one more geology book about the area, is that my adored Moenkopi formation actually has four different members!  Always something new to learn.

It was still early as we traveled along the narrow road, and the cliffs get bigger and closer and more impressive as the road continues south.  The first important side road is the short spur that leads to the Grand Wash trailhead.  Silly me, I suggested that we continue south to Capitol Gorge first and catch Grand Wash on our way back.  Things have changed a lot since our last visit in 2019.  But more about that later.

We stopped at the marker for the Golden Throne and laughed a lot at our attempts to figure out which large monolith was actually the throne.  Capitol Reef is actually named for the plethora of monoliths along the Waterpocket Fold that is the main geologic feature of the park.  These monoliths are called by many names, including domes, thrones, cathedrals, temples, and chimneys.  After reviewing my geology book, I finally figured out which of our photos was actually the Golden Throne. 

At the end of the paved road is a large parking area with signs that prohibit vehicles longer than 27 feet traveling the dirt road toward the Capitol Gorge trailhead.  Dan enjoyed driving his nifty Suzuki tow car on the narrow road, grumbling at times at the stupid tourists in big fancy cars driving fast and taking their half out of the middle on the narrow dirt road.  By the time we reached the trailhead, the parking lot was filling quickly, and as we checked license plates they were from all over the county, with many plates from the eastern part of the US.  People have definitely discovered the national parks, even remote, previously unknown and quiet Capitol Reef.

The flowers in the protected canyon were wonderful, with several rare species that I didn’t have time to identify.

We decided to hike into Capitol Gorge for a bit, going as far as the Petroglyph Narrows.  The trail continues on a steeper uphill portion to the Tanks, which I hiked to many years ago, but it was too far to enjoy on this day.  We had other places to go and other things to see.  It was a lovely walk, with just enough slickrock along the edge of the wash that I could show Dan and Chere the delights of walking on slickrock, which is not slick at all.

We returned along the Scenic Drive with plans to hike into Grand Wash.  Entering the side road, with cars in front of us and behind, us we saw that the parking lot was packed and cars were parking along the entrance road.  We probably could have found a space along that road, but hiking with all those people wasn’t the least bit appealing, even in a place as wonderful as Grand Wash.  I am sure that there were at least 50 people emerging from their cars as we drove away from the trailhead and probably hundreds in the wash.  So sad.  Hiking Grand Wash might require a commitment to arrive at sunrise, and maybe even then it might be more crowded than I would like.

Leaving the Scenic Drive, we drove back past the Gifford House with roads and parking lots completely filled and overloaded.  The visitor center is only partially open, but Dan dropped off Chere and I while he tried to find a parking place.  Happily, he was successful.  The bookstore was open, but the tee shirt selection was sad.  But as I mentioned previously, I was thrilled to find a great book on the geology of the park that I didn’t already own.  This one is just technical enough to be interesting, but has lots of photos and illustrations and maps.  Mo couldn’t believe I bought another Capitol Reef book, but I loved it.

We decided to take the short drive east on Highway 24 toward the Petroglyph site along the highway.  There were hordes of folks lined up at the first viewpoint and more walking along the boardwalk that parallels the glyphs and hopefully protects them from vandalism.  We parked behind a huge tour bus, and when we returned it was gone and replaced by another huge tour bus. 

The petroglyphs are considered to be from the Fremont culture which inhabited the valleys along the Fremont River from about 300 CE.  Of course, as with most estimates of prehistoric cultures there are various theories which are often disputed, especially by native people who consider their tribes as direct descendants of the prehistoric people that lived in the area.

We returned to the campground earlier than expected, but enjoyed the leisure time before supper to rest, walk the dogs, and catch up on blogs and photos.  Supper was a delicious meal created by Chere and shared at our picnic table with a view of the cliffs to the north and beautiful sunshine.

After supper, we drove 9 miles back east on Highway 24 to the Observation Point road.  There is a viewpoint that is at the end of the pavement that was full of cars and people.  We chose to skip that point, and drove the half mile or so on the narrow dirt road back to the trailheads for the Goosenecks Overlook and Sunset Point.  Both trails are under a mile round trip with a different view of similar landscapes at each point.  The parking lot was again packed full but Dan found a spot to squeeze into with the Suzuki. 

We chose the Sunset Point trail because it looked as though there were fewer people taking that one up to the viewpoints.  The trail isn’t difficult, with only a few steps toward the beginning, and wide slickrock steps in some places. The drop over the cliffs is breathtaking, with the Fremont River close to 1,000 feet below. It is a great place to see the geologic strata in the park with the oldest rocks visible at the bottom of the gorge.

Mo and I walked back toward the east and Sunset Point where we joined many groups of people settling in among the rocks to await the sunset.  I love the view from this spot, with Mt Ellen visible in the distance and the red cliffs of Wingate sandstone lit up by the setting sun.  It was lovely in spite of all the people that were around us.  It takes a certain kind of mental gymnastics to enter my own mind in the silence of the place, feel the expanse as if I were alone.  I am grateful that I have been visiting this park regularly since 1996 when it was an unknown place and people were few and far between.  I am afraid those days are gone forever.

We walked back to the spot where Dan and Chere were waiting for us to return to watch the rest of the sunset.  Dan decided to hike up to the top on his own and surprised us when he popped out of a nearby drainage after his explorations.  He got some good photos of the deepest part of the gorge which is very hard to photograph in the contrasting light.

It was the end of a nearly perfect day.  We settled in for the evening with plans to travel over Thousand Lakes Mountain the next day and explore Cathedral Valley. Little did we know that those plans would be thwarted by “stuff that happens”.  But that is for the next post.

09-30-2019 Three Days in Capitol Reef NP

09-30-2019  Three Days at Capitol Reef National Park in Utah

The nights were cold at Capitol Reef during the time we were there.  I woke up at 3AM, cold and achy, and turned on the furnace to warm things up and slept great until 8am.  Generators can run only from 8 to 10 AM or from 6 to 8 PM.  We don’t have solar on the MoHo, so do need to run the generator periodically to keep her charged up.  It also comes in handy to make coffee.  We used to do pressed coffee, but I got tired of dealing with the grounds all the time, so enjoy having the electric pot around. 

The Gifford House opened at 8:30, and I knew that they had great pies made from the fruit grown in the historic orchards in the park.  When I went over to buy a nice little apple pie, they told me that they sold over 40,000 of those pies during this past season.  Wow!  Made me wonder where all those pies were made. 

I drove up to the visitor center to check for maps, brochures, and of course, tee shirts.  Got a really cute one but it turned out to fit Mo better than me, so she lucked out.  We decided that this day would be an easy one, where we would give ourselves a break and simply meander around the local roads and enjoy the stunning red cliffs.

We left Mattie in the MoHo just in case we decided to do a bit of hiking, but with my knee and Mo’s ankle, hiking was kept to a minimum.  It is hard to accept sometimes that we are slowing down, especially in this last year or so.  I might be heading toward knee surgery before too long, I do miss all the hiking we used to do.

It was a perfect day for driving the Scenic Drive, a 20 mile round trip road that extends south toward Capitol Gorge, and passes several trailheads along the way, including the gorgeous trail through Grand Wash.  Mo and I hiked Grand Wash on a previous trip, but for who knows what reason, we have never hiked the easy .8 mile trail into Capitol Gorge.

There wasn’t too much traffic during the early portion of our drive, and we took our time meandering along, getting out at all the wide places in the road to enjoy the views and walk around a bit.  By the time we got to Capitol Gorge, the parking lot was jammed with cars and motorhomes, including quite a few CruiseAmerica rental units.  We drove part way down the dirt road and were extremely surprised to see some folks with motorhomes trying to drive it.  With all the people around, it wasn’t that exciting to get out of the car to try to walk around, and we turned around and meandered back home. 

We were home in time for a great tuna sandwich lunch, and then took Mattie on the 2 mile round trip dog friendly trail from the campground to the visitor center. I was surprised how warm it was in the sunshine, and Mattie loved it.  With all the walking trouble I have been having lately, I was glad to at least get in almost 2 miles.  I did have to make use of my walking sticks and the rest benches scattered along the trail.  Geez.  Anyone who knows me very well knows this isn’t like me, or at least it didn’t used to be like me.

After returning to the MoHo for a short nap, (remember we said it was going to be an easy tourist day!) we drove toward the western edge of the park to walk up to the Goosenecks Overlook and Sunset Point trails.  In all my years visiting Capitol Reef, I have never walked these short trails. 

I was amazed at how beautiful the view was from Sunset Point, with Mt Ellen in the distance and the red cliffs of Capitol Reef above the deep canyon of the Goosenecks below us.  We encountered a lovely couple from the east coast, traveling for the first time in Capitol Reef, and learned they had been to Zion and had hiked Angel’s Landing!  They were newly retired, and she said she just never looked down and they went early enough in the morning to miss most of the scary crowds.  I was impressed, to say the least.

Home by sunset for steaks on the grill at our picnic table on the wrong side of the MoHo.  Our camping neighbors were uncomfortably close in their tent so I introduced myself, apologized for the genny noise, and gave them some of our homemade chocolate chip cookies. They insisted they didn’t mind in the least, and told stories of how their 2 year old little boy hiked all day in the canyons with them.  Nice to have friendly neighbors if they are going to be that close to us.

On our way home returning along Highway 24 to the campground, Mo looked up at a lovely formation and said, “That looks like it should have a name, like the Castle or something”.  We got the best laugh of our day when we approached a turnout with a sign pointing to, you guessed it, “The Castle”.

10-01-2019 Day Trip Boulder Mountain-Burr Trail-No Tom Loop

We woke conveniently at 8 AM, just in time to turn on the generator and heat our coffee. I took Mattie for a nice walk around the campground and returned to our simple bacon and apple pie breakfast.  We gathered up some drinks and snacks and Mattie, and left for our planned road trip sightseeing day by 10.

The morning was cool enough that there was frost under the sprinklers in Torrey and Boulder, but the sun was gorgeous. We took Scenic Highway 12 south from Torrey to Boulder Town, at the beginning of the Burr Trail.  The skies in the canyons the previous two days had been so incredibly clear and blue, I was a bit disappointed to see all the haze toward the east from the high viewpoints on Boulder Mountain. 

The aspens were starting to turn, but weren’t as brilliant as I remembered from past years. In spite of the haze I never tire of the views of Canyon Country from Boulder Mountain. I love seeing all the landmarks that I know so well, especially Mt Ellen, right in the center of everything.  I drove up that mountain only once, back in the days when my 94 Dakota was having a bit of engine trouble.  Had to get a new engine when I got home from that trip, and I’ll never forget the gasping sound of the poor thing trying to make it over Mt Ellen.

Another place I have never visited in all my years traveling through this landscape is the Anasazi Museum in Boulder.  The entry fee is just $5. and is well worth it.  The museum is done well, with great information.  One of the parts I loved was the comparison of archeologists view of the Anasazi and the Native American view of the same history. 

Sadly, however, many of the display cases were empty, with captions describing what would eventually be in them.  Currently the museum is trying to fulfill the environmental requirements to protect the artifacts that will eventually be housed there.

Another first on the list for the day, was lunch at Hell’s Backbone Grill, a very famous restaurant located at the beginning of the Burr Trail in Boulder.  The restaurant was charming, and most of the food is locally sourced from their own farm.  The women who started the restaurant have become very well known in the localvore food scene, and have won all sorts of national awards.

Mo had a salad, and I had some rather incredible pumpkin corn enchiladas with habanero cream sauce. My meal was different, interesting and tasty, fun to try, but I might not have to do it again.  The place is rather expensive but it was nice to say that we ate there at least once.

After lunch we meandered down the famous Burr Trail through the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.  In the old days when I first started driving this road, it was all dirt, 75 miles of dirt all the way to the switchbacks.

On this day, for Mo and I, the road was paved and an easy drive.  We found several boondock sites near Cottonwood Canyon, and enjoyed the magnificent drive through Long Canyon.  This 7 mile stretch is breathtaking, and may have the reddest rocks anywhere.

Once we reached the Capitol Reef park boundary, the road was no longer paved, and we continued to the overlook of the famous switchbacks of the Burr Trail.  I love this place so very much.  Nearby is the trailhead for Muley Twist, and to the north of the road is the Strike Overlook.  I would love to boondock again in the BLM land just west of the park boundary and spend days wandering around the wild red rock country. 

This day was our road trip day, however, and we descended the Switchbacks with Mo driving and me trying to take pictures out the window.  It was fun, and I didn’t even remember to count just how many switchbacks there were in the 1 mile long 12 percent drop to the valley floor.  I think there are at least 9.  They are tight, but not as tight as some on the Schaeffer Trail in Canyonlands that require a three point turn in a pickup to navigate.  We didn’t have to back up even once.

Once on the valley floor, the magnificent nearly vertical slabs of overlapping sandstones that form the Waterpocket Fold are dramatically visible.  The Fold is almost 100 miles long, and is the main geologic feature that forms the dramatic landscape that is called Capitol Reef.  The No Tom road follows the north-south extent of the fold from Highway 24 at the north end to Lake Powell at the southern end.  The scenery is magnificent, stunning vistas open up at every turn, and secret canyons disappear into the fold to the west of the sometimes rough and washboarded dirt road.  I took a fifth wheel on that road with my friend Shera, only once, and will never do that again.  I think when we reached Lake Powell all her valances were on the floor and most of the blinds were shaken loose in her trailer. 

Needless to say, we won’t take the MoHo down the No Tom road, even though there is a sweet little campground called Cedar Mesa about midway along the route.

We arrived back in the campground by 5, in time for a supper of leftover steak and played a half a hand of cards.  We were tuckered out and in bed by 8pm.

10-02-2019 Leaving Capitol Reef heading toward New Mexico

We woke again to a frosty morning.  Packing up for the road was easy while we waited for the 8am generator time to make some coffee and homemade grilled sausage mcmuffin’s for breakfast. On the road by 8:30, I drove first toward Hanksville for fuel, and then turned south on Highway 95. I drove first since I was beginning to feel a little bit better, at least in the mornings. 

Highway 95 traverses some of the most beautiful scenery in Utah, crossing the Dirty Devil River, and the Colorado River, gradually climbing upward toward Cedar Mesa and the Bears Ears.  Part way down the road, we stopped to hike at a small canyon wayside, but changed our minds when we saw that the hike would require quite a bit of wading.  It wasn’t a hiking day, it was a travel day, and we really didn’t want to change our clothes to prepare for a wading type of hike. 

As we were contemplating our choice, we met a lovely young Israeli girl who was traveling the US by herself for a year.  It was delightful to talk with her about her adventures, and to tell her about some of what she might find on her way north into Capitol Reef.

Highway 95 crosses the Colorado River at Hite, and the beautiful bridge brought back lovely memories.  After being on the Colorado River for 6 days in a raft, the bridge at Hite was the first sign of civilization we had encountered as our raft trip came to an end. 

Hite Crossing Bridge from the Colorado River in 1993

The other sight I will never forget is the pointed peak of Mt Ellen, in the Henry’s, viewed through the canyon walls from the raft. Our guides always loved to see the Henry Mountains as they rafted downriver, it meant they were getting close to Hite.

  First view of the Henry Mountains from the Colorado River 1993

We stopped along the road for lunch with a great view of the famous or should I say infamous Bears Ears.  Anyone not aware of the controversy surrounding the Bears Ears National Monument should read up on it.  Or better yet, maybe they could wander around Cedar Mesa for a time and see the countless archeological sites that appear at every bend of the trail.

The rest of the afternoon after we reached Highway 191 south of Blanding was much less spectacular.  I navigated as Mo drove, following the Google recommendations for getting to Shiprock on the shortest route.  There are several choices, and I don’t think any of them were particularly easy.  Our choice to take roads that traversed the Navajo reservation through the ups and downs and crooked bumpy pavement wasn’t the best. 

We noticed that the air was getting more murky the farther east we traveled toward New Mexico.  Roads were rough through the rest of Utah, through the tiny part of Colorado that we traversed, and into New Mexico toward Shiprock.  We were happy to finally arrive at Kirtland, our destination for the evening, just east of the city of Farmington.  Homestead RV Park had great reviews, and I would have to agree.  Sites were level, hookups were great, everything was well kept and the owner and manager were very helpful.  It may be just a gravel parking lot, but it is a good place to land for a quick overnight with full hookups after being away from such amenities for a few days.

On October 3rd we traversed northern New Mexico, and arrived at Albuquerque around mid day to settle in for the next ten days on the grounds of the Balloon Fiesta.  I know things are a bit out of order here, since I decided to write about the beginning days of the Balloon Fiesta before backtracking to write about the rest of our trip.  You can find that post here.