Stop 14: Torrey, UT (Capitol Reef National Park)

The forecasted snow held off just long enough for us to get the trailer hooked up. We had moved about 10' when the first flurries hit (Baby's first encounter with snow). The snow was with us all the way up to Torrey. We were glad that we had decided to not take the scenic route up Hwy 12 and over a 9200' pass with 12% grades (beautiful - we've driven it before but that was in the Z). As it was, we did have one 8400' pass where the visibility was just about zero.

The snow was very dry and didn't stick anywhere. It just blew across the pavement. The hosts here at our RV park in Torrey said that the first flurries arrived with us. It's a little warmer here and the snow is big, wet and sloppy.

It's been driving me nuts. I remember from the last time that we went through here that I read about the huge change in elevation between the West side of the park and the East side of the park. The reef is where the Western plate has pushed up over the Eastern plate so it makes sense that the Western side is higher. I haven't been able to find that piece of information but I do know this. Our campsite is near the West Gate. We are at 6745' elevation and haven't been lower than that in many days. The town of Hanksville, UT is outside the East Gate and is at about 4295' elevation. That's a 2450' difference. Quite a difference between the 2 sides of the fault.

Here's what I found about why Capitol Reef is called Capitol Reef.

 Many pretty things to see. I'll comment if I know the names of specific landmarks.

A couple of miles from our site - some of  yesterday's snow is in the distance.

Chimney Rock.

I think that they called this The Flutes.

That's Chimney Rock again in the distance.

Kristen, truck, landscape.

An interesting thing about Capitol Reef is that you can completely cross the park on Hwy 24 without paying. Midway through the park is an old settlement called Fruita which is where the Visitors Center is located. Several Mormon families established Fruita in the 1880's and planted fruit orchards which are still there (you thought that I was going to say that they grew beans).

From the Visitors Center, a scenic drive runs 10 miles South into the park. This is the only road in the park that you pay to drive. Last time we were here, we were just passing through on our way from Bryce to Moab and we didn't take the scenic drive. That was our loss.

Looking North from the Visitors Center

 

Starting down the scenic drive.

Many rocks in the area were filled with holes like this example.

This is called The Egyptian Temple. We thought that it looked more like the Parthenon.

The sediments here went down in dark and light layers and the the land tilted. After erosion, the resulting hoodoos look like barber poles.

The scenic drive completed, we stopped in a park in Fruita to eat our picnic lunch (no food available in Capitol Reef.

These cottonwoods were immense.

Continuing East on Hwy 24, our first stop was a petroglyph walk. Here are several examples.

Our next stop was a 2 mile round trip hike to Hickman Natural Bridge.

Some of the many, many steps.

This is Capitol Dome (see the first photo description of how Capitol Reef got its name).

Kristen wants me to mention that I'm standing several hundred feet above the road (not at the roadside).

This is a smaller Natural Bridge on the way to Hickman.

The same natural bridge from the other side. Water flowing downstream drops through a hole (above where I'm standing) and flows on through the arch.

The Hickman Natural Bridge.

Kristen spotted a herd of deer in one of the Orchards when were leaving Fruita after lunch. She insisted that we return to take a picture.

I see 2 in the picture though I know that we saw more.

Back at the trailer, Kristen made friends with a couple of horses that were grazing behind the laundry room. Here they are.

And here's the angry goose that came after us when we took the pictures.

Tomorrow, we're off to Moab.

-JC-