CAPITOL REEF

When on road trips in the rural USA food and shelter can be quite chancy. The first two nights of this trip we had less than adequate motels and didn't sleep well, so we were delighted to find a nice motel in the tiny town of Torrey, near the entrance to Capitol Reef National Park. The Austin Chuck Wagon General Store and Lodge was new but built on the site of an 1800's homestead. And we continued to be delighted this morning to discover on the way out of town a candy shop which served homemade breakfast, espresso drinks and had wi fi. This in a town with no restaurant.

Torrey is right at the cross roads of our lovely Highway 12 and Highway 24, the route through Capitol Reef.



Shortly we were in Capitol Reef National Park and hiking up a trail to "Goosenecks Overlook."


I figured Goosenecks was another name for a rock formation but, no, it refers to the meanders in the river.

At the Visitors Center we learned that Capitol Reef was formed 65 million years ago when two tectonic plates collided and thrust the Colorado Plateau up in the air, forming the 100 mile long Waterpocket Fold, which starts in Capitol Reef and ends in Glen Canyon near Lake Powell.

This park isn't just about geology but also about preserving the local history of the pioneering Mormons who settled here and had successful fruit orchards. Visitors can stop in at the historic Gifford Farm House and see how the settlers lived, while sampling home made preserves.

Capitol Reef has a lovely scenic drive on blacktop with lots of off-shoot gravel roads and trails. Every time we got out to walk around I was struck once again by the peacefulness and solitude. It was utterly quiet.


We had been expecting rain all day but instead were treated to some really spectacular cloud formations.


We took several of the gravel drives (which had warning signs not to enter if a storm was imminent due to flash flood danger) and got to see some amazing things like this Yellow Bellied Marmot

the only wild flowers blooming,

a window in the rocks,

and this Easter Island-like face.

I think what really strikes me about this park more than any of the others we have been to so far is the variety - in color, shape and texture.


Also in this park are petroglyphs made by early peoples now called Fremont because no one knows who they were. The predominant theme is big horned sheep and these large men-monsters.


There are quite a lot of these carvings in the stone but there used to be many more. The rock continues to slough off in large slabs and I am sure there are many more petroglyphs lost under the tons of rock.

Finally we saw the namesake rock, Capitol, so called because it reminded the early explorers of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC.

Jim and I would love to drive the full 100 miles length of Waterpocket Fold when we have our van and can camp along the way. It can't be traversed fully in this season because some parts of the road are impassable due to high water over the roadway. We did travel along the blacktop section and some of the gravel road before turning back. Here is some of the Fold with the Henry Mountains in the background.

And some more fabulous rock formations standing all by themselves.

We spent nearly all day driving and walking around in Capitol Reef and can't wait to come back here and spend weeks camping and exploring. We reluctantly moved on as the day was getting on, we hadn't eaten lunch and didn't know where we were going to spend the night. There are not a whole lot of towns in this area.

As we climbed out of the Capitol Reef Basin the plateau widened out and the rocks changed from rainbow to white and grey.

Our destination - Green River near the jumping off point for Arches National Park. Green River was by far the largest town we had seen in days but many of the stores and restaurants were boarded up so we asked the receptionist at the motel for a recommendation. He said Ray's Tavern has the best food in town. We took his advice and found the street in front of Ray's packed with cars and inside most of the tables full. Clearly, this was the place to be! The menu was one page only but the food was excellent, quick and plentiful and we were stunned by the low price of the bill.

Tomorrow, Arches.

Audrey