We woke up this morning in Bryce with three inches of snow and poor visibility. We began our three hour drive to Capital Reef not knowing the full extent of the road conditions. Most of the way it was a difficult drive as the temperature dropped to 23 degrees and the snow continued to fall. We were on a road designated as being a Scenic Highway, however a good deal of the time we were only looking at the roadway trying to find the white lines. The drive really was beautiful as we went up to 8000 feet through the Dixie National Forest. There were times when it was a bit tense as we were driving up and down this steep windy road that was snow covered. At one point we seemed to be at the top of the mountain with steep dropoffs on either side.
We were glad to arrive at Capitol Reef where it was sunny and 44 degrees. As we have done at all other National Parks, our first stop was to at the Visitor’s Center. We watched a movie on Capital Reef and then began with the 10 mile scenic drive through the park. At the end of the paved road, we continued on a 2 ½ mile gravel road which took us deep into the canyon. This road was very narrow which put us close to the base of the canyon walls. There were steep mostly red canyon walls rising up all around us. This national park, when compared to the others we have visited to date, seems to have more boulders and rock debris that have fallen to the base of the mountain. The prominent colors we are seeing here in the rock formations are red, green, white, cinnamon, and chocolate brown.
At the end of the gravel road, we hiked the 2 ½ mile Capital Gorge trail. At one time, early pioneers tried to drive their wagons through this canyon. They “registered” their passing by carving their names into the rock wall. These markings date back to 1888 and were visible to us. This trail is also highlighted by a series of water pockets that have formed into the rocks. There were given the name of The Tanks and served as a water reservoir for the early settlers. We then drove the rest of the scenic drive including the Grand Wash gravel road which was 2 miles long. Next, we went to the Hickman Bridge trail. This is a 2 mile trail which takes you to the base of the Hickman natural stone arch which forms a bridge. At this point in our day, it started to hail. Fortunately, it passed quickly and the sun came back out. Our last stop was at the petroglyphs where we could see early Indian carvings into the mountain side.
As we were driving to our hotel for the night, we ran into more hail and lightening. Fortunately for us all our planning activities for the day had been completed at this point. So, if you are keeping score, today we had snow, hail, sun and rain with a temperature range from 23 degrees to 50 degrees.
Tomorrow we leave for Moab UT and Arches National Park.
You can see pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/tschick62/CanyonlandsNationalPark?feat=directlink
More later . . .
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