Too cold here . . . must lose altitude.
This is looking better. This is our gateway into Utah at Glen Canyon Nat'l Rec Area, at Hite on Lake Powell.
Unfortunately, Lake Powell at Hite is non-existent now. The bridge over the almost-non-existent Colorado River is still there, however, the huge raft put-in ramp is high & dry. In the fourth pic down, we're parked in what was and should still be the middle of the Colorado River.
By noon of the first day we were in the heart of Capitol Reef Nat'l Park and decided to spend our first couple of days in the northern end of the Park called Cathedral Valley. It's all primitive camping; we never saw another person or Jeep for two days.
An old Mormon schoolhouse built by the original Latter-day Saints settlers in this area. I accidentally got an interesting photo of the interior of the building with an exterior reflection on the glass window of the hillside behind me.
We drove through lots of "badlands" territory before arriving at beautiful Cathedral Valley.
ALL ALONE IN CATHEDRAL VALLEY OF CAPITOL REEF NAT'L PARK.
A gypsum rock outcropping and a gypsum rock sinkhole.
GRAND STAIRCASE-ESCALANTE NAT'L MONUMENT
"Hole in the Rock" Road is 108 mile roundtrip red clay road with miles of hiking and side excursions options along the way. Caution: a regular car can make it the whole way when it's dry, but if it rains anywhere along the route while you're in there playing, you'll be very lucky to make it out in a Jeep. Whoever came up with the term "slicker-than-bat-shit" obviously had this trail in mind.
"Hole in the Rock"
What's really crazy is that the Mormons used to lower their wagons down this hole/crack down to the Colorado River below in the early days.
Of course, you couldn't do that nowadays because Lake Powell is down there now.
On our third nite out, we discovered an old ranching corral in a deadend valley that looked perfect for wind and lightning protection, plus no risk of flooding. What we realized at 3 a.m. in the morning was that rounded cliffs don't offer wind "protection", they "magnify" the wind. We spent an hour in what sounded like a centrifuge during a quick squall and ended up covered in red sand. It coulda been worse . . . it coulda rained.
Nah, don't say it . . . it's TOO easy!
On June 10, 1963, 7 boyscouts & 6 adults from Provo, Utah, lost their lives on this hill after their brakes failed, sending them crashing down into the ravine. It's still the most terrible vehicle tragedy in Utah's history.
"Dance Hall Rock" where the Mormon settlers would meet to dance & socialize out in this rugged country.
"Who was that masked man?" - a gorgeous Desert Partridge
Big lizards out here; this guy was about as big around as my wrist.
Miles & miles of slick rock hiking. It would be a major mistake to try to hike out here during the summer months.
"Before & After"
We found this circle on the slick rock miles out in the middle of nowhere. I put a coin in the center of it for the pic. It's geometric perfection was totally out of place. ???
ZOOM-IN on a pictograph in Calf Creek Falls Canyon. We're still in Grand Staircase-Escalante Nat'l Monument to the south of Boulder Town, Utah.
This was a pretty cool camping spot where Deer Creek's road turned into a hardrock- bottomed creek.
Uh-oh, Spots in trouble!
CAPITOL REEF NAT'L PARK "WATERPOCKET FOLD"
Misc views driving back home after 5 nites tenting out in beautiful southeast Utah.
Back up through the Gateway.
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