Utah: Journey to Capitol Reef

This year we had some extra margins on our Spring Break, and we were able to travel farther – we went to 3 national parks in Utah. We were armed with a new camera – the Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS “Digital Elph.” A long name for such a little camera!

The plan was for BN to give the final exam for the calculus class he was teaching, get it graded, and depart for our trip on the evening of Thursday, March 19th. On Tuesday, I came down with a pretty bad cold/fever – that made it difficult for me to pack and get ready – but we did get out of town before dark on Thursday. BN drove all through the night, and I tried to sleep but didn’t have much success. We did stop at a rest area and tried to sleep in our car seats for a couple of hours… With my lingering cold I was feeling pretty bad. I drove a tiny bit to give BN a break, and we made it to Salt Lake City for lunch. It was sunny, cold, and I was amazed by the huge snow-capped peaks looming over the town, and by the excessive number of colorful, tacky billboard ads lining the freeway.

Our first phase of camping was at Capitol Reef national park. The campground was next to an orchard, and there were various historic structures sprinkled around, as this used to be the site of a pioneer settlement.

Deer grazed under the trees in the orchard, and I saw two cats playing nearby. Not sure if the kitties belonged to the park or if some camper had brought their pets. It felt really good to get into our sleeping bags that night, after 24 hours of being “on the road.”

For our day in Capitol reef, we took a hike in this gully:

It was full of amazing rock formations, on a grand scale and in miniature.

After our hike we took the scenic drive back to the campground. I was most impressed with these layered rock formations, with their intricate striped patterns:

Also beautiful were the blue-green flows of sand at the base of the cliffs:

If I just had a few sentences to summarize Utah (rather than a series of blog posts – stay tuned!) I would say that the mineral features are just amazing. (Not to mention the plants!) When you think you’ve seen all the types of rocks and colors of sand, you drive around another corner and discover something new.