A Reef in the Desert?

2018-09-22
Capital Reef National Park, UT

Today I toured Capital Reef. The whole area is so different from the Northeast that it is constantly surprising me. I suppose that if I lived here it wouldn't be a big deal, but coming from such a different area, everything seems fresh. Driving outside the park for 30 minutes or so is still the same cliffs and desert scenery and there are more cliffs jutting up along any drive. It's all incredibly scenic. It's possible that the Appalachians would look like this if they didn't have rain and plants and such and were a lot younger, I don't know. But the colors and shapes here are amazing.

I drove to Capital Reef in the morning and went straight to the Rim Overlook trail. It was around 10:00 AM when I got there and I wanted to avoid as much heat as I could. It would have been nice to avoid crowds, but Saturday is what it is. It is a 4.5 mile round-trip trail up to the lookout point. It was a dry heat. A very, very dry heat. While I took a number of pictures of the reef, the light wasn't cooperating. However, some clouds did roll in to improve the pictures. On the way down I took the trail under the natural bridge as well. That added another 1.5 miles to the hike.

I stopped a mile down the road to look at some petroglyphs. I think that the only difference between them and graffiti is age. Scratch a rock now and in 100 years or so it's culturally significant.

After that I drove to a few pull-outs and walked half a mile out on a trail. That was about the point when I double-checked my map and figured out that I misread "3.5" as ".35". These things happen, and I got some nice pics before turning around.

It was now getting close to 4:00 PM. This is sort of a magic time in National Parks. Anyone above a certain age is tired and heading for an eating establishment; anyone with kids below a certain age has had enough for the day and wants them to go swim in the pool (or take a nap if they're young enough). So this is when I head to the most popular attractions, in this case Cassidy Arch. I drove up to the trail head and started on the 3.2 mile out-and-back. I got up to the top and in sight of the arch when I noticed that the wind was picking up quite a bit. The puffy white clouds now had a dark underbelly. I really don't know much about desert weather, but I did know that the trailhead (and my car) was in something called The Grand Wash. It has signs at the top of the road saying "Do Not Enter if Storm Likely." And much of the trail was on bare rock that would be very slick when wet. So, discretion being the better part of growing old, I settled for a view and didn't hike the last 0.3 miles out to the arch itself. I made it down, and I can't say if it rained there or not, but I know my avid reader(s?) would be disappointed by an abrupt end to the blog because my car washed away.

Because it's Saturday, I was unable to camp in the park. I found a campground up in Green River which is quite nice; I plan to bunk here a few nights as I do Arches and Canyonlands. I made it just in time to get my tent set up before dark, although I had to cook by lantern light.

Hiking distance: 9 miles