Last night, after we returned from our primary recon of Capitol Reef National Park, the weather closed in and gave us another treat from nature; a lightning and thunder storm which, based on the volume of the thunder, passed directly over us resulting in almost simultaneous cold, blue blasts of light and terrific explosive and crackling noises from the sky. It was fantastic.
I arose this morning and my beloved spouse had coffee already waiting for me. A small amount of fortification later, I was drinking my fave bev and whipping up breakfast for her. Shortly thereafter, we took off for an excursion into Capitol Reef.
This morning the weather was mostly clear with some big, puffy clouds passing over. We started our drive by driving up closer to the magnificently colored sandstone cliffs north of our RV park. We were only able to go a mile or two north on each of our aimless probes before encountering dirt roads which looked shaky for those driving big, traction-challenged pickup trucks with soon-to-be-replaced highway tires. For off-road use, our tires would probably fall within the “maypop” category.
We turned east into Capitol Reef and almost instantly were dazzled by the amazing contrasts, colors and astonishing geology in this place. We turned south at the visitor center and went down the aptly named “Scenic Road.” I understand that descriptions utilizing many superlatives are useless so I will instead venture that this is a place to be included on the Bucket List for all those exhilarated by large scale demonstrations of nature gone wild, albeit with very few critters in the cast. Peggy, due to her superpowers involving vision, spotted some marmots on an enormous rock while driving the gravel section of Capitol Gorge road. We also spotted some brightly-colored scrub jays and some dinky chipmunks but all the other gorgeous features of this park are geologic. Erosion has created a fantastic playground here and I highly recommend at least a pass through the park on UT-24.
The weather turned to scattered brief downpours this afternoon but, fortunately, did not affect our drive down the Scenic Road and the trip down the wash at Capitol Gorge. Once it starts raining, even in seemingly remote locations, those stupid enough not to pay heed to the weather can soon find themselves in need of gills because they will be seeing the world from the perspective of a lahar, or debris-choked flash flood. Right after Peggy drove back onto pavement, the rain started. I hope those that drove down the one lane road to the bottom of the gorge after we emerged were not turned into mulch. We drove the short distance home passing through scattered downpours but made it home without challenges. This place is gorgeous.
Although the camera is never as good as the eye, we took pictures today that can be seen by clicking here