Dry wash trail through capital gorge

Early pioneers in the area etched their names on the canyon wall

This little cabin was home to a family of 10...the mother, father, and two youngest slept in the four-poster bed which took up half the cabin, the older girls slept in the wagon box, and the boys slept in little hollows in the cliff face...

Fruita School House--used until WWII

Petroglyphs

Thu, 7/30/09

Singletree Na Forest CG, near Torrey, UT: After filling the water tank up we drove in to Torrey and had breakfast at the Kiva Café there. Torrey is a cute little town with several historic buildings, several restaurants, and a really nice art gallery. After breakfast we drove through Capital Reef National Park. Rt. 24 runs right through the park. Again, it is a rugged, beautiful, but inhospitable place. The Mormons settled in a pretty little valley along the Fremont River around 1880. They planted several orchards (22 spread out over several miles) along this river valley. They grew apples, cherries, pears, peaches, and apricots as well as plums, mulberry, almond and walnut trees. The park still maintains the orchards (approximately 2700 trees) and when ripe you can go in and pick them. This little community was known as Fruita. Usually no more than 10 families lived here at any one time, and the last resident moved away in 1969. The little one-room school in this little community was used until WWII. We stopped at the Gifford farm which was part of the Fruita community. It’s now a museum and gift shop. We bought a couple of (small) homemade pies and enjoyed some homemade ice cream there. Left there and drove through the beautiful Capital Gorge—a very narrow road at the bottom of the gorge with shear canyon walls. At the end of the drive where it was too narrow for a road we got out and hiked up the dry wash where the canyon narrowed even more. Really pretty. Drove back to Torrey and had dinner at the Kiva Café again. Mike had steak and I had a 10 vegetable salad which was really good. Drove back to our camp site in the rain and wind. Temperature was 59 when we got back.

On the trail--Henry Mts. in background

Tiny waterfall

Wed, 7/29/09

Singletree Na Forest CG, near Torrey, UT: Up this morning and did a few chores. Filled the water tank. Mike made a modification to his transfer pump system and it worked really well. Decided to hike the little trail to the waterfall. The trail starts right in the campground. Fortunately, I took my trekking poles because the trail was a lot more rugged than we thought. Was pretty flat for a while but then started down a pretty steep slope via a series of switchbacks. Lots of loose gravel and we both started losing our footing. A beautiful view of the valley below and the Henry Mountains in the distance. The waterfall flowed over a large sandstone hill. We headed back when we started hearing thunder and noticed the sky was pretty threatening. This was not a good place to be out in a thunder storm. Hurried back mostly up hill huffing and puffing—not being used to the elevation change yet. It stormed pretty good for a while. Mike grilled pork chops for dinner and we got rid of a bunch of left-overs in the refrigerator. Some mashed potatoes had been in there for a while, but they weren’t green yet and they tasted pretty good. Had a fire after dinner.

Tue, 7/28/09

Escalante State Park, Escalante, UT, to Singletree Na Forest CG, near Torrey, UT: Went to our little western restaurant for breakfast this morning. Love this little town of Escalante. Nothing fancy, but really friendly people. Back to our site and started getting ready to leave. Left Escalante at 11:30, drove over that scary part of Rt. 12 and then up into Dixie National Forest. We’re at about 9000 ft. in a pretty pine forest. No hook-ups, but our site will get full sun so the solar panels will do well. We’re across from water and the restroom. A threatening storm followed us all the way up into the mountains. Shortly after we got set up it rained a little. Put up our hummingbird feeder and watched them fighting over the thing. Will probably get down into the 50s up here tonight. There’s a little trail out of the campground that goes up to a water fall. Plan to do that. We’re only here four nights. One day we plan to go down to Capital Reef National Monument. Hate to leave here though. It’s so pretty. Mike grilled up some hot dogs and we had baked beans and corn with it. Played rummy later on. Mike won one and I won one.

Wildflowers up in the high country

Panguitch Lake

Old homestead outside of Panguitch

Escalante State Park, Escalante, UT: Clear and sunny this morning so we filled our packs, got on our hiking shoes and headed out. Had breakfast first and then headed over to the Forest Service visitor center to see about the viability of a slot canyon hike today. They advised against it because there’s rain in the forecast. When we came out of the restaurant after having breakfast we did notice a bunch of clouds rolling in. The one we wanted to do was Willis Creek Narrows which is down towards Cannonville. So they suggested we check with the visitor center there which is only a few miles from the trailhead. By the time we got there the sky had turned black and there was lightning. So we nixed the slot canyon hike and started driving back to Escalante. Started raining a little. Noticed a forest road that goes up through a side canyon and decided to explore that a little. It would have been neat to hike this almost dry wash up into this side canyon, but the weather was threatening. The canyon was getting deeper and the road was getting closer to the edge so we decided to turn around. That was scary making a three-point turn. Back into Escalante and stopped at the grocery store there to pick up a few things. In the middle of our shopping the power went out and we were plunged into darkness. Finished up our shopping in the dark, checked out and left. Back to our site and sat out for a while until the rain started coming down harder. Just had sandwiches for dinner. A pretty nice day—upper 80s. We leave tomorrow for a National Forest campground near Capital Reef. No hook-ups there either. We didn’t have to run the generator at all. The solar panels did their job.

Abandoned homestead outside Cannonville, UT

The Mormon homesteaders built these rip-gut fences which required no hardware

...called so because if the animal didn't jump high enough over the fence, well you get the idea

Water Lizzard: This would be hand-filled at the water source and then dragged back by mule or horse. It weighed 400 lbs full.

Escalante State Park, Escalante, UT: This morning we awoke to the smell of frying bacon. We were immediately starving. So, after showering and getting dressed we headed out to breakfast. Went back to the little western restaurant where we had steak dinners the other night. I had bacon and eggs and Mike had ham and eggs. I also had a pancake on the side. After that we checked with the Forest Service about hiking the slot canyon and they advised against it. So we did the laundry at an RV park in Escalante—the only Laundromat around. I bought a book at the Forest Service visitor center on the “Hole in the Rock” road the Mormon settlers built. This is an amazing story. This group of Mormons were requested by the church to settle an area around what is now Bluff, UT. We were there when we were at Monument Valley. It’s on the San Juan River. Anyway, the route they originally decided on was too long with little water and no graze for the cattle and horses, so they decided on a shortcut from Escalante southwest to the Colorado River where this “hole in the rock” (an opening in the canyon wall) would be wide enough for a wagon to get through. The rock they’re talking about is a canyon wall which drops 2000 ft. to the Colorado River below. This road goes through some of the most rugged, treacherous, arid, but beautiful areas in the west. I haven’t finished the book yet, but they had to lower 26 wagons over the side of this cliff down to the Colorado River. They did this with ropes and pulleys. And then they had to rig up some sort of ferry to get everything across the river. They all made it safely. What an incredible journey! And I whine when we have to go over a scary, PAVED road. What a wimp!

The "trail"

The Escalante River

Anasazi Ruins

Escalante State Park, Escalante, UT: Today sure didn’t go the way we planned. We thought we’d go have breakfast in town and then hike a slot canyon back towards Bryce. We stopped at the National Forest headquarters to check out the viability of hiking a slot canyon today and they recommended we not do it. Threat of rain for the next three days. Slot canyons are beautiful but really dangerous if there’s a threat of flash flooding. So we decided to go watch the parade and then have breakfast and hike the Calf Creek Canyon trail. The parade was cute. Sat next to a Korean war vet who was very friendly. He loves Escalante. After the parade we headed to the restaurant for breakfast. The whole town is shut down for the festivities. So, back to our campground and had something to eat and then back on the road to the Calf Creek Canyon trailhead. Got there and parked. Some guy pulled up after us and got really rude because he wanted us to move over so part of his entourage could park. He was so rude that I told Mike to forget it. Let’s go somewhere else. There were a whole lot of people there anyway. So we went back towards Escalante a couple of miles to the Escalante River Canyon trail. Parked and headed out on the trail. The stream was really pretty and fast flowing. Hiked along the canyon and then down next to the stream and the trail sort of ended there. So it was go into the stream or go back. We sat there contemplating what to do and a fisherman came down and said he wouldn’t do it. He backtracked and found a ladder up to a ledge on the side of the canyon. I said no thanks so we went back down the stream and found a little place to have a snack and we sat there for a while. On the way back to where we parked we saw two ancient Anasazi ruins in the cliffs. What a find! These were not reconstructions—these were the real deal. Probably over 1000 years old! When we got back to where we parked there was a sign there that showed an aerial view of this beautiful river canyon that winds and twists its way to Lake Powell (70 miles). The sign said there is no official trail. You take what you get and it can be very dangerous. OK then. Driving back to Escalante we stopped at the Kiva Coffee House which sits on a cliff overlooking the Canyon. Had something to eat and then back to Escalante. The sky towards Escalante was very black. Big storm coming in. It was in the upper 80s when we left the coffee house and in the upper 60s when we got back to our site. The guy at the coffee shop told us a couple went on a guided hike up a slot canyon called “Spooky” when a flash flood hit and all three were killed. OK then.

View from our site--reservoir is beyond those trees

Amazing drive through all this white sandstone

Anasazi Dwelling

Escalante State Park, Escalante, UT: Mostly cloudy this morning. We just hung around our site all morning waiting to leave for my hair appointment. Our site is pretty nice. Our living area faces a reservoir which is hidden by large sage brush and cottonwood trees…which is just as well because it’s really low right now. But we have a lot of privacy and can’t really see any other sites. And the sage brush gives off the most wonderful aroma. Got my hair cut and then headed further down Rt. 12 to Boulder, UT, and the Anasazi Museum there. I couldn’t imagine this area could get any more rugged and remote, but it did. Rt. 12 winds down through a large, arid no-man’s land of white sandstone—I guess petrified sand dunes. This whole area was once the bottom of a huge inland sea which formed all these unusual rock formations. Then we started climbing up onto a canyon rim and at one point the road went over this ridge with drops on both sides—the only place they could put the road. Scared the crap outta me! And we have to go back over this route with the fifth-wheel in tow in four days (sigh). The view from up there was amazing though—rugged canyons, side canyons and gorges as far as the eye could see. We finally started going down again and a small, green valley that was Boulder appeared. Not very big. Escalante is pretty small, but Boulder is smaller. And it’s big doings right now in Utah. This is their Pioneer Day holiday—sort of our July 4th. There’s a parade tomorrow, a carnival, a rodeo, and then fireworks. And there’s a dance in Escalante tonight. We were thinking of going to that—actually, I was thinking of going. I’m sure Mike would rather get a root canal. Probably only in the high 80s today. But more humid.