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Capitol Reef National Park, Utah |
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Sitting beside the roadway,
on the Capitol Reef National Park Scenic Drive, I watch
the play of sunlight on the multicolored but mostly-some-shade-of-orange-red-or-charcoal
rocks, as it highlights the visible sedimentary layers. The
layers themselves I can imagine looking like this forever,
but their presence measures the years of geologic time, a
rock cadence of eras. The rangers say that most of these layers,
long buried but later exposed when the "reef" thrust
itself up into the sky eons ago, were witness to the dinosaurs.
That means the dinosaurs were here -- alive on the earth --
for a very long time. The fact they are now gone leaves us
with the impression that they weren't successful here. The
rocks say otherwise -- we homo sapiens should survive
as long.
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Hoodoos along the Scenic Drive in Capitol Reef
National Park |
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The shadows of afternoon clouds create a drama
of dark and light on the rocks towering over my head and stretching
off into the distance. The "Capitol Reef" (or
Waterpocket Fold) is over a hundred miles long. I discover
an interesting fact on an informational plaque: early prospectors
were often former seamen. With their nautical frame of reference
they called any landform impediment to their passage a "reef."
In this case, the light grey or white Navajo sandstone formations
that intermittently cap the reef have eroded into the shape
of domes (like the Capitol dome in Washington, D.C.) -- hence
"Capitol Reef."
So often, I find myself giving advice to other
travelers on how they can get through many miles on a road
trip, as if driving were the point instead of the means.
I do this myself. My natural inclination is to drive -- I
love to drive -- as far as I can in an allotted span of days.
On this day, the fact that I am sitting beside the road in
Utah soaking up this view is a result of several inopportune
and obnoxious errors.
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Capitol Gorge, at the end of the park's Scenic
Drive |
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First, this was supposed to be a motorcycle
trip. Instead, I am traveling in my pickup truck. My motorcycle
is being held by a mechanic who failed to order a part and
which is now being "shipped" from somewhere far
away. Second, my first roadtrip day began in a too-leisurely
way -- I didn't get on my way from Phoenix until noon. Then,
I discovered that a portion of my first day's route was a
graded dirt road, 46 miles long. It was a road I was not willing
to forego and which took almost three hours to drive. Therefore,
I arrived at my destination -- Torrey, Utah -- very late (at
midnight, if you must know), preventing my planned exploration
of Capitol Reef National Park that evening and snowballing
into further delay the next morning.
At the Capitol Reef Inn, I considered my options
over breakfast. I had plans for this day. I had driven
State Route 12 the evening before in the dark. This is a magnificent
road, worth driving -- and seeing. Built by the Civilian Conservation
Corps in the 1930s, it connected the still-isolated town of
Boulder to the world. Continuing according to the original
plan and driving through some combination of the San Rafael
Swell (or Reef), Arches National Park, Canyonlands National
Park, Valley of the Gods, Natural Bridges State Park, and
Monument Valley meant I would miss the twists, turns, and
scenic beauty of State Route 12, and I'd be virtually assured
not to see any of those other places either. Those that I
could get to at all, in one day, would have been a blur at
about seventy miles per hour.
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Gifford Homestead in Fruita, Utah |
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Instead, I thought, I could take my time at
Capitol Reef, and then mosey back down State Route 12
through the Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument. I
could perhaps see a little of Bryce Canyon National Park at
sunset before heading down US Highway 89 to Kanab for the
night. Remembering my earlier pleasant experiences with moseying,
I tossed the original high speed plan and chose moseying for
this day.
So I sit beside the road soaking up this place.
This is a luxury worth striving for. I recommend doing this
solo if you can. It's a wonderful thing to be alone with your
thoughts, particularly in a place like this. I am spending
several hours on a round trip over a mere ten-and-a-half miles
of National Park Service roadway. The rest of the plan will
wait -- even the abbreviated one I have settled on for today.
I drive a little. I stop to take a photo or two. I write some.
I stay a little longer. I pick fresh fruit off the orchard
trees within the Park. I won't make it to Bryce Canyon today.
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IF YOU GO
Capitol
Reef National Park is reached via State Route
24 between Torrey and Hanksville, Utah. The park has
a 10-mile scenic drive south along the "reef,"
ending with a couple miles of graded dirt road through
a very narrow canyon. Its dramatic beauty cannot easily
be put into words. You return on the same road; it
is not a loop. The orchards near the park's visitor
center are available for your enjoyment -- both for
shade from the hot summer sun, and for the fruit,
which is free for the picking and immediate eating,
a favorite activity of park visitors. (A fee is charged
for fruit carried out of the orchards).
Food and Lodging in Torrey,
Utah
The Capitol
Reef Inn had great food for breakfast, and
I'd bet other meals are just as well-prepared and
delicious -- typical friendly Utah service.
For lunch, Brink's Burgers
were delicious! I had a cheeseburger and "English
fries." I have no clue where they got that name
-- perhaps I'm wrong but I never saw chips like these
in the United Kingdom. They were tasty, though.
There are several choices
for lodging in Torrey, including a Super 8 Motel,
a Day's Inn, and some smaller non-chain motels. I
chose the privately-owned Boulder View Motel (or Inn).
It was clean and inexpensive, but spartan. The Day's
Inn looked brand new and very nice.
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Bob
Schaller
July 19, 2005
