Thursday, June 24, 2010

Capitol Reef National Park day. Got out early to beat the heat. 1st hike one mile each way in/out to Hickman Bridge, a large natural bridge. Note my family in the picture for scale. It was impressive.

The walk in/out went thru a volcanic area, another geographic anamoly, as suddenly you were walking in black lava area

Next hike was up the grand wash, about 2 miles in/out hike each way, which apparently used to be the road prior to the building of hwy 12. After floods rearranged the boulders, they were moved out of the way, and traffic resumed, lol, although I doubt there was much. Mormon settlers lived in the valley and actually grew fruit in orchards that are still in the Nat. Park, due to water availability. Neat canyon walk.

I was amazed by the size and variety of scour holes we saw. This canyon had a lot of them, and some were huge, way bigger than this. To me, they showed the fierce power of flash flooding, carving out solid rock into crazy shapes.

The rest of the day we spent car touring the park, getting out here and there, it was tooo hot for more hiking, around high 90's. The park contains the waterpocket fold, a unique folding of rock that was then uplifted by geologic forces over milennia. It is like 50 miles long basically N/S orientation, and very rare in the world, apparently. The colors were very different that what we had seen previously, especially the browns. Pics speak volumes.

Stayed two nights at Pine shadows cabins in Teasdale Utah. Real nice place.