Natural Bridges | Capitol Reef

Part Six: Will the Circle be Unbroken?

Torrey, Utah - For those of you without a map... we seem to be traveling in a wandering circle through the Southwest. From chatting with fellow travelers, this seems to be a popular route - just the direction of the circle and the side-roads vary. We had thought to head up to Denver after Taos, but because of the forest fires, changed our plans. Not that we HAD set plans to begin with. That is the beauty of this trip. As Yogi Berra said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

We left Moab before 9 am, and I wasn't sure I wanted to leave. After only five days, we were waving to new friends on the street and had our own seats in the local brew pub. I thought all those college kids were crazy - putting their careers on hold for a year to hang in Moab. Now, I understand why. Oh, don't worry - we won't start working in a tavern in Moab, we just understand how a person could do such a thing. (First of all, there is only one golf course in Moab... you have to order food if you order a cocktail...) As we pulled out of town, a lone coyote crossed the highway in front of us - calling us back into the wilds after five days of city living.

We headed south on 191 - retracing our steps a bit and made a right after Blanding onto 95. The scenery was just spectacular all day and again, it was very hot - though only in the high 90s. Our first stop was at Natural Bridges National Monument. After days of arches, we were now looking at Natural Bridges. (Arches are formed from weathering, and bridges are formed directly from water - from a stream in this case.) There are three bridges in the park, and a fabulous trail you can take along the bottom of the creek bed - which is, of course, dry, as is every creek we have seen for weeks. The three bridges:

Sipapu


Kachina


Owachomo

Though the bridges have been called by many different names over the years, the General Land Office assigned the Hopi Names in 1909. Sipapu means "the place of emergence." The Hopi believe their ancestors came into this world through this opening. Kachina was named after rock art symbols on the bridge that are commonly used on Kachina dolls. Owachomo means "rock mound" - to the left of the bridge is a large rock mound. Duh. This monument is really a drive-through park. There is a nine-mile loop which you follow in your car and get out and walk down to view points to see the bridges. One hour is plenty to see the formations. If you wish to do the hike, you can dry camp overnight in the campground. There are no services in the park.

After that strenuous monument visit, we continued to Lake Powell in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Lake Powell (the Colorado River) is formed by the Glen Canyon Dam in Page, Arizona. We checked-out the Hite Marina - it is shocking how low the water level is now - and then drove up to a look-out above the river to have a picnic. Hite was once a thriving mining town, but was nearly a ghost town when it was flooded-over under the new lake. Here is a shot of our lunchtime view - there IS a bridge near the center of the photo, which crosses the last bit of the Colorado River (Cataract Canyon) as it enters the lake.

Lake Powell, across from Hite Marina

After lunch, we continued (north) west on 95 until we entered the little town of Hanksville, where we turned west on 24 toward Capitol Reef National Park. (You know things are going well when you can visit a National Monument, a National Recreation area AND a National Park in ONE DAY!) We spent the afternoon in the park, driving around, stopping to view petroglyhs, ruins, vistas and many Mormon-settler sites. This area was settled by fruit farmers - the trees still produce fruit. The Fremont River flows year-round through the park and provided irrigation for centuries for the Fremont Indians - and Mormon fruit orchards too. "Capitol Reef is an impressive buckling of rock, created 65 million years ago by the same forces that later uplifted the Colorado Plateau. It is called the Waterpocket Fold." Okay, so that is what the brochure says. I say it is a whole mess of colorful rock formations. It is the striking colors in the rock layers that make Capitol Reef so amazingly beautiful.

 
Fremont Indian petroglyhs: DT has decided the natives all disappeared in
1300 AD because they were obviously abducted by aliens.


Beautiful Capitol Reef National Park

At about 5 pm, the sky became very dark, lightning was flashing in the sky and we headed toward a campground. We ended up, still on highway 24, at Thousand Lakes Campground in Torrey, Utah - a nice campground with beautiful views to the mountains in the west. We never did get rain. I made what should have been a simple dinner, except that I decided to make a potato salad and used a lot of pans! After dinner, we took a walk and talked to a nice couple who live in Virginia, and met a family with a beagle - a big, fat, female! This evening, for the first time since we have left Salt Lake City - it was CHILLY! We are at 6,500 feet elevation, so that helped cool things down a bit - I am really looking forward to getting a good (cool) sleep tonight!

A pretty sunset from our campsite in Thousand Lakes Campground in Torrey, Utah

RV Park: Thousand Lakes Campground