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| Capitol Reef Cathedral Valley Loop Drive |
The day after we came back from the backcountry, Helen
suggested we take a drive around the Cathedral Valley Loop Road. This is a dirt
road that loops around the northern end of Capitol Reef. We couldn’t make a
complete loop because at the one end, it is necessary to ford a river. We did
go check out how deep the water was, and it appeared to be only about 6 – 8
inches deep, but I decided it wasn’t worth the risk. I’ve driven through flood
waters before and done hundreds of dollars worth of damage, but that’s another
story.
We took our time getting up and around, and didn’t get on
the road till after noon. After checking
the one end of the loop where we would have had to ford the river, we drove
east to catch the other end of it. We missed it the first time by – the sign
was off the main highway and the road small and non-descript. Coming back, we
made the turn and began about a four-hour journey with some wonderful views.
The road itself was a challenge at times – Jesse would have
loved driving it. The first obstacles were windrows of sand blown across it.
After slipping through those, we encountered a lot of rocky terrain. The drive
not only required a slow pace, but also the views demanded frequent photo
stops. Helen has one of the fancy cameras I’ve coveted off and on, so I am
eager to see her shots from the day. I took a number with my point and shoot,
but I’m not sure any camera can really capture the beauty of a land so wide,
full, and varied.
What is so amazing about the landscape we drove through –
and much of Capitol Reef – is the wide variety of formations. It’s as if the
earth coughed up all her creativity and, unable to decide what kind of action
to take, took them all. Again, it struck me how wonderful it would be to
understand what happened there all those years ago.
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| Temples of the Sun and Moon and Glass Mountain |
There were specific sights marked on the map and on the
drive. We saw the Temples of Sun and the Moon, Glass Mountain (which is
actually gypsum rather than glass), a sink hole, and the Hall of Monuments. All
were striking, but watching how the landscape moved was maybe more so. We
finished up the drive by climbing a very steep, very rocky, switchback to two
observation points – one looking east and one west. Both points required a hike
to the highest elevation to grasp the full scope of the view, and it was nice
to be climbing again. No, not really – but it was nice that the climb was short
in the scope of climbs we’d done lately. (My gluts are still recovering.)
Coming back down the road, it seemed less difficult driving,
but I think it was just that I knew what I was coming to. This may have been a
bit of a problem as I found myself wanting to drive a little faster than I
should on the road. In fact, about halfway back, my low tire pressure light
came on. I checked it repeatedly, but fortunately it was a very slow leak and
visually they all looked fine. Once we got back to town, I tested each tire and
found the culprit, refilling it to the right pressure.
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| Glass Mountain |
We decided, because of the tire situation, that we would
camp near Torrey in a primitive BLM campground. We found a site and began
setting up camp. I realized I’d forgotten to buy wood, so I left Helen there,
setting her things up, and ran the short 10 minutes to the closest convenience
store.
When I returned, Helen was picking up her quilt and pad. I
asked what the problem was, and she said we’d had a visitor – a mouse had
scampered up to her as she was settling in. I offered my other tent, but she opted
to sleep in her car. This was clear reinforcement that I will continue to use a
tent when camping. I don’t mind mice, or other little creatures, as long as
they don’t come join me in my sleeping bag. This is partly my friend Clayton
Kooiker’s fault – years ago he told me about when he was in basic training in
Louisiana. Because there are so many cottonmouth snakes down there, the
soldiers were given specific instructions what to do if they woke to find a
snake in their sleeping bags with them. They were instructed to stay perfectly
still, and soon the snake would get too hot and crawl out of the bag. I decided
at that moment I would suffer a snake bite in such a situation. There is no way
in hell I would be able to lie still with a snake as a bed fellow. No way.
We finished up the night with a nice fire and cooking a
small meal for ourselves. We admired the star-filled sky and reflected on our
adventures, enjoying our last evening together as we both were moving on in the
morning. Helen was heading down to Bryce Canyon to visit the Hoodoos, and I was
heading north – as long as my camera batteries and charger arrived.
I awoke to find Helen already gone, so I went to town to
pick up my package.
The post office wasn’t open yet when I got to town, so I checked
the tracking information to see if I could reliably expect the package. It had
left Provo, Utah, the evening before, so unless the truck was hijacked or
careened off a mountain road, the package would be there. It took convincing a
very grumpy postmaster to look through his pile of packages, but once he did,
it was right there on top. I was ready to hit the road again.
I checked the map and decided to visit the salt flats via
Ely, Nevada. It was a little out of the way, but I didn’t want to head up through
Salt Lake City – too much of that drive is populated and busy. With this route,
I could cross to the west and then head north, swinging just a little east to
visit the flats. Ely was a good stopping place, so I planned to camp near
there.
It felt really good to get on the road – Capitol Reef is a
lovely park, but it wasn’t my favorite of Utah’s “Big Five” I had visited in
these first three weeks (Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef), and I
was ready to move on and see something greener and cooler.
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| Success Loop |
When I got to Ely, I found the BLM office and picked up a
few maps and asked the woman there for a suggestion. She suggested I drive the
Success Loop and find a campsite there or go to Cleve Creek Recreation Area.
She said this last place would be wonderful, but to watch for rattlesnakes. I
decided to drive the loop, and then swing around to Cleve Creek. I didn’t
realize this was as long a drive as it turned out to be.
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| Success Loop |
The loop was fabulous. It was a gravel road, mostly one
lane, and it wound through the mountains where I saw wildflowers and light
groves of Aspens. It culminated at Cave Lake State Park, and I drove through
its campgrounds to make sure I didn’t want to stay there. They were $17 a
night, but included showers, real plumbing, and water. But I wanted to save the
money and check out the BLM campground she’d recommended, so I left the state
park for that. I tried first to take what looked like a gravel road that went
through, but I only got about four or five miles down the road and reached an
impasse. So I turned around, passed back through the park, and took the long
way around. This long way turned out to be a total of about 40 miles.
The route to Cleve Creek was well marked, but remote. When I
finally arrived at the campground, it was completely empty with not a soul in
sight. I drove around, looking at the various campsites – there were only about
10 of them – and realized I did not feel comfortable out alone in such a
desolate place with no cell service. So I turned around and headed back for the
state park.
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| Curious - what is this person doing? |
Eighty miles later, I paid the $17 and set up camp,
realizing it was a net loss when I considered gas cost. I guess it’s all trial
and error. And to add insult to injury, when I got up in the morning and headed
for the showers, they didn’t work. So the money I was to save by having a
shower included in the camp cost was lost.
(As it turned out, I was able to secure a free shower later in the day
from a totally unexpected source – but more on that tomorrow.)
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