 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah We have a late lunch at Ruby's Inn near the park entrance and head for Torrey at the entrance to Capitol Reef NP. |
 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah We head east through two small towns on our way to Escalante. |
 We drive through Escalante and 10 Miles north we pull into this scenic lookout. |
 Sign at the lookout. The mountains are named after Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. |
 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah The Henry Mountains, at 11,500 ft, are 75 kms away in the distance. They are with us for the rest of the day and for a couple of hours tomorrow. |
 SR29 winds its way along the valley floor, still at about 6000 ft. We've dropped down from 9100 feet in the Bryce Canyon NP. |
 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah The area is one of the most desolate in the USA. The scenery is spectacular. |
 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah The panorama from the lookout. |
 The road is a bit dangerous in places and low speeds are in order. |
 This is one of the most beautiful, lonely, drives we've ever taken. |
 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah Boulder Mountain makes up half of the Aquarius Plateau. The mountain rises to the west of Capitol Reef National Park and has over 50,000 acres of rolling forest and meadowlands on its top. It is the highest timbered plateau in North America and is part of the Dixie National Forest |
 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah Boulder Mountain, 30 miles away, is to the north of where we're standing. The Aquarias Plateau is an uplift on the much larger Colorado Plateau and It is over 900 square miles (2330 km²). |
 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah We proceed along SR29 and see some more ruminant mammals. |
 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah This is another reason to watch the speed. |
 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah Our destination is the small town of Torrey. As we get closer, we get better views of the mountain range of which Henry Mountain is a part. |
 We're on a high plateau just before Torrey and we can see the wilderness area of which Capitol Reef NP is a part. |
 We descend from the plateau to Torrey. There are signs advising that chains should be used. Luckily for us, we don't need them. |
 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah The drive down is somewhat tricky. The temperature is close to zero and there is probably ice around. |
 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah This part of Utah is a land of contrasts. There is a frozen lake in the foreground, the desert canyons and 11,500 ft Henry Mountains in the background. |
 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah Magnificent. |
 Friday 2007-03-09 Torrey, Utah And here it is - our first ever trip down memory lane; our reason for coming to Torrey. |
 Friday 2007-03-09 Torrey, Utah Twenty years ago, we had spent three days touring Southern Utah and we stayed at this motel on one of the nights. |
 At the time, it was alone in the wilderness but other establishments have since been built. It's not exactly overcrowded though. |
 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah We remembered the extreme isolation of the place and it was a dream of ours to return here one day. |
 It was nothing special then (or now), but it's location is stunning. In front of the motel are colourful layers typical of the Capitol Reef area . . . |
 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah While the spectacular Henry Mountains are visible from the rear porch. |
 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah Back then, we had enjoyed these views over a simple breakfast in the dining room at the end of the building. It's closed today though and doesn't open for another week. |
 This time, we are lucky because the motel has only been open for a week after the winter break. It costs a mere $40 a night. |
 Friday 2007-03-09 SR29, Utah It struck us as curious that the high point of our trip, our reason for being here, was to stay in an old, slightly dilapidated $40 a night motel. |
 Saturday 2007-03-10 Capitol Reef National Park, Utah The next morning, we get under way at 7:00 am and enter the Capitol Reef National Park. |
 Saturday 2007-03-10 Capitol Reef National Park, Utah Our route takes us east on Hyw 24 after which we head south on Hwy 95. It is on these two very minor roads (no traffic) where we find ourselves in a photographic paradise. |
 The Henry Mountains are even more magnificent at this hour of the morning. |
 The top layer is Navajo Sandstone. Next is the red Kayenta formation, then Wingate Sandstone. The greyish layer is called the Chinle formation laid down during the Triassic, a time when all of the continents were joined together. It sits on top of the Moenkopi formation, a layer in which dinosaur remains have been found. |
 These layers, typically pale orange to red in colour, are the remnants of wind-born sand dunes deposited around 200 million years ago when all of the land masses were joined together, but starting to break apart, in a single continent called Pangea. |
 Saturday 2007-03-10 Capitol Reef National Park, Utah As we travel through the park we see some more ruminant mammals. Black deer? Elk Maybe? |
 Saturday 2007-03-10 Capitol Reef National Park, Utah Petroglyphs from the Anasazi - the "ancient ones". |
 Saturday 2007-03-10 Capitol Reef National Park, Utah In the 13th century, all of the Native Americans in this area suddenly left the area, probably because of a long drought. |
 Saturday 2007-03-10 Capitol Reef National Park, Utah Earth's history is laid bare before us. |
 The domes of Capitol Reef are sandstone and whiteish in colour. Sandstone wears differently to the other rocks and tends to round off at the top hence the capitol-shaped domes. |
 Saturday 2007-03-10 Capitol Reef National Park, Utah The Fremont River flows along the base of the structures and SR24 follows the river for its length. Steps and a wall constructed from sandstone bricks are visible in the picture. |
 Saturday 2007-03-10 Capitol Reef National Park, Utah Probably the best photograph of the trip (and Jenni took it). The Henry Mountains: rocks in the mountains date from 31-23 MYA. |
 Saturday 2007-03-10 Capitol Reef National Park, Utah We drive down SR95 and head towards Glen Canyon. |
 We're on State Route 95 with not another car in sight. We don't share this scenery with anyone |
 I found this really interesting graphic that explains the stratigraphy of the Colorado Plateau, |
