Traveling America By Van: Capitol Reef, Grand Staircase, And Escalante
By: John Kumiski
"Why are we going to Capitol Reef?" Susan wanted to know. "What's there?" "I don't know what's there, Sue. I've never been there. It's a national park, there must be a reason." We had left Moab and gotten on Interstate 70. The sign said, "No services for 170 miles." You know you're in the middle of nowhere...
We got off of I-70 onto Utah Highway 24. This was as desolate a piece of road as we had seen. I was glad I had filled up at the last gas station! We got to Hanksville, and were surprised by not one but two gas stations. We continued west, headed to Capitol Reef.
I had tried to make two nights reservations at the campground there, but only one night was available. Our stay was to be a short one. With all the people traveling domestically because of COVID, finding campsites was an ongoing problem for us. Perhaps we were lucky to get that one night.
We entered the park, according to a sign. Holy cow! Look at this place! Giant cliffs tower over the road. A stream, the Fremont River, runs through the valley. Fruit groves filled the space between the rock faces. Impressive views were everywhere you looked.
The Waterpocket Fold monocline in Capitol Reef National Park.
We found our campsite, glad to get out of the car. A ranger came by, and told us about the upcoming evening program, Birds of Capitol Reef. We didn't go, opting to watch the bats instead, until the stars came out. Then, another early night to bed!
Early the next morning, a noise next to my window woke me up. I looked out that window- there were at least 20 mule deer right outside the van. I woke up Susan. "Shhh- look outside my window," I whispered. She sleepily looked, then woke up, right now! We were all about being quiet so as to not spook the deer.
Silly us. They were park deer. When we got up and went outside the van they were still there, nibbling on the grass. They did not care about us at all. I shot some pictures as they gradually wandered away. For some reason I fixated on a young buck with a deformed antler.
Mule deer feeding outside the van woke me in the morning at Capitol Reef National Park.
After breakfast we took the scenic drive. It follows the path through a gorge that Mormon pioneers cleared in 1884. These settlers had to remove heavy debris from their road after every flash flood. Early travelers recorded their passage on the canyon walls at the Pioneer Register. This road was closed in 1962 when Utah Highway 24 was paved through the Fremont River corridor. What's left open is the scenic drive, a dead end. You go out the way you came in.
Driving the scenic road in Capitol Reef National Park. I shot this while driving, something that is still a terrible idea!
The scenic road runs parallel to the Waterpocket Fold, a geologic monocline that runs for 100 miles. Because of the erosion that has occurred here, a wild array of landforms and colors greet the eye. The road itself is narrow and twisty, with frequent elevation changes, and dips across washes that flood when it rains. I would have loved to take a hike through here, but we did not have a campsite reserved for that evening, and needed to find one.
After finishing the drive, we got back on Highway 24, headed west. Our goal that day was Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. In the town of Torrey we picked up breakfast, a shower, and Utah Highway 12. This road is most terrifying road I ever expect to be on, but it would be a few miles before that discovery was made.
At first the highway was just another beautiful Utah road, something we'd come to expect. We drove up and over a high mountain, summiting at about 9,000 feet, snow fields surrounding us. We stopped at a couple overlooks. It seemed like you could see forever- Grand Staircase one way, Capitol Reef another.
We began descending into the Grand Staircase area. That's when the road became frightening. Along the “Hogsback” between Escalante and Boulder, hairpin turns dare you on a narrow road without guard rails that drops off drastically from the shoulders into deep canyons below. The scenery is incredibly spectacular and incredibly terrifying at the same time! Don't screw this up!
Utah Highway 12 snakes its way through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
I crawled along here at 10 miles per hour, remembering nightmares I'd had about this very scenario. I was half-expecting the road to abruptly end, like it does in those dreams. Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened, and we survived to make it to the town of Escalante.
Susan sits on top of a petrified log section, surrounded by others, in Escalante Petrified Forest State Park.
This is a sparse town, with a bank, a gas station, a couple of outfitters, and a few RV parks. We ended up at one called Yonder (https://www.stayyonder.com), at the far end of town, a new facility that was more plush than anywhere else we stayed. They even had their own drive-in theatre, with classic cars already there! It was odd, walking to a drive-in.
In the morning we visited Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, hoping to see some petrified wood. We took a three-mile hike that brought us through tons (literally) of fossilized trees that were growing when brontosauruses were grazing on them, some of them so well preserved you could count the growth rings.
We then tried a hike along the Escalante River. This one did not work out very well. A plague of caterpillars was eating every green leaf in the canyon. Caterpillar poop fell like rain from the trees. We did see some petroglyphs, and I did spot a few small trout in the stream, but mostly we just wanted to get out of there. It was a caterpillar horror show!
We watched another movie at the drive-in, then turned in. In the morning our time in Escalante was done, and we found ourselves again heading west on Highway 12.
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