Escalante and Home

 

Here we were on our final day of the 6 day trip.  The plan was to head out from Escalante and gradually make our way back to Cedar City.  Before leaving the town, we drove around a bit.  Escalante was homesteaded in 1875, and the oldest houses in town were from that era.  They were built with a very distinctive red brick that the residents made from a local clay.  What a cute town with a lot of original architecture.  In fact, one of the ladles on the trip traced her ancestry back to the first people who settled the town.  As we drove around, she pointed out houses where her relatives used to or still live. 

On the outskirts of town is the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, not to be confused with the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.  The state park is a cute place on a lake with a visitor’s center, picnic tables and hiking trails.  The main hiking trail is a somewhat steep affair that accesses the high mesa ancient flood plain where most of the petrified wood is located.  This wood is mainly composed of agate in colors of red, black, white and a mustard color. 

Of course, I was really interested in hiking the trail to the petrified wood.  As soon as we arrived, I set out with fellow traveler Richard to do just that.  We could see some of the other people following far behind, but it turned out that they all turned back because of the steepness of the trail.  Here is the lake.

I am glad that I pushed on, because all of the petrified wood was located at the top of the steep trail. 

Further out of town is a pictograph named the “Circle of Friends”.  How appropriate for our group!  Its location is somewhat hidden and the trail had some steep parts, but the effort to get there was well worth it.

From there we drove west past Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument before arriving home in Cedar City.  I was so surprised to see how many of the aspen trees at the higher elevations had already turned yellow and orange.  A few days ago, I drove back up there to photograph the glowing fall colors.  Here are some photos. 

Happy Equinox everyone! 

Capital Reef

 

On the next to the last day of the trip, we started making our way back in the direction of Escalante, where we were to spend the last night.  The first stop was Capital Reef National Park.  We just had time to stop to admire some rock art and a have quick stop at the visitors center. 

The rock art below was pretty pale, so I enhanced those photos.

This is a moon calendar.

Then on along the Bur Trail to the Singing Canyon.  This is a very tall slot canyon that is easily accessible from the road.  Once we got to the back of the canyon, Paula delighted us by playing her Native American flute.  The haunting echoes of her music were magical!  No wonder they call this Singing Canyon, as it is not unusual for people to sing or play instruments in there!

 

Darrell took us up the road to an alcove where he camped many years ago.

Before turning back on the Burr Trail, we stopped for some fabulous vistas and notable geology.   This was also an area where petrified wood could be found on the sides of the road, so more rock hounding ensued.  There were a lot of wildflowers in bloom there.

Then back the way we came and over Boulder Mountain and on to Escalante.  We passed this interesting rock formation along the way!

Plan B

 

The winds were still strong the next day when we got up, so it was decided to skip the boat trip on Lake Powell and continue to explore the desert wilds of SE Utah.  Fine by me, as I am not much of a boat person.  Since Darrell was driving, he was in charge of the route.   I just sat back and enjoyed the marvelous scenery!  Our route took us through the Henry Mountains, which are north of Lake Powell.  

Below is a very old pictograph called the Moqui Queen.  She is estimated to be from 1500 to 4000 years old according to the style of the rock art, which is the Barrier Canyon style.  She is located on a wall in a deep alcove near the Hog Spring Rest Area where we stopped to have lunch.  Below is the huge alcove.  It is hard to tell, but she is located in the far lower left of the photo.

 

We then drove to an area where one could look down from an overlook to see where the northern end of Lake Powell used to be when it was first flooded.  The Glen Canyon Dam was completed in 1963, and the flooding of Lake Powell was complete in 1980.  Water levels have gone down considerably since then. 

There is even the abandoned Hite Marina there, now totally on dry land.  The light diagonal stripe in the photo below was once the boat ramp.  The lake would have come part way up the ramp.  The Colorado River now flows quite a distance away from the marina. 

Here is the Hite Bridge that spans the Colorado River further upstream. 

The Colorado River flows under the bridge.  Keep in mind that at full capacity, Lake Powell would be flowing beneath this bridge instead and the water would cover most of the lower land in the photos below.

Towards the end of the day on our way to Hanksville to spend the night, we stopped to view Factory Butte, which is located in the Utah Badlands east of Capitol Reef National Park. 

The scenery was pretty stark, but it was a great place to wander and linger to do some rock hounding.  Glittering flat pieces of mica littered the ground. 

I had seen this interesting lizard only twice before in my travels.   It is a long-nosed leopard lizard.  Cute!