The Fake Barrier Reef of Utah

The Wife and I awoke early to catch the sunrise over Bryce Canyon.  Despite it being July, it was very cold outside because of our elevation.  Unfortunately, just like what we had experienced at the Grand Canyon, the clouds were out in force preventing us from seeing a beautiful sunrise.

The early morning sun did highlight the various hues of the rock formations in Bryce Canyon.

After checking out from the Bryce Canyon Lodge, we drove back to the entrance of the national park.  Our last stop was the Fairyland Canyon overlook.

Fairyland Canyon is so named because the hoodoos resemble tower spires ala Cinderella's castle.

When we were planning our trip, The Wife and I had planned to take an entire day to leisurely drive eastwards to Moab.  When we finally did arrived in Utah, we were quite embarrassed to find out that we had completely overlooked an entire national park near our route.  Never having heard of Capitol Reef National Park, we decided to make a half-day detour.  

Our journey first took us through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  This controversial area became a protected region in 1996 (It has since been shrunk by half in late 2017).  This remote and rugged region contains canyons, cliffs, and plateaus of the "Grand Staircase."  In this geological formation, different stratifications of sedimentary rock with exposed cliff faces form a set of "stairs" that extend from Bryce Canyon all the way down to the Grand Canyon.  

This vast cliff wall represents one of the "steps" of the Grand Staircase.

As we drove through the area, we could see why this area was one of the last places in the United States to be fully explored and settled.  The terrain was rocky, harsh, and desolate.  As late as the 1930's some of the remote towns in the region still received their mail using mule trains.  

In 1940, Highway 12--"The Million Dollar Highway" was finished linking several of the rural
  towns in the region.  The project took tons of dynamite and five years of back-breaking work.

As evinced by this green valley, not all of the area was inhospitable.

After driving for much of the morning, we approached Capitol Reef National Park.  This region is part of the Waterpocket Fold, an 87 mile monocline that was formed 65 million years ago when two continental plates collided.  The pressure caused the end of one plate to be lifted higher up than the surrounding land.  Over the next several million years, erosion created canyons, cliffs, and domes in the exposed softer rock layers of the earth's crust.  This erosion also created basins that would form waterpockets allowing vegetation and sustainability of life.  Capitol Reef is an oasis among the harsh, desert-like conditions in the surrounding areas.  Small groups of indigenous people and Mormon settlers were able to colonize the area--the latter even planted successful orchards which led the settlement to be named Fruita.

As dry as this geological explanation is, it is still the most interesting thing about Capitol Reef National Park.  When a place is given the name "reef," there is an expectation that there will be some colorful fish and coral.  Nope.  The name is false advertising.  No angel fish, no butterfly fish, no Nemos.  The only things worth seeing at Capitol Reef were a couple of interesting-looking rocks.

Near the entrance to Capitol Reef National Park is the rock
formation known as the "Castle."  It wasn't the fairyland variety.

Several petroglyphs drawn by ancient Hopi and Zuni Indians can also be found in the Capitol Reef area.

The Capitol Dome formation is the park's namesake.  It can be
seen without leaving the comforts of an air-conditioned car.

One of the other must-see formations is Hickman Bridge which is not visible from the road.  From the parking lot, the round-trip hike is only a little less than 2 miles.  Therefore, I decided to leave the hydration packs behind and take a bottle of water.  The Wife insisted that we bring a second one just in case.  It was definitely the right decision.

I didn't account for the fact that we were beginning our hike at noon and that there would be absolutely no shade on the trail.  We were roasted by the midday sun the whole time.  We went through the first bottle of water in no time and was almost done with the second by the time we reached the arch.

The Hickman Bridge was impressive, but we questioned whether it was worth the hike.

The bridge did provide us with
the only shade from the sun.

By the time we made it back to the parking lot, The Boy was feeling pretty woozy and was dehydrated.  Therefore, we decided to recuperate by stopping at the Gifford's Homestead, a single-family Mormon settlement dating back to the 1880's.

There is a museum with relics from the past and a small general store where we purchased some baked goods.

The settlement still has an old barn and obsolete farming equipment.

Fruit orchards still thrive at the Gifford's Settlement.

But the big reason people stop by are for the fruit pies baked with the farm's produce.

After the brief but relaxing respite, we left Capitol Reef National Park, unimpressed by our time there.  We drove for two hours east through desolate landscapes until we reached Moab.  Unlike the rest of Utah, Moab has less of a conservative Mormon presence.  The throngs of tourists like us that visit the city probably contribute to this different atmosphere.

We had booked a rental property on the outskirts of the city for the next several days.  After having spent the last couple of days in cramped national park service cabins, we were ecstatic to be able to spread out in the spacious townhouse.

Living room

Full-sized kitchen

Master bedroom

Guest bedroom

We drove back into town for dinner, stopping off at a quaint Mexican restaurant called El Charro Loco that received good Yelp reviews.  Apparently, others had seen the favorable ratings, so we had to wait awhile for a table to open up in the small restaurant.  It was worth it as the food was tasty and the presentation was better than expected from such as small, unpretentious restaurant.

Chile relleno

Quesadilla rellena con pollo

Horchata

Pina loca (so much food that The Girl and I couldn't finish it)