Day 4 - A Scenic Byway

Teepees may sound like a great idea - a romantic one even, but unless you’re entertaining a group of 7 year olds under perfectly clear skies, I’d highly recommend they be avoided. And so started the damp, tired morning at the gates of Bryce Canyon. 

Luckily, this was the extent of the bad news for day 4 of our journey.

An early wake up time means one thing at Bryce - the opportunity to catch one of the world’s best sunrises! While we may not have caught the sun on its best day, we did get a decent enough 7am show to put us on the road early and start a rambling 120 mile trip across Scenic Byway 12 to Capitol Reef. 

The byway is receiving more promotion out west these days, and for good reason - it provides you incomparable views of canyons, valleys and grasslands from up to 10,000 feet high, frequently on the edge of a cliff. While it’s a bit of a nerve wracking drive at times, the views (which sadly can’t be replicated in a picture) are worth it, as are a few other bonuses:

• Escalante Petrified Forrest State Park - Provides a great two mile hike amongst a petrified forrest - effectively big ass logs that have been turned into colorful rocks over millions of years. #BadAss
  
• A passing glance of a Drive-In Movie/Air Stream RV Park. It may not look like anyone has ever stayed at the Shooting Star, but their website will prove otherwise. I can only imagine what shenanigans ensued when Barb Bush pulled in a few years back.
• An AMAZING hippie dining/boarding commune in Boulder, UT that includes the fantastic Hells Backbone Grill - the type of place that allows you to justify a hobbit-esque second breakfast.
• A quick but interesting tour of an Anasazi museum and archaeological dig site. Side note - their bathroom light timers encourage rather quick work of any more involved business or you risk wasting some precious iPhone battery life using its flashlight.
  

After a nice four hour journey we finally entered Capitol Reef and were amazed from Chimney Rock (no, not the Oregon trail one...) until the last second of our visit. Capitol Reef is the perfect active rest day park - epic 360 degree views are made possible by some of the cleanest air in the world allowing for visibility of up to 150 miles. Add to this a great scenic drive and access to quick (1-4 mile) hikes and you’ll be more than happy for a few hours.

Our hike for the day was Grand Wash which is a mostly flat walk through stone walls hundreds of feet high. When not gawking at the landscape, you can also find gems of petroglyphs from ancient peoples, names/dates of early Mormon settlers, and graffiti/vandalism from dummies who think walking half a mile in 2012 is an equally impressive accomplishment as it was in 1880. 

Add a few pools named The Tanks to the above sites and Grand Wash is a great way to take in much of the park by car and foot in about two hours. And of course, stop by the Gifford house on the way back for a reward of ice cream and cinnamon buns. Or pie. Or maybe all of the above.

We finally rounded out a day of driving and waltzing with a couple hour drive from Capitol Reef to Goblin Valley with a quick stop over in Hanksville for dinner. Goblin Valley had one of the most anticipated features of our trip to date - a night in a Yurt (think a big, round, non-wet teepee with heat an electricity). Luckily for us, the nasty rain held off for the day until we approached the rather desolate area that houses Goblin Valley, where we were treated to a thunder and lighting show backed by dark shadows and huge buttes…an entertaining end to an outstanding day.

And now some more personal thoughts...

1. Never enter a port-a-potty while chewing any kind of food. Especially almonds.
2. On the way out of Capitol Reef there are petroglyphs that look like "anthropomorphic humanoids with geometric shapes”, or some similar description. NO - These were ancient spaceman drawings. I don’t know what this mysterious tribe called the Fremonts were in to, but those dudes knew ALIENS.
3. How does someone get to the age of 70 without ever learning to cross the road? Or not park in the road? Or not stand in the road? Or just not knowing how to avoid traffic in general? I’m shocked there aren’t more elderly traffic related deaths in national parks.