North to Fish Lake and Capitol Reef

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

When we had pieced together our summer travel plans in mid April, we had come up with the list of general locations to visit and a rough timeline for those locations. As we started to make reservations, we ran into a few problems especially the locations near national parks. Our next location had a double whammy. Capitol Reef is a national park plus we wanted to stay there over Memorial Day weekend. We eventually found an open spot at Doctor Creek Campground next to Fish Lake. The place doesn't have any utilities at each site but does have water and a dump station. We are only going to be there for 5 nights so needing to run the generator wasn't going to be that big of a deal.

The drive up was pretty uneventful although we are still up near an elevation of 9000 feet. When we got there, we pulled into the dump station to fill up with fresh water prior to heading to our spot. That was the first problem. Our current coach needs to be filled up with a pressurized water line. Generally that isn't a problem. The supply at the campground typically has a fitting that we simply attach our water hose to. But here all they had was a rubber hose coming off a non-standard connection. In both our older motorhome and our travel trailer, this would have been a non-issue. They had what is called a gravity feed water port. Basically a capped tube that runs into the top of the fresh water tank. Simply place the end of the hose into the larger opening tube and filler up. But lacking that, I needed to have a tight enough connection to allow the water pressure to overcome some back flow preventer. As hard as I tried, I could not manage that.

After getting wet a couple times, I had Chris go down into the campground to see if there were other water supply faucets. Fortunately one of the 5 or 6 scattered around the campground sites had a standard hose fitting and I simply parked next to it and had a full tank in 15 minutes. The next problem was the site we reserved was not nearly level enough for our size of rig. The camp host told us to look at other sites that didn't have a reserved sign (or a rig already in it) and we could swap. Fortunately there was one that worked out fine that was open.

Our Spot at Doctor Creek Campgrounds

View of Southern End of Fish Lake

The campground was okay with restrooms but no showers. Not a problem for us. But this place is remote and surrounded by mountains. Chris' T-Mobile and my Verizon coverage was non-existent. Occasionally I would get a random notification though that I would discover in the morning, but I wasn't able to log geocaches, check email or do much of anything. The surprising thing and this isn't just a statement for this spot but for most of our spots in southern Utah, we had over the air broadcast television! Generally, we have found that if you are located within 60 miles or so of some large city (Tucson, San Antonio, New Orleans, etc) you might be able to pick up some of the broadcast stations. Maybe not all the channels but some.

Apparently Utah does broadcast TV a bit differently and in our estimation better than most areas. Salt Lake City is really the only place in Utah large enough to have television stations. Yet when we were in Page Arizona, over 300 miles south of Salt Lake City, we were picking up channels from there. From the little investigation I did, it appears that the various stations in Salt Lake City have numerous repeater towers located all over the state. Since each station is effectively being seen all over the state, their broadcasts seem to be much more geared to statewide news and weather rather than just the local events of Salt Lake City.

For our first full day here, we head over to Capitol Reef National Park. It is about 45 miles from Fish Lake. The visitor center is very crowded. I guess that's what happens on Memorial Day weekend. Surprisingly to us, there was no wi-fi at the park. Yes, I know the park is remote, but I would argue Big Bend National Park is more remote but it had decent internet.

We decided to take the scenic drive which heads south of the visitor center. We turn down the mile long Grand Wash Road heading to the parking area and trailhead for the Grand Wash Trail and the Cassidy Arch Trail. This dirt road is in reasonable shape as long as you take it slow. It is crowded back here but we luckily find a parking spot. Our goal is Cassidy Arch. This is an out and back Trail of about 3.5 miles. Not too bad although there is a 700 foot elevation change to get there.

View Along Scenic Drive

Another View

Much of the elevation is gained in the first half mile heading up a large number of switchbacks. You eventually round a corner and can see the big stone arch across the valley. The trail ends up taking you above the arch. It's a pretty hike and there are people but not an excessive number.

On the Way Up to Cassidy Arch

Cassidy Arch is Just Visible

Interesting Rock Coloration

The last 1/3 mile is over a lot of smooth bare rock. The footing seems to be really good but all you have to follow are a series of rock cairns and every now and then we find ourselves off the intended path. The good thing is you can see the people at the end so you have a general idea of where you should aim. There was only one really tricky crossing that was too far to jump across but pretty severe of a climb. My long legs were an advantage in both directions. Chris and many others we saw used the butt slide technique to make the return trip.

Chris Hangs Onto Her Hat

Clouds and Rock

The wind was exceptionally strong up there. Enough so that when I went to take pictures, I had to brace my feet securely for fear of being blown over. Depending which way you would fall would determine your fate but I'm pretty sure there was no "good" way! You can actually see thru the arch from up top. It was pretty neat.

Just Above Cassidy Arch Looking Through It

Afterwards, we continue south on the scenic drive and follow the Capitol Gorge Road. This dirt road is closer to 2.5 miles long, not in great shape and with many twists and turns. The road conditions would have been tolerable but what was annoying were all the people in rented RVs trying to drive down this road. The one in front of me, got to the parking area and since there was no room for him to park, he needed to perform a 15 point turn to try to get out. After we parked, we took the Capitol Gorge Trail for about a mile. There were all sorts of warning signs about watching out for flash floods. The skies had darkened a bit but we were not washed away.

Heading Up Capitol Gorge Trail

Streaked Gorge Wall

There some old Indian petroglyphs as well as some 100 year old graffiti with some of it being 15 feet or more above ground level. Near the end of the hike is a side trail that takes you up to the "tanks". Not Army tanks but effectively small pools of water. Not all were full and admittedly we didn't find it very impressive. There were some very interesting rock patterns that Chris thought to look like stained glass.

Some Water Above Tanks

This Tank is Empty

Chris' Stained Glass Rock

On the way back to Fish Lake, we stopped for a geocache or two. One of them was at a big pullout where many travel trailers, fifth wheels and smaller motorhomes were parked. A small boondocking area. Ours probably couldn't handle the rough road getting into it, but we were just here to find a cache. The arrow on the GPSr point to the top of a small but steep hill. We got up top and started to look but we were not having any luck. Now we don't always find the caches we are looking for but the size of this one was a "regular" - think big, Tupperware size or maybe even an ammo can. There were only so many places something that size could have been hiding. After 15 minutes or more, we finally gave up and started back down. As we were, a guy pulls up on a motorcycle and asks if we are looking for a geocache? Looking yes, finding no. He pulls a container out of his backpack and says this is what we are looking for. Well that explains why we couldn't find it! He was there yesterday, found it and not being familiar with geocaching, thought the idea was to take it and hide it elsewhere. Fortunately he had called his brother that is a geocacher and was informed that's NOT how it works and you need to put it back.

Hiding Spot for a Utah Geotour Cache in Torrey

The following day, we decided to head a bit west of our campground to see what sights were that way. We figured if we headed over to the town of Richfield, we should be able to get some cell coverage since it is right next to I-70. We stopped at a handful of virtual caches along the way and planned to get a few more of the Utah Geotour caches.

Incredible Rock Colors at a Virtual Cache

Our first real stop was at Fremont Indian State Park. This is a smaller park and really isn't that old. Back in the 1980's when I-70 was being put in, ruins from a former Indian village were discovered. The area was excavated by archaeologists documenting what was there and saving as many artifacts as possible before the interstate was put in and the state park and museum were constructed. We spent about an hour checking out the museum, watching the movie and doing a short interpretive walk. Our real reason for stopping was to find a geocache and that was a success.

Not the Most Impressive Petroglyphs We Have Seen

After finding a good place to eat in the town of Monroe (possibly the only place to eat in town), we headed up into the nearby mountain to Monrovian Park. This area is quite pretty although it seems to underutilized. The road up here is paved but very narrow in places. We sat in a parking lot before heading back to camp so we could log all our geocaches, check mail, and other things. When we were within a few miles of the campground, you could see lots of smoke coming over the distant mountains. Fortunately there was a flashing road sign stating there was a prescribed burn underway. Even back in camp we could smell the smoke but the fire never got all the way to our camp!

Snow Capped Mountains at Monrovian Park

Fast Moving Runoff from Snow Capped Mountains

Smoke From Prescribed Burn

For our third full day here, we headed back to Capitol Reef. But first there was another Utah Geotour cache to do not too far off our route at Fish Creek Cove. The road we were on eventually turned to dirt and became a pretty bad road. Lots of ruts and bumps so the going was slow. Not that we haven't done our fair share of dirt roads and I'm sure we have driven worse, but the surprising thing was there were homes back along this road. Not run down shacks or double wides like the road deserved, but fairly new and quite nice homes. It was an odd juxtaposition. At the end of the trail was a parking area with three caches within walking distance. The large rock outcropping here has old Indian petroglyphs and pictographs on them. Unfortunately there are also lots of bullet holes and other graffiti.

Huge Rock Outcropping at Fish Creek Cove

Old Pictographs

We found the Geotour cache and one of the other caches, but we were having trouble with the third one. Since it was around a large pile of rocks along the side of the outcropping, I set my camera down and Chris put her geocaching bag down just to be out of the way while we search. After 10 minutes or so, we gave up and started back to the car. The next thing we knew, we were swatting at a swarm of ants that had gotten on the things we set down and when the straps were put over our necks, the ants transferred to our body. They didn't seem to be the biting type but it wasn't fun having that many ants crawling all over. It took several hours before our imaginations stopped being in overdrive.

At Capitol Reef. It was still busy since it was still Memorial Day weekend. We did a hiking trail that used to exist just across the street from the visitor's center. It was not at all crowded but kind of nice. After crossing over the small creek we followed a dry was taking in some of the sights. We found several of the old trail signs but eventually got to a jumble of rocks fallen from the adjacent cliff. We suspect a rockslide took out the trail and was too much effort to clear the tons of debris.

Small Creek Crossing

Nice View

Interesting Rock Layers

Our next destination was to continue on the road through the park heading east. There are a few pullouts and trailheads for various hikes along this route.  There are also two dirt roads that head northwest and can be used to get to some of the remote northern reaches of the park. From a pure exploration point of view, I suspect either Hartnet or Cathedral Roads would have worked. We picked the latter from a geocaching point of view. One of the Utah Geotour caches was a mile or so off the main road. Fifteen miles up this dirt road were some sites that sounded interesting - Temple of the Sun and Temple of the Moon. The road was washboard over most of it and was somewhat slow going.

View Along Way to the Temples

Surprisingly there were 6 or 8 other vehicles out here when we arrived, the actual "Temples" are simply huge rock outcroppings that are not close to any of the other mountains in the distance. I'm not sure they were worth the pounding the Jeep took to get back here. As we were heading out, we saw another sign to something just 1000 feet away called Glass Mountain. That turned out to be quite interesting. Calling it a mountain is a stretch given it's only about 15 feet tall. It is composed of large gypsum crystals that are in a haphazard configuration.

Temple of the Sun

Temple of the Moon

Temple of Sun in Front, Temple of Moon Behind and to the Left

Glass Mountain

Closeup of Glass Mountain

On the drive back, I discovered that traveling at a slightly faster speed allowed the suspension to smooth out the washboard. By then it was late afternoon so the colors were starting to get interesting. We had planned on another hike, but this side trip had taken much longer than anticipated and neither of us were interested in a hike. Maybe next time we are in the area.

More Colorful Rock Layers

Fascinating Erosion Patterns

We decided to take it somewhat easy on our last full day and just stay near camp. We have been driving the Jeep many miles since this place is rather remote and so many destinations are quite a drive. There were hundreds of people camped at the various campgrounds along Fish Lake so we figure it might make sense to simply check out our local surroundings.

The Lakeshore Trail runs all along Fish Lake. Bikes are permitted but we decide to just do a walk. We opt to drive a bit north than hike rather than just walking from the rig. It was amazing how many people were out on boats fishing and dozens more fishing from the shore. I used to fish with my dad when I was young. I was never into it as much as he was. I was basically a hook and worm and bobber kind of fisherman. We even had a small boat that we would take out occasionally. The one thing that always baffled me about fishing was this. If we were on the shore, my goal was to cast the line as far out as I could but when we were in the boat, my goal was to cast as close to shore as possible. It seemed to me that it was easier to get close to the shore from the shore and far away from the shore in the boat. I miss those simple days.

There were a fair number of geocaches were along this trail or just across the road in some of the campgrounds. Trying for the ones in the campgrounds on a busy holiday weekend wasn't the smartest thing but we did okay.

Pelicans on Fish Lake

Just a Hint of Snow on Mountain Overlooking Fish Lake

Five nights here was probably the right amount of time. If you just want to chill, this campground could work out well. But trying to use it as a hub for day trips wasn't so great since most destinations are rather far. The weather was colder than we would have liked at nights and it seemed to be windy all the time. We had wanted to grill several of the nights but gave up on keeping the grill lit.

We will head out on Memorial Day and drive up to Salt Lake City. It is just under 200 miles so it will be one of our longer travel days but still not bad. From a traffic standpoint, it would have been better to stay and extra day, but our goal is to get to a Warner Truck Center, spend the night boondocking in their parking lot and have our annual service done on Tuesday

Bryce Canyon Part II

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We have been enjoying our stay in the Bryce Canyon area. The rock formations in this national park are truly amazing. Plus there are many other destinations in the area worth exploring. There are definitely smaller crowds here compared to Zion. Some of the reason for this may be the downright cold weather we are having here. When Chris had checked in to Ruby's, a group of tent campers were checking out early stating the sub freezing temperatures were just too much to deal with. I know I wouldn't want to be tent camping in these conditions.

Within the national park, the shuttle system does not regularly run to the southern reaches of the park. The main park road continues about 15 miles further than the Bryce Point bus stop. Having explored most of the northern destinations, we decided to spend the day exploring the rest of the park. Near mile marker 6 is the Swamp Canyon parking area.

At the Swamp Canyon Overlook

Most people will stop for a few minutes to take some pictures before moving on. This was our starting point for the Sheep Creek/Swamp Canyon hike. Being a loop, you are presented with a choice after about 1000 feet. We picked the trail to the right (doing the loop counterclockwise) which takes you down into Swamp Canyon first. After completing the loop, we believe this is the preferred direction to hike. The first part is down to warm up the body gradually then the middle portion is back up Sheep Creek with the last section being over the relatively flat portion along the woods back to the parking lot. There is about 700 feet of elevation change to make up but the loop is just over 4 miles so not too difficult.

Lots of Fire Damaged Trees Along Trail

Nice Views Along the Way

This is a very lightly traveled trail. We saw a few "real" hikers with full packs coming out after back country camping. Might be fun if we were their age, but we prefer the comfort of our rig. The trail was in nice shape and the views were quite nice. Admittedly the climb back up Sheep Creek was a bit tiring but not at all challenging. Since the last portion of the walk was along the woods, we had fully recovered by the time we got back. Well maybe not fully recovered as several people stopping for pictures looked at our tired expressions and probably wondered what we were up to.

Heading Back Up Sheep Creek

We were ready for lunch so we drove to the southernmost portion of the road to Rainbow Point at mile #18. This area is quite large with many picnic tables, rest rooms and great views. We did the 1 mile Bristlecone Loop to take in some of those views before having our picnic lunch.  Then we slowly made our way back north. This worked out well since nearly all the viewing pullouts are on the northbound side of the road.

Nice View Along Bristlecone Loop

More Rock Formations

Not all the viewing areas have large parking lots but we generally were able to stop at each one to check out how the view had changed since the prior one. At one of them was a huge raven that nearly seemed like somebody's pet. It was sitting on the ledge or a sign post begging for food and of course there was some idiot willing to oblige (not us). At the Natural Bridge area was an impressive stone arch. Overall, this made for a pretty nice day.

Overlook View

Another Overlook

Raven Says "Feed Me"

Natural Bridge

Oh Look Another View

Hoodoos in Training

After dinner we headed to Fairyland Point. It is actually part of the park but north of the entrance station so there was no need to wait to get thru. We had heard the sunsets can be nice there, but we found that based on the topography, we would have needed to get there much earlier for the sun to be hitting the fairies.

Nice Colors at Sunset

On our last full day in the area, we decided to explore back by the Kodachrome Basin State Park area. The other day we were there, we simply ran out of time to see all we really wanted to see. Today would start out with the Willis Creek Canyon hike near Cannonville. Once off the paved road, the 6 mile dirt road to the trailhead was not for the faint of heart. Let's just say I was glad to be driving a Jeep and not a Prius and I'm pretty sure Chris had her eyes closed at times with a death grip on the grab handles! We did discover that somebody had somehow managed to drag their travel trailer to the parking lot. There were several other cars here. More than we expected, but not at all crowded.

We had opted to bring our water hiking shoes once Chris had read that water flows here nearly year round. That turned out to be a good call. Not that we couldn't have done the 6 miles we ended up doing in our normal hiking shoes and stayed dry, but it was actually nice to be able to just walk through the water instead of trying to step from rock to rock on our innumerable crossings. The water was only a few inches deep and usually only a few feet wide. Our dog Shelby would have just loved this hike.

In the Slot

Fascinating Rock Layers

The first 1.5 miles from parking are the most dramatic with some impressive slot canyon features. At one point you get to a narrow waterfall with a 6 or 7 foot drop. Fortunately there is a bypass trail that allows you to safely get past it. Just remember to walk back up to be able to see the falls from the lower vantage point. From there on out, the canyon is much wider but still very beautiful. We ran into another couple at about the 2 mile point and asked if the hike ever gets to a point where you are forced to turn around. They didn't think so.

Erosion Does Wonderful Things

We found ourselves saying "let's just go to this next bend to see around the corner". We did this over and over but at the 3 mile point, we had some other creek join Willis Creek and after enjoying a snack in the shade, we decided to turn around and head back since we had lots more we wanted to do that day.

Waterfall

Just a bit east of Kodachrome Basin, is Grosvenor Arch. And just like our last stop, there is a long dirt road to follow to get back to this place. Along the way we had a couple cow encounters. The first was a mother and her calf nursing on the road. Fortunately they were on the far side and other than a passing glance as we slowly drove by, they didn't seem to be bothered by our presence. Then just around a curve, we saw a big black cow standing on the side of the road. The road had been cut through a small hill, so this cow was about 4 feet above us. She looked at us coming almost as if she were checking for traffic before crossing. We decided to stop and she made her way down the hill, across the road, and up the opposite side. Not sure all the cows are so well training in road crossing, but this one seemed to be.

Mom and Calf

At the arch parking area, there were actually several other vehicles here as well and after eating our lunch, we took the path back to the arch. It is pretty impressive. Especially when standing below it. It is about 175 feet tall and 100 feet wide. Probably worth the drive back here to see it although we had an extra incentive since the arch is the location of an EarthCache. A geocache where there is no container, but you need to answer some sort of geology question about what you are looking at.

Grosvenor Arch

Next stop is Kodachrome Basin State Park. It had turned out to be quite a warm afternoon. In retrospect, it might have made more sense to do the state park in the morning and the creek walk in the heat of the afternoon. Maybe we don't put enough thought into our day trips. Panorama Trail is one of the more popular hike in this park. We opt to do the shorter portion of it given the heat. The trail takes you past many of the odd rock hoodoos, spires and columns. A lot of them have been named. We saw Fred Flintstone and The Ballerina but admittedly it was unclear which direction one needs to view them from (or what drugs one needs to be on) in order to "see" the character.

Fred Flintstone

The Ballerina

Unknown Names

At one location along the trail, you are presented with the option to head to Panorama Point. If you have the energy and enough water, we recommend you go for it. It is a bit of a climb up the trail, but the views are well worth it. We had crossed paths with a couple of women out on their mountain bikes and one of them had actually biked up to the top. We chatted with her and gave some advice about other things to see nearby before she sped down the trail. We headed back to the car after taking in the views and some pictures.

Along Panorama Trail

From Panorama Point

Flowers on Panorama Point

We made one last stop in the park - Chimney Rock. We had two reasons. It sounded interesting and there is a geocache located nearby. As we drove the dirt road, we came across our first pronghorn other than the ones we have seen from the shuttle bus. Neither of the pair presented themselves for a great picture but it was still neat to see them. After parking at Chimney Rock, we headed toward the cache. The cattle were grazing in the area and we were concerned we might need to move them out of the way. They were 100 feet away from the cache but based on the cow chips near the cache, it appears they come over to check up on the cache from time to time.

Cattle on Way to Cache

Chimney Rock

It's hard to believe how fast our week here has gone. Two weeks might have been a better length of time but we have places to go. In southern Utah, there is something known as the Mighty 5. Utah's 5 most famous national parks - Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands. A lot of people will attempt to visit all 5 in a two week vacation window. I'm glad we have the ability to slow the pace down. In fact we will have spent 18 nights and only visited three of them. The last two are too far east for our current travel plans but our next destination is a little further north to Capitol Reef area. We will surely make it back for Arches and Canyonlands in a future trip