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