Petroglyphs and The Temples of the Sun and Moon

This morning we drove down to the vicinity of the visitor center for the Capitol Reef NP and checked out the Petroglyph Panel.

Our view of nearby Torrey and the rock wall overlooking the town:

This is a section of rock wall where petroglyphs are evident.  They're pretty cool, though thoughts of ancient astronauts did briefly fill my head.  The artwork is quite faded now, in fact, Martha had to point the first one below out to me.

The below pics have been enhanced to show the figures better.

There's a wooden walkway to guide you along the wall, and to keep people from actually disturbing the petroglyphs.

We then drove about 25 miles or so to the eastern entrance of Cathedral Valley BLM area.  The western entrance involves a small river ford and not usable by regular vehicles like the Honda CR-V we were driving.

17 miles later on mostly easy dirt roads, we arrived at the turn off for the Temples of the Sun and Moon.  Big, impressive rock formations jutting out in the middle of the valley.

I've been to these formations and valley before:  LINK, LINK2 with my Ural sidecar rigs.  This trip was to introduce Martha to the rock formations.  The rock formations are part of the Capitol Reef NP by the way.

We returned to pavement with no issues save having to deal with a group of bicyclist that had a clueless driver for their SAG wagon.  Guy kept parking the truck with trailer on the trail, blocking traffic!

After a late lunch, we made a shopping run to the small town of Loa.  On the way, we stopped at a auto parts store in Bicknell, UT where I managed to find a suitable bolt to secure the left mirror mount on Yagi, my TW200.  

Surprisingly, it had been impossible to find the OEM bolt at no less than five hardware stores in Moab.  So, I used a longer Hex cap bolt instead, and it works fine.

A short test ride to make sure the mirror was firmly mounted was of course required:

Driving Capitol Reef NP's Scenic Drive, Hiking The Tanks Trail and a little T-Dub'ing

 Sunny day with some noticeable but not bad winds.

Martha and I drove over to the Capitol Reef NP's Visitor Center located just off the UT24 Highway about six miles east of Torrey, UT.

After getting her Park Passport book stamp and a map, we drove onto the Scenic Highway deeper into the park.  First, a stop at the Gifford Farm where a museum and store is located.  Mainly, to get a pie sample.  

The drive into the scenic highway's rock formations was "into the sun" so we didn't stop for pics or use any of the dashcam video footage.  We got to the end of the road where there is a small trailhead.  Parking was an issue and we ended up parking in a small spot at the end of a line of parking spots.  When we returned it was a cluster-f*ck of a parking area.  

The Capitol Gorge Road trail is pretty level and we walked about a mile in, I think you can take this trail all the way to the small town of Notom, UT but we wouldn't be going that far.

The gorge is obviously by definition bordered by high rock walls.  We were walking where water once flowed (and probably does during floods and heavy rains).

We walked past Pioneer Register where people from the past left their mark and names while transiting this area.  There's also a bunch of modern era ass wipes who left their names on the rock walls.  I guess they didn't see the sign stating it's illegal, after all what's historical value compared to a fleeting Instagram posting right?

Anyways, we got to the start of The Tanks trail which led up some sketchy looking terrain:

Martha of course was up for the challenge and up we went.  It was signed as 0.2 miles long, the trail.  It wasn't too bad but some parts required due care.

Still we made to within sight of "the tanks".  You can see water collecting in one of the pictured holes below.

Here's views from the trail, a bit higher than the gorge's road bottom:

The walk back to the trailhead was without any issue, just a short stop to get a picture of layered rock that I found interesting:

We apparently were here at a good time this month.  The "Scenic Road" will be closed for construction starting April 30, not sure when they'll be finished but pretty sure not for a few months.

We tilted the dashcam lens a bit for the return trip from the trail head area:

This will probably be last of this type of dashcam video, lots of time to convert/edit. (the crowd cheers...)

A bit past 3:00 PM, I went on a ride on Yagi, my TW200.  I just rode what trails were available around the campsite area.  Found  that Sulphur Creek Road leads one into the Capitol Reef NP a short ways before it meets up with the US 24 Highway at Twin Rocks:

The afternoon had turned mostly cloudy, leading to some dark lighting for the landscape, but still it was OK as I retraced my route back towards camp:

I even found a small water crossing along the way:

I wandered out of the camping area and found another BLM gate to the ridge next to our campsite's ridge.  I wandered for a bit but there wasn't much riding to be done before one ran out of trail and faced the edges of the eroded ridge.

Still, one spot gave a good view of the two prominent mountains to the west near Torrey.  The one on the right is unnamed according to the Peakfinder app.  The one on the right is called The Ant Hill.  I would have thought the unnamed formation would be called Ant Hill but what do I know.

Tonight's sunset was pretty good:

Boondocking near the Capitol Reef National Park

Martha and I displaced at 8:30AM from near Westwater, UT and by Noon were near the town of Torrey, UT, on the western side of the Capitol Reef NP along the UT 24 corridor.

We found a nice spot near the town though a bit windy, conditions were otherwise optimal.

Shortly before 3PM, we headed out in the Honda CR-V about 7 miles to Panorama Point and the Goosenecks Overlook.  We went to the Goosenecks area first, walking the 1/3 mile or so to Sunset Point:

Sunset Point

Returning to the car, Martha rested a bit...

Goosenecks trail is in the same trailhead for Sunset Point.  It was a short 600 ft walk amongst rocks and boulders to the overlook.

Surfing the winds at the overlook.

That's Sulfur Creek down there....

We returned to Panorama Point:

We've recently added a 70MAI Brand Dash Cam to the VRRV/CR-V.  Mostly for recording incidents while driving but we're also exploring it as a travelogue tool.

See what you think of this video showing snippets of us driving to and from Panorama Point.

Visiting Arches NP and a Bonus Rock Formation Find

 A good day of car touring with a bit of hiking among large and scenic rock formations!

We had an 11AM reservation to enter the Arches National Park and were let in by 11:15, not too bad a wait at the fee gate.

The reservation system does seem to cut down on the crowding of the more popular parks but as the day wore on, more and more crowding conditions evidenced themselves.

Still, we got to see the rock formations Martha wanted to see.  It has been over 20 years since she'd last been at Arches NP.  In fact, she was pregnant with Thing Two at the time!

Park Avenue

Courthouse Rock

We next drove over to the Delicate Arch View Point.  A short hike but very steep at times, we may have been huffing and puffing at certain points.

I mentioned to Martha we could see the Delicate Arch from the below point along the trail, but she wanted to get closer:

Telephoto shot of the Delicate Arch with people for scale perspective:

I'd been to the actual arch on a previous trip, see here for pics closeup:  LINK

Next stop, Devil's Garden:

Entrance to the garden

Tunnel Arch

Pine Tree Arch

Part of the Devil's Garden

Finally, a short stop at the park's visitor center so Martha could get her Parks Passport book stamp.

After Arches, we stopped at the Moab Museum of Film and Western Heritage.  It was a small affair, mostly pics of folks involved with filming history in the Moab area.

As we headed north on Utah 128, I spotted a sign for Fisher Towers!  I recalled that lovely rock formation at the end of the movie: 6 Underground

The closest point you can drive to...

About 1/2 mile from Fisher Towers

Back on northbound UT 128, Martha had spotted a rock formation which looked like Hellenic Towers perhaps:  On the right below, Fisher Towers, on the left the columns:

We got back to camp sometime before 4PM and we did some packing up for tomorrow's displacement westward.  It was a bit windy but not too bad and warm enough today to almost break a sweat while hiking.