Grand Circle Utah - Capitol Reef National Park

 We took the scenic route UT-12 to Capitol Reef, our last stop in the Grand Circle before we return to Salt Lake City.  And was it ever scenic!  We ooh'd and ahh'd at every turn and tried to stop when we can.  Here are just a few shots from those 122 miles between Bryce Canyon and Torrey.  

Aspen grove along one stretch

The view (possibly the Grand Staircase) from near one of the highest points on the highway at around 9000 ft - it was hailing.  

It took us a few hours to drive those 122 miles and it was almost golden hour by the time we arrived at our hotel in Torrey.  This is the view from the hotel.

A sunset paraglide - must be quite spectacular up there

Sunset was just a reflection in the clouds

The following morning we set out to explore the park.  Capitol Reef National Park is described in the park brochure as "A Wrinkle in the Earth".  "Over millions of years geologic forces shaped, lifted and folded the earth, creating this rugged remote area known as the Waterpocket Fold."  The Waterpocket Fold is a classic monocline, a geological structure where rock layers are bent and tilted on one side, creating a steep slope.  This rock formation below is very typical of the sandstone one would see at the park.

Our first stop was at the petroglyphs a short distance inside the park entrance.  These petroglyphs are attributed to the Fremont Culture who lived in the area from around 600 to 1300 AD.  

Putting the petroglyphs in context - they are located in the lower right corner of this massive wall.

We continued our drive in the park but somehow missed the turnoff to the scenic drive, which turned out to be a good thing because we got to see a different side of the rock formations in the park.  They are not red rocks but grey and black shale.

In this view, the tilting of the rock layers are very obvious.

We did finally find the Scenic Drive as it was very close to the Visitor Centre and it was 8 miles of scenic wonder as you can see below.   

This is the Castle, made of fractured Wingate sandstone, formed 200 million years ago.  It overlays the gray-green layer of the Chinle Formation laid down as volcanic ash (about 245 million years old) and beneath the Chinle is the Moenkopi Formation. (NPS)

This is part of the Moenkopi Formation, a 225 million year old rock. Thin beds of reddish-brown

 shale were formed from silt and clay that came to rest in the quiet waters of lagoons, mud flats and coastal planes.  The Moenkopi was laid down in a moist tropical climate. (NPS)

Many of the escarpments at Capitol Reef look like this - rugged, steep cliffs with rock bands of differing thickness, colours, and textures lying one upon another.

At the end of the scenic drive is the entrance to the Capitol Gorge, primarily Wingate Sandstone.

I did a hike on the Hickman Bridge Trail and saw some more geological features.  It was a moderate trail that took me close to an hour to complete. 

The trail started along the Fremont River

A distinctive feature on the trail is the  white Navajo Dome

Hickman Natural Bridge

This is an "earless lizard" found on the trail nicely camouflaged amidst the sandston

After dinner we also did a short hike to the Gooseneck Overlook - nothing on the scale of the one at Gooseneck State Park but more colourful with the different coloured sandstone layers, enhanced by the setting sun.

While at the park, we attended an interesting ranger talk on geology.  One of the takeaways from the talk is the chart below showing the different ages of the rocks at the National Parks we just visited - a great wrap up for this Grand Circle tour through Utah.  What an awesome area of the world!

The following morning we drove back to Salt Lake City.  This marks the completion of the Grand Circle Utah tour.  Thank you for joining me on this amazing journey. 

Grand Circle Utah - Bryce Canyon National Park

 I visited Bryce Canyon more than 30 years ago, a quick day stopover, without realizing its geological siginificance.  This vast amphitheatre filled with hoodoos is actually at the top of the Grand Staircase, a sequence of sedimentary rock layers that extends 100 miles through Zion National Park to the Grand Canyon.  The sedimentary rock layers here "preserve more Earth history than any other place on earth", so claimed the National Park Service (NPS).  It has remained relatively undisturbed for the last 600 million years.  

It is fascinating geology - would have been great to have a geologist with us on this entire Grand Circle trip.  This time around I am visiting with a photographer's eye, watching the changing light on the landscape at sunset and sunrise.  We drove the scenic drive on our second day but the different perspectives of the red hoodoos became a blur as we went from viewpoint to viewpoint.  Once home, it took me a while to sort through the few hundred images to figure out which image is from where.  It makes sense for me to just pick one or two from each view point for this post in order to keep this from being repetitive.  What provided the different experience was a short hike down one of the trails into the canyon at the end of the afternoon - it was remarkable looking up from the midst of the hoodoos.

Grand staircase diagram from the National Park Service.  Click on the link to read an explanation of this iconic geological feature.

The Panorama from our first stop at Sunset Point 

 

As it looked like golden hour had already started, we headed towards Paria View supposedly a good place for sunset.  We had hoped to drop by Inspiration Point, another sunset spot, but the parking lot was blocked off (we didn't know at the time but heard the following day that a couple had fallen to their deaths that day).  

View from Paria Point

This was one of my favourite views at Bryce Point with the swirling lines of the hoodoos.

As we were at the top of the Grand Staircse, it is awesome watching the threatening clouds like warring gods approaching.  We didn't stay for sunset as there wasn't much of one and we were hungry!

But I did manage to get up for sunrise - well worth it!

Before sunrise from Sunrise Point

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Sunrise over the plateau

It was magical watching the amphitheatre gradually lighting up

This awesome tree teetering on the edge of the canyon caught the first light

Inspiration Point, one of the most popular spots on the rim, offered different perspectives of the amphitheatre.

Close up of the hoodoo clusters

Inspiration Point - hoodoos and red cliffs as far as the eye can see

Limestone too

Panorama at Sunset Point

Queen's Garden Trail just below the rim at Sunset Point

We went back to the lodge for lunch (the convenience of staying inside the park) and noticed the huge pillars at the front.  Bryce Canyon Lodge is 100 years old built from using local material.  The two-storey lodge is built on a stone base with oversized log framing.  A 52-foot long log beam supported the roof of the lobby. (Wikipaedia) It is reminiscent of many of the historic National Park Lodges.

A surprise sighting of a Western Bluebird near the lodge!  So surprised I could only manage a phone capture!

A not so rare sighting of a raven, except that this one is huge, almost the size of a hawk.

After lunch we headed towards Rainbow Point, which, together with Yovimpa Point, are poised at the end of the scenic drive.  It is a stunning lookout with the added bonus of expansive views of the surrounding area, putting the Bryce amphitheatre in context.  I missed Yovimpa Point but according to the NPS, you could see the various steps of the Grand Staircase in the distance.

Rainbow Point

Contrasting shades of the red and white rocks pervaded at Rainbow Point.  In the distance, I could imagine seeing some of the grey, white and vermillioin cliffs that comprised the Grand Staircase. 😉😉

From Rainbow Point we drove back to each of the viewpoints along the scenic drive - direction reversed so we don't have to be making left turns at every stop (smart decision by our driver).  By this time, we started to make quick stops because rain clouds were threatening.

Bryce Canyon National Park Map

Black Birch Canyon - a misnomer, according to NPS.  Apparently the trees are more likely aspen that were mistaken for black birch.😃

Ponderosa Canyon so named because of the huge ponderosa pines on the canyon floor, some of them measuring more than 5 ft in diameter and over 150 ft tall (NPS)


Here I zoomed in to the canyon floor where I noticed a white opening.  Looks like a castle rock..

Agua Canyon

Another shot of Agua Canyon where, according to the NPS, two prominent hoodoos command attention. On the left, is the taller of the two towers, "The Hunter." To the right is a hoodoo commonly referred to as the "Rabbit" or alternatively the "Backpacker."  (for what it's worth)  Maybe it's the angle of the shot, I couldn't see the one on the right clearly.

Natural Bridge - and here's an interesting comment on the NPS website. "Like some other features in the park, Natural Bridge is not what its name would suggest. Natural bridges are formed by the movement of a stream or river cutting through rock. The impressive feature seen here is instead a natural arch, or window, formed primarily by the expansion of ice in cracks deep within."  Hmm...I appreciate an honest writer...

Fairview Point - "Farview Point is appropriately named. Navajo Mountain, 90 miles away on the border of Utah and Arizona, can be seen on all but the worst days." It looks like this name has the blessing of the NPS, for a change.

With the sun getting low in the sky, we decided to make one last attempt to hike at least part of the canyon.  We headed down the Queen's Garden Trail from Sunrise Point, with no intention of finishing the hike other than to get some experience of what it feels like to be down in the canyon.

I would have said this looks like the Queen's statue, and other people on the web thinks so too (they called their similar image Queen Victoria hoodoo) but apparently there is another one that looked like the actual Queen Victoria statue on a pedestal.  Who is know which one is the real one!

Views along the trail with some of the hoodoos at eye level

The way up was obviously more strenuous because the rim is at 8000 ft.  But we followed the rule to allow for double the time coming up and we arrived in time for dinner.   Was even able to catch this young mule deer out for its evening snack - a wildlife sighting, a fitting end to our second day at Bryce Canyon.  The following day we moved on to Capital Reef National Park, the last leg of our Grand Circle tour.