St. George and Capital Reef National Park and Lake Powell

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We escaped the Utah Mountains and the impending snow storm on October 1 and drove to the lower elevation of St. George, UT. The main attraction there is Snow Canyon State Park, named not for the weather but for the person who discovered the area. Lucky him to see those lovely red rock mountains for the first time. We enjoyed hiking over the slick rock and red sand and the three pools and vistas as our rewards. Our campground was called “Templeview” and sure enough we could see the Mormon Temple in the distance. St. George is a lovely town with a temperate climate.

We then drove to Capital Reef National Park over the mountain range, where it is open range for sheep and cows. We thought “Yea right, but we’ll never see them.” Big Surprise! We came across a whole herd of escaped sheep on the road, at least 200 of them hoofing it down the road looking to return home. They passed up a number of gates until the leader took a chance on one gate and the rest followed. Twenty minutes later we breathed a sigh of relief that these poor animals found home and we could get out of there. Yes, it is an adventure every day, and one of the prime benefits of travel in an RV.

We hiked Hickman Bridge and met Henning, a young man from Denmark, who shared with us how it is living in Denmark. He was working in FL for his company and took 3 months before returning there to tour the national parks across the USA. His wheels and “home” is a VW bus which he plans to ship back to Germany. Vehicles there cost 3 times as much as in the USA so shipping for about $1000 is a deal for him. We concurred that the Danes and Germans are far ahead of the USA in development of green energy, mostly wind farms planted in the ocean. We also hiked The Grand Wash where mountain water flows in the spring at a height of 8 feet.

Our friends, Marie and Richard, joined us and stayed with us a few days. We celebrated Richard’s and Terry’s birthdays as we have done together for many years. We went to the best gourmet restaurant I’ve experienced called Café Diablo in Torrey, UT. The presentation and quality of food is outstanding. We hiked Cohab Canyon which ranked very high with us. We spent an overnight at Lake Powell and hired a boat and captain to explore the waters. Gorgeous weather and great company! My professional driver (Terry) drove us through the Escalante Mountain Range, also gorgeous, and we hiked at Kodachrome State Park.

Marie and Richard returned to Montrose and we continued to Goblin State Park to explore the goblin-shaped rock formations. Then on to Moab, the home of Arches and Canyonland National Parks, and lots of jeeps, motorcycles and bicycles. We hiked Delicate Arch in Arches and Negro Bill, both interesting and challenging. We met Suzy and Doug from Tucson on a hike and spent the next 3 interesting evenings with them and hope to hook up in Tucson this winter.

We’re now in Grand Junction, CO doing some chores and shopping. Tomorrow we leave for Montrose to join Marie and Richard for a few days. The weather forecast let us know that we need to get serious about finding warmer weather next week.

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Comments

[Mike and Karen]

Capitol Reef; Where are all the visitors?
Really appreciated your blog. Just returned from Capitol Reef myself. It must be one of the most under-visited and unappreciated parks in the National system.