2018-16
Bicknell Utah
Capitol Reef
National Park
Ducheshe Utah
Vernal Utah
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| hwy 191 near Red Fleet State Park, UTAH |
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| Red Fleet State Park, Utah |
Campground:
Aquarius Inn & Rv park, Bicknell Utah. $20 full hookup. Rv site
is separate from the hotel and contains a couple of old mobile homes.
Town currently has only one restaurant and gas station. Approx 10
miles from Capitol Reef.
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| Aquarius Inn and Rv park, easy access, cheap |
Ducheshe County
Fairgrounds. Free parking lot. Odd because they have a new Rv
campsites with full hookups, but are not able to rent them out. Read
following report.
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| Ducheshe County Fairgrounds., RV park off tot the left but currently they are not available for rent, read story.... |
Campsite: Vernal
Walmart. Parking lot, free.
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| Walmart parking lot camping |
Campground:
Steinaker State Park (Vernal) Utah. $23 partial hookup
(electric/water) $8 reservation fee. No over-the-air Tv, no Verizon
signal (must go into town, 7 miles away), good radio reception.
Campsites do not have water views, but a nice walk will bring you to
the lake.
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| Steinaker State Park |
Camper note: Plenty
of boondocking sites before entering Capitol Reef NP.
I continued my
journey along scenic route 12, stopping at a couple of scenic
pull-outs along the way. The road had been recently improved between
Cannonville and Escalante making for a pleasant drive. Evening
stopping to see an ancient “cliff granarie” high up in a
sheltered alcove. The “scenic” part of the drive came between
Escalante and Boulder. The road winds through a mountain range to an
elevation of around 9,000 feet and grades between 8,9 and even 10%.
That wasn’t the most exciting part of the trip, it came when I
reached the summit and discovered a section of the highway had no
barriers on either side of the road as I wound my way along the top
of the mountain. Shear cliffs descending on either side. I quickly
felt light headed, butterflies in my tummy and close to shear panic.
If you ever want to feel like your on top of the world, this place
would pretty much do. It seemed to go on forever, though in reality
it was just over a mile in length before land started to appear on
either side of the roadway. My heart continued to beat faster as I
slowly and I do mean slowly inched along the top of this mountain
ridge. Of course there wasn’t a guard rail in sight, all the
easier to see over the edge. Ekkk! Well obviously there was no
turning back, just the thought of that gives me shivers.
Ps: No pictures.
Are you kidding, who would want to relive that moment a second time.
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| off of the mountain ridge, I'm able to enjoy the scenery |
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| near Boulder Utah |
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| Boulder Utah, my heart rate is back to normal |
I finally descended
and entered the town of Boulder Utah where I visited the Anasazi
State Park. It has an archaeological dig of an ancient pueblo
building. Not terribly exciting, though I did notice that all of the
original wooden posts had been burned, so when the Indian’s left,
they must have burned the place down.
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| Anasazi State Park. |
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| Anasazi State Park. rebuilt |
Over another
mountain range and I descended into Torrey where I’d planned on
staying at a commercial campground. None were available in my
preferred price range, but the visitors center recommended The
Aquarius Inn/Rv park in the next town over. Turned out perfect as
the price was only $20. The next day I drove over to Capitol Reef
National Park. It contains some of the most unusual and diverse rock
formations, colors and just darn strange shape for rock I’ve ever
seen. The main entrance to the park in a valley called Fruita, a
lush stream fed area where the ancient Native Indians once farmed and
later the Mormon’s settled and began growing fruit trees. An old
school house and Petroglyph panel’s can be seen on the sides of
some of the sandstone walls. Another “scenic” drive goes
through the park, but fortunately, no death defying vistas. Just a
pleasant, if narrow road leading through the canons in the park.
Just a note, the
half dozen small towns/settlements I’ve recently passed through
have No commercial stores or restaurants, not even the usual Dollar
General or Family Dollar. We are talking really small farming towns
or in some cases, settlements on the edge of a tourist attraction.
Capitol Reef National Park
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| This is Capitol Reef, I recently read where Zion NP had an average of 30,000 visitors a day, some guests had to wait a hour and a half to get on the trams |
Distance traveled:
100 miles
Distance traveled:
58 miles
Ducheshe Utah. I
stopped at this very small town expecting to just camp out in their
parking lot. Come to find out they have a brand new campground with
full hookups but are not permitted to use it because the County
manager signed a “non-compete” agreement with the major of the
small town, since he owns a dilapidated, run down, Rv park right in
town. Can we say “dumbest move ever”. Well I did stay overnight
in the parking lot. The Fairgrounds has a lot of new buildings
including an Event Center, but once again, the only thing the place
is used for is a yearly rodeo type affair. The county preferring not
to attempt using it for anything else.
The town is pretty
depressed, I did stop in the local library and they are quite
up-to-date with electronic equipment, laptops workstations, a 3-D
printer which was kind of cool to watch and see what they had already
made. Often giving away the item to kids who come into the library.
A number of motels
and hotels have since closed and are boarded up. A newer hotel has
been converted to an Extended Stay mini-efficiency apartments.
Vernal Utah
So with not feeling
the town all that much I decided to head onto Vernal Utah, home a
large Dinosaur Museum. The museum has an excellent timeline walk
through, with appropriate fossils, petrified wood, dinosaur tracks
and of course huge dinosaur bones/skeletons, all following the
millions of years of timeline. The area has a fairly large
population, with much irrigated farmlands surrounding the town and
many of the homes and businesses must have “water rights” as well
to have lush green lawns, trees, etc. I did hear one gal saying the
property she’s on has those water rights which she has to pay an
extra $40 a month for it’s use. Keep in mind, without the two
rivers flowing through this area, it would look like the desert
environment that it really is.
I had planned on
Boondocking once again, but was thwarted with that particular
attempt. I won’t go into details, but in was not pretty…. In
place, I’m staying in a Walmart parking lot for a couple of days,
after begin able to make a reservation at Steinaker State Park
starting on Monday (Memorial Day) since all the weekend campers will
have left by Sunday or early Monday morning.
Once arriving at
Steinaker St Park, they informed me that they have 6 long term sites
not listed on the web site and they would have been able to put me on
one of those sites. So if you’re in the area and haven’t made
reservations, give them a call or stop by, they just might be able to
fit you in without a reservation.
The lake will be
drained sometime this year as they need to do repairs on the earthen
dam. They tell me about 10 feet of water will remain in the lake,
not sure how much that will be as to forming a lake/view.
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| An awesome Dinosaur Museum in town which is sponsored by multiple Government Agencies |
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| an entire wall of petrified plants |
McConkie Ranch Petroglyphs
There are quite a
few day trips to be taken from this area and I did the McConkie Ranch
Petroglyphs on Sunday. A privately owned ranch that flanks large 200
foot tall sandstone cliffs. I really enjoyed exploring these glyphs
and especially liked the various images and figures of Chiefs,
Priests/Shaman and even what appears to be an entire family portrayed
on the sandstone walls. Some figures as high as 9 feet tall. The
trail was a bit challenging with lots of rocks to climb over around
and squeeze through at times, but overall well worth the effort to
see these images close up. I really need to get a walking stick.
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| pictograph including some color, imagine what it must have looked like when 1st done |
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| all cared for on private land |
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| I could spend hours looking at these |
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| great detail |
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| most of the color has been washed off of other pictographys this is over 1,000 years old |
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| stunning design |
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| looks like an entire family,, not often depicted |
Chipmunks, prairie
dogs and deer. Wildlife you say. Well that’s about all I’ve
seen so far this past week. Steinaker State Park has lots of little
chipmunks scurrying around, willing the campers to give them a free
handout. In Vernal I saw a whole colony of prairie dogs in a vacant
lot and out at the McConkie Ranch with all the deer antlers lined up
along the fences, I actually saw a large magnificent deer running
along the edge of a pasture. Largest deer I’ve seen in a long
time.Moonshine Arch
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| a classic view of Moonshine Arch |
The visitors Center
has a number of brochures advertising 12 day trips that can be taken
from Vernal Utah. Since I’m only a mile away from the Moonshine
Arch, That’s the one I did today. After driving along a gravel and
sand road to the start of the hiking trail, I of course got lost on
my initial route. I must admit the brochure, though very detailed,
left a bit of the more important info out…. Like which direction to
take once getting to the green gate. Instead of saying go thru the
gate, the next line stated, the tour continues to the left (which was
another dirt road). But eventually I found the correct route and was
helped by a small boy-scout troupe with two den mothers leading the
way.
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| sliding down the slick rock with fine sand |
Basically a nice
mile hike each way, through some fine sand, across smooth rock
formations, as the trail continued to rise in elevation. Moonshine
Arch is a best kept secret, being only 8 miles outside of Vernal.
The massive arch is 85 feet long and about 40 feet above ground.
Next to it are large shelter overhangs. Needless to say, Utah has a
number of these gems scattered throughout the state. Really nice way
to spend an early morning.
Note: you will need
to get the brochure from the visitors center for directions as the
dirt road in not marked off of hwy 191. The only signage markers are
provided after you are on the dirt road for approx a quarter of a
mile.
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| 2 wheel drive parking area just before entering the gulch |
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| I think they are correct, this is not suitable for a two wheel drive vehicle! |
Red Fleet State Park, Utah
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| in search of dinosaur trackes |
A few miles north of
Steinaker State Park is Red Fleet State Park. I would have to say I
think Red Fleet would be a nicer state park to camp in, as they have
some really nice campsites with grass surrounding the campsites,
paved camping pad and nice trees. All overlooking an impressive lake
with boat rentals.
This is the location
of more dinosaur tracks which are accessible via a mile and a half
hike (each way) or a short boat ride, which I’ll take tomorrow as
winds are expected to get up to 25 miles an hour in the area today.
Red Fleet State Park has also been in the news lately, as tourists
visiting the dinosaur track site have unknowingly been throwing
pieces of the dinosaur tracks in the lake. Not realizing that it
wasn’t just a stone they were throwing, but an actual dinosaur
imprint.
I did make it to the
site via a kayak the following day and it has been just a perfect
morning outing. Getting to paddle out on the water in a kayak a
short distance over to the dinosaur track site. Enjoying searching
for the tracks on my own before a couple large families with young
kids descended over the hill. They had taken the land route of about
a mile and a half each way to get to the site I had just easily
paddled over too. Many of the dinosaur tracks are 150 to 200 million
years old. Only recently in time being exposed once again after all
those millions of years at having been buried under sandstone layers.
Kind of neat to be able to touch a dinosaur footprint that’s 200
million years old.
Afterwards, I
paddled around on the lake a little bit longer, enjoying the large
rock formations boardering the water. Overall a perfect mornings
outing. Though I will admit, I’m not in the best of shape for
paddling long distances I think I did alright on this venture.
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| these dinosaur tracks are between 150 and 200 million years old |
I’m continually
amazed by the stunning geologic rock formations in this area of Utah.
Signage along the highway tells the traveler which layer they are
looking at as one passes by. Having been uplifted over centuries due
to earth plate tectonic movements, earthquakes and erosion.
Well, I think that’s
more than enough to report on this week, as I continue to enjoy
traveling the back-roads. Can you believe I did all this in the past 7-10 days....
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