Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Scones and Goosenecks

Monday, April 2, 2012

No, the title is not really what we had to eat today! but we did start the morning with scones from the little store in Capital Reef National Park.
It was COLD this morning. It was 46 in the Flintstone cavemobile this morning because we don’t usually run heat during the night. We didn’t hesitate too long to get some going this morning. The wind was still with us this morning, and it felt icy. We had dumped the tanks last night knowing it would be pretty cold to do it this morning.  IMG_4553b
IMG_4556b  Leaving the campground and park behind, we headed east. The drive out through the canyon was very pretty, and the pretty just kept going and going. And even when it quit being pretty, it wasn’t long before we were in it again.IMG_4559b IMG_4561b
We went east to a crossroads at the little spot on the map of Hanksville, then turned south toward Lake Powell. We made the decision not to take the road down to Bullfrog, and that was a good choice because the ferry across the lake isn’t going to start running until later this week.  Would have had to backtrack about 50 miles. But we missed several stamps by not going down there. IMG_4588b We stopped at an overlook just before crossing the Colorado River, then stopped at the ranger station in Hite to get a stamp. He said he didn’t have one, and hadn’t seen one last year either. I bet he scoured the place after we left and came up with it! IMG_4575b
     Our next real stop was at Natural Bridges National Monument. We got our stamps, watched the movie, and drove the scenic drive. There are short paths to three natural bridge overlooks, and we walked out to those. The cold, icy wind was howling, knocking hats off, and generally just making us cold. The first path was fairly short, and not too steep, but still made us breath hard at about 6500 feet elevation. The second path was lots longer and lots steeper, so we weren’t so sure about the third one, but it was almost level, so not bad. We have learned that natural bridges are formed by water action. If there isn’t rushing water to create the opening, then it is an arch. IMG_4614b These three bridges were at least at one time formed by water. At one, the water has taken another direction and left it dry under the bridge. IMG_4602b

     It was too early and too cold there to care about staying in their campground, so we went on to the town of Blanding where we stopped at Subway for lunch, and then fueled up. We also stopped at the VC. Barney saw an interesting picture on the wall and asked why we hadn’t seen that. It was of Goosenecks State Park, and that is where Wilma hoped to stay for the night.
Headed south again to try to see the Valley of the Gods, but water in the wash made us turn around. Many of the dirt roads are impassable when water is present. The washes get washed out pretty bad. We didn’t want to have to jostle everything around, just to get stuck in some pretty nasty mud further in. IMG_0869b
We headed out to Goosenecks State Park, where we are stopped for the night. The river here does several bends where it almost comes back to meet itself. Very interesting. This is basically just a couple of dirt parking areas with a couple of picnic tables and pit toilets. But there are quite a number of RVs here for the night. It is free. Can’t get too much better than that! And it is fun to see the goosenecks.  Most amazing is that we have some mifi here, but am running out of battery life on the computer, so will post tomorrow if able.

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