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| At the top of the switchbacks |
We are staying at a campground that is about a 37 minute drive from Capitol Reef National Park. It was the closest we could stay and get 3 consecutive nights accommodation, especially on short notice. It's pretty much what we look for--roomy sites with good water pressure and reliable electric and sewer connections. The campground is pretty basic, but it's quiet here. I went out in the evening to put in the awning, and there were several sheep browsing by a fence nearby. Bats swooped, looking for their evening meal.
This morning, we stopped at the ranger's station to pick up a park brochure (the visitor center is closed), and drove by a glorious pair of trees. They were massive cottonwoods. The sign nearby indicated that the one closest to the road was the place where mail was transferred from carrier to carrier, and so was called the Mail Tree. So beautiful!
Our destination this morning was the Loop the Fold road, a 124 mile drive that starts out paved, and then treats you to some pretty rough road, ending up with nice and smooth pavement. It took us about 5 hours to complete it.The "Fold" is the place where the earth's crust rose, but did not crack, creating a fold.
We had read that the unpaved part of the drive would be easily navigable by a passenger car, so we figured that it would be easy peasy. We've been on many unpaved roads in the Elantra and had no problem.So we started out down the first 15 or so paved miles with great expectations for what was to come. Then reality in the form of severe washboard road conditions hit. The fastest we could go without destroying the suspension was about 10 mph. Ray had the car hugging the right side of the road where the washboard was minimally better, but in a couple of instances we had to veer to the other side of the road to avoid giant dips in the road or voids in the road surface. Thank god there was very little traffic on the road (surprise, surprise!).
The scenery on the first part of the road was fascinating. We traveled 38 miles south on the road between 2 ridges. we were driving with "the fold" in the earth on the west. It was wild and lonely country. (In the late 1800s, Mormons settled this land in hopes of being able to farm here.) We were most focussed on just moving forward and not wrecking the car. Once we made the turn off for Burr
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| This was the angle we were ascending the switchbacks |
Trail, the real fun started. At this point, the road turns west to go across the rock reef. The washboard road then turned into switchbacks climbing the ridge. And all of a sudden, the road was surrounded by huge, gorgeous rock formations. For a mile or so, we climbed the switchbacks on the rutted dirt road. Having a standard transmission made it dicey to stop to admire the impressive views as we ascended the gravel road. But oh, my! the views were stupendous, so we stopped anyway.
After another 4 miles, we were back to paved road, and preparing for a real treat. We traveled through White Canyon flats (white boulders) to the towering red cliffs of the
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| In Long Canyon |
massive Long Canyon. What a visual treat! The rest of the road took us through forests of aspen, then aspen and spruce, then pine, and back to the main road. We did notice that views from the west side of the fold were marred by smoke from wildfires in California.
We're looking forward to our hike in Grand Wash tomorrow.
Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/LtZeaFn2Ma3LCazc8
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