Capitol Reef NP & Grand Staircase – Escalante Grand Staircase NM

October 7 – 10, 2018: More amazing scenery to be viewed in Utah, amongst the crazy weather of rain, snow and clear blue skies.

October 8th, we awoke to snow in Torrey, UT, which is just west of Capitol Reef National Park and north of Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument. Despite the weather on the north side of Escalante area, we ventured out in Vigo, our trusty mount. We passed a young man riding his bike up the pass in heavy snow with barely a shoulder to ride on. So we turned around and picked him up and took him to clear weather on the other side of the pass, near Boulder, UT. It turns out he already rode from Wisconsin and is on his way to Chile! The weather on the south side of the pass was good enough for the photos below.

Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument

Drive to Escalante from Boulder, UT

Hogback

Drive up toward Boulder, UT

Camping in Torrey, UT

Our new friend and his 100 lbs of bike & gear!

Hwy 12 between Torrey and Boulder, UT

October 9: The snow and rain cleared and we were able to tour and hike around Capitol Reef National Park. All of the dirt roads were closed due to the previous rain and subsequent wash outs. In both Capitol Reef NP and the Moab area we saw where maintenance folks had to use snow plows to shovel red mud and debris from the roads. Capitol Reef is interested for it’s 100 mile geological feature that is essentially a fold between two plates of the earth as well as it’s little green oasis along the river where a small group of Mormons settled and lived for about 70 years. There are fruit orchards where we picked apples and one of the original farm houses where there is a small museum and they sell locally made PIES! We had to have their pies!