ON THE ROAD WITH ROSA

Source:  Kristian Bjornard on Flickr

 "But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!" 

"But little Mouse, you are not alone,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often askew,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!" ----Robert Burns

Ron and I Laid our Best Plans for a fall color vacation year in southern Utah this year. We wanted to see Cedar Breaks NM, Grand Staircase Escalante NM and Capitol Reef NP.   This is how our BLP originally looked:  Day 1: drive to Cedar City, which advertises a Fall Color Loop that encompasses Cedar Breaks and other spectacular fall color opportunities in the area. Day 2:  Visit Cedar Breaks and enjoy fall color.  Day 3:  because GSENM is mostly remote and undeveloped, we chose to explore it in two ways.   For this day, we booked a commercial sightseeing day trip with Dreamland Safari Tours in the southern area near Kanab. Day 4: This day go north and drive Scenic Byway 12, which includes the towns of Escalante, Boulder and Torrey.  Day 5:  Capitol Reef NP.  Day 6:  Catch anything else we wanted to see at Capitol Reef, then drive home.  

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

The Wednesday before our Sunday leave date, I noticed a small article in the newspaper saying Hurricane Rosa would be sending some remnants north and east from Baja California, including much of Arizona and into Nevada as well as, you guessed it, southern Utah.  We immediately started checking the NOAA website for updates.  The predictions for severe weather and rain became more dire.  We were particularly concerned about our (expensive) commercial trip booked for Tuesday, as they have strict (and expensive) cancellation and rescheduling policies.  Ron called them Thursday afternoon to see what they had to say.  Because the nature of weather forecasting is famously inexact, they said they like to wait until the day before to make any decisions.  We told them we could and would reschedule, and they agreed to the possibility without penalty.  By Saturday, the Tuesday forecast for the Kanab area was a 100% chance of heavy rain.  Now we were plenty nervous, and called again and asked for a reschedule for Monday.   If they could get ahold of the other person booked for Tuesday, they were willing to reschedule us.  They could and did.  Whew!  We also noticed that Saturday was a Red Flag Day for the Cedar Breaks area.  A Red Flag Day can pretty much do in the bulk of fall color in a fell swoop.  But...we were satisfied with making the adjustments we could and leaving the rest to Mother Nature. 

Hurricane Rosa.  Source:  Wikimedia Commons

Though we prepared for what Rosa might take away in the form of rainy and windy weather, our experience ended up being what she gave us instead.  Rosa provided an outstanding cloud show our entire trip. Because they were so dramatic,  I included clouds in most of my photos.

A reminder here that you can click on any picture to see an enlarged version.

Day 1:  Cedar Breaks

We drove directly to Cedar Breaks and did an abbreviated color drive.  Not sure if was the Red Flag day or the 10,000' elevation at Cedar Breaks, but there were only spots of color left in the Monument.  They were brilliant spots, though. 

Besides fall color, Cedar Breaks includes some of the fantastic geology of the area in the form of this large amphitheater, filled with otherworldly shapes:

  Notice the fall color on the distant mountains:

 

 

We were well pleased with Day 1!

Day 2:  Dreamland Safari Tour

We chose to do a commercial tour of the southern part of GSENM because we'd heard from more than one source that the roads could unexpectedly need a high clearance vehicle and they were impassable during rainy conditions.  We chose Dreamland Safari Tours and let them do the driving in a vehicle that could do the job.  Along with three other clients, we hopped aboard this vehicle:

with our guide Steve:

Source:  Dreamland Safari Tours

and headed for the outback.  Rosa threatened with this

but we ended up without a drop of rain the whole day.  Steve was a great guide.  Very relaxed, he was keenly aware of the weather conditions and chose from available alternatives to keep us safe and on the road.  The road we traveled was well maintained, and ironically, without rain was passable by cars, motorhomes, and vehicles pulling trailers.  Steve assured us that the lightest of rains turned the clay surface instantaneously impassable, and many was the time he had witnessed the consequences.  That confirmed our choice.  Steve has been guiding in the area for two years, and was generous with what knowledge he had about geology, geography and the sights of the route.

What turned into a consistent pattern for the remainder of the trip, we found that though much of the country we traveled through was remote, it was the opposite of unsettled.  The Mormons' hands were everywhere, and they were busy hands.  Agriculture was abundantly evident, with green fields watered by sprinkler or pivot irrigation.  There was plenty of domestic livestock, including this less-common variety of bovine:

In the heyday of western movies and television shows, the area was a commonly used natural setting.  This is one of the buildings from the Gunsmoke TV series:

There were many long views like this:

Keeping an eye on the weather, we took a short hike through a slot canyon.  Steve took this photo:

Slot canyons are endlessly fascinating to the eye:

We had lunch at Kodachrome Basin State Park, with this view:

We were glad it was a dry road.

The day ended at The Toadstools, another geologic wonder. 

We were well pleased with Day 2!

Day 3:  Scenic Byway 12

This was the 100% chance of heavy rain day.  It did start raining in the early morning and was still sprinkling when we got up. Since it wasn't torrential, we decided to exercise our flex-plan and see if we could find accommodations in the town of Escalante for the night.  Having success on that front, we drove north then east to start our drive on Scenic Byway 12.  It did not disappoint!

Rosa had a heavy presence all morning, but we didn't get more than light rain.

We were scenery-stunned when we arrived at well-named Red Canyon, a gateway to Bryce Canyon NP.

We enjoyed the whole Rosa-enhanced drive to Escalante.

That tourism was secondary to the town of Escalante was evident. It's small and has many historic buildings that are no longer in use. Its past included ranching, logging and mining. Now there are more tourist-oriented businesses, with several motels, restaurants, a few eateries and tours of the area.  Enough to keep the current population of 800 occupied.  We drove around a bit after checking in to our motel, then took a late-afternoon jaunt to nearby Petrified Forest State Park.  We chose a short but steep hike and had nice examples of petrified wood to view.  As we have visited Petrified Forest National Park two hours east of Flagstaff several times, it was interesting to see the difference in the wood.  According to Geology.com, petrified wood is formed when trees fall and are buried by sediment.  Over geologic time, inorganic materials replace the plant material, with the color of the wood reflecting the local variations.

In Utah, tan and gray colors predominated,

while in Arizona, reds and browns are more common:

Source:  Wikipedia

Coming back down the trail, Rosa still had a presence.

 

We were well pleased with day 3!

Day 4:  Finish Scenic Byway 12.

We started this day surprised to drive into dense fog. 

As it lifted, more amazing landscape was revealed.

A side trip on Hell's Backbone Road, accurately descriptive, took us up into fall colors again.

Lunch with this view:

Up again in elevation, we started hiking the trail to Chriss Lake.  We didn't quite make it to the lake, but it was this kind of color that kept stopping us!  

We arrived in Torrey, the gateway town to Capitol Reef NP, well pleased with Day 4.

Day 5:  Capitol Reef National Park

Perhaps because Capitol Reef NP is a lesser known park (at least to me), I had the effrontery to presume that it was in fact a lesser park.   What a glorious way to be taken down a notch!  I'm here to testify that Capitol Reef holds its own with Bryce, Zion, Canyonlands, & Arches NPs.  The park is dominated by a geologic feature called the Waterpocket Fold, which is a wrinkle in the earth's surface approximately 100 miles long.  The result of the geologic activity that formed the Waterpocket Fold is spectacular!

Rosa gave us a cold and windy start to the day, but soon enough the wind died, it warmed up, and the day was delightful.

This is Capitol Dome, for which the park was named. It is one of a series of similar formations in the Park.   The white color indicates it's made of  Navajo Sandstone.

The red colors are indicative of the Moenkopi Formation, making for striking visuals throughout the park.  

People have long taken advantage of the confluence of the Fremont River and Sulphur Creek that form the lush valley through which the park is driven.  Evidence of ancestral peoples include petroglyphs

as well as the irrigation ditches that were used by later Mormon settlers.  The town of Fruita was established by the Mormons in the valley and so named because of the extensive orchards they planted. The park maintains the orchards and some of the buildings as a Historic District.

Barn and pasture.

Restored one-room schoolhouse.

Gifford House.

We hiked a couple of short hikes, drove a couple of short drives, and enjoyed the sights 'til the day was done.

We returned to our room in Torrey at the end of the day, well satisfied with Day 5!

Day 6:  Drive home.

With a full day of driving ahead of us, we made an early start.  It was too dark to see much as we drove through the park on the state highway that was our route home.  By full daylight, we were happy to stop at Blondie's Eatery in Hanksville for a hearty breakfast.
 

Source:  tripadvisor.co.nz

Scenery was still enjoyable, though not as breathtaking. Were we spoiled?  Rosa was still present, but not as imminent.  We saw a road sign for Natural Bridges National Monument and decided to stop.  We walked in the Visitor Center and immediately noticed the bulletin board that advised that Highway 89 between Flagstaff and the Tuba City turnoff, our direct route home, was closed.  Initial reports were that Rosa's downpour had caused sinkholes under the roadway, which would take months to repair.  Later assessment showed the roadbed had been washed away, and that was repaired in a few days.  Today, however, for us and many like us, a significant re-route was in order.  190 miles of re-route.  3 hours of re-route, because all but the last 60 miles was 2-lane highway.  

We did the math and thanks to our early start decided we could still enjoy the drive-through at Natural Bridges NM.  We were able to ask one of the rangers our burning question:  What is the difference between an arch and a bridge?  We had seen both. They appear the same.  Answer:  Bridges are caused by a waterway wearing away the rock over time.  Arches are caused by processes of weathering, but not water underneath.  There were trails to the bridges, but our new time schedule allowed for sight-seeing only.

After this short visit it was all about the road.  We arrived home in Flagstaff, well satisfied with Day 6 and the whole of this fantastic journey. 

                                                                   

             People don’t take trips – trips take people.”

                                                                                               – John Steinbeck