An amazing day in a geologic dreamland...

Day 215
10-8-2006
Started: Outside Capitol Reef National Park, UT
Finished: Posey Lake Road, UT
Today's Miles: 33.0
Total Miles: 3163.5

As we crawled out of our tent this morning the moon was still shining brightly from high in the sky. It seemed as though the moon had decided to give the sun the day off because of how illuminating it's bright glow was on us and the surrounding sandstone. Not long after we had packed up camp the sun decided to take over the lighting duties and brought a considerable difference in temperature with it. Today was perfect hiking weather. The sky was clear and the terrain was incredible. We were hiking in a geologic dreamland. Only a mile or so into our day we entered the Capitol Reef National Park. The park is home to a monolith feature that is the largest of it's kind in North America. It's a giant wrinkle in the earth's crust that stretches for 100 miles. The enormous buckling of rock was created 65 million years ago by the same tremendous forces that later uplifted the Colorado Plateau. The unique rock feature is called the Waterpocket Fold. The Waterpocket Fold is made up of many layers of sedimentary rock. The layers were originally horizontal and formed from sediments deposited over hundreds of millions of years in various ancient environments. As mountain building began in the region the rock layers were bent, or flexed, into a huge fold. As wind and water slowly erode the fold, new features are created from the rock. The fold offers views of seemingly endless colorful cliffs, many domes, spires, monoliths, canyons, and arches. Capitol Reef National Park is named after the brilliantly colored cliffs, its vaulted white rock domes and its miles of amazing ridges, pioneers often called these ridges "reefs". Oddly, the huge feature known as the Waterpocket Fold gets its name from the small eroded bowl-like depressions in the rocks, the depressions collect pools of rainwater and are therefore called Waterpockets. Some of the area's earliest inhabitants were people of the Fremont Culture who lived here between AD 700 and AD 1250. Petroglyphs they incised onto the canyon walls can still be seen today. Wildlife in Capitol Reef National Park is most abundant along the Fremont River. It's impressive how much of an impact the Fremont River is on this region. While it disturbed the lives of many people two days ago with massive flooding, it supports the lives of many animals everyday. The wildlife that count on the river for survival and call the park home include Mule Deer, Yellow Bellied Marmot, Mountain Bluebirds, Desert Big Horn Sheep, Spadefoot Toads, and soaring high above the park are Golden Eagles. We felt like we were part of the wildlife to be seen in the park today because of all the strange looks we were getting from the many tourist who were driving through the park. They would barely slow down and stare out of their windows as they went zooming past us and all of the other amazing features that we loved viewing at our much more leisurely pace. After our hike through the park we made our way to the beautiful small town of Torrey. Torrey sits down in a valley and is currently hitting it's peak of color in it's fall foliage. The vibrant yellows and oranges that line Main Street are magnificent. We resupplied our food and water in Torrey. We will be going up over the Awapa Plateau over the next few days and the weather isn't supposed to be to great so we thought we should be well prepared, just in case. Tonight we are sitting on the eastern edge of the Plateau after climbing out of Torrey this evening. The trails and forest roads that wind all over the Plateau are not marked too well and we were warned not to get turned around, "it's pretty easy to get lost up there", said the store owned in back Torrey. We reached a fork in the Trail at one point this evening and luckily two hunters happened to be coming down off the Plateau after a day of Elk hunting. They even had a fresh kill on the front of one of their ATV's. The hunters pointed us in the right direction and once again warned us that some bad weather was coming and that the trails weren't marked all that good. We assured them that we had good all weather gear and a GPS with us so we should be alright. The clouds started getting really thick as we were setting up our tent and the temperatures have dropped significantly so we are preparing ourselves for a day of winter storms tomorrow. Tonight as we lay here awaiting dreamland we have the warmth our our sleeping bags and the memories of an amazing day of hiking in a geologic dreamland to keep us cozy, sweet dreams everyone!

Your Friends on the ADT,
Randy and Sheri
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