Our Capitol Reef Grand Finale is The Grand Wash

Monday September 1, 2014
Fruita Campground
Capitol Reef National Park
Torrey Utah

 

 

This is sadly our last day in Capitol Reef National Park.  Everyone has said hike the Grand Wash trail and that’s what we do as our last hike.

The Grand Wash cuts through the Waterpocket Fold from the Scenic Drive to the point where the wash empties into the Freemont River.  To get to the trailhead you must go to 2.5 miles down the scenic Drive from the Campground and then down the Grand Wash Road which is dirt and is a part of the wash for  1.3 miles.

It’s just dawn when we start down the dirt road driving through mammoth stones lining  the wash. 

The road had been closed the first 3 days we were here because of heavy rains prior to our arrival.

 

 

 

We are again the only car in the parking lot when we start out on the trail.  LOVE IT!  Judging from the size of the parking lot, this is a very popular trail.  Sure glad we aren’t here during the summer or maybe even later today.

 

 

 

The hike is 4.5 miles round trip out and back.  In these pictures it looks pretty dim between these tall walls at this time of the morning.  It didn’t seem that way at the time.   As the canyon floor narrows, cliffs loom hundreds of feet overhead.

 

 

 

 

It isn’t too long before the sun begins to hit some of the formations and light them up.

 

He looks pretty small in this landscape doesn’t he?

 

 

 

 

It’s clear this 4.5 mile hike is going to take all day long with all the things to see both on the ground and towering above us.

 

The wash is quite varied in terms of how rocky it is and how wide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can’t you just imagine the little fishes swimming around in this area when it was under the sea?

 

 

 

You can almost not even see David he is so small compared to this landscape.

 

Because of the early morning and rising sun we both have trouble with things seeming to be washed out and the shots we want being taken into the bright light. David’s camera seems to do much better today than mine so you will see an uncustomary number of pictures with me in my “you can definitely find me” orange shirt.  Although I’m so small here you can’t even see it.

 

 

The canyon narrows and twists around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at the number of other types of stone embedded in this rock. They almost look like fossils.

 

 

Who does this look like to you with his nose on the ground??

 

 

 

 

So much of this reminds me of the sea.  How about this giant oyster shell opened up. 

 

 

So like the sea caves we paddled through at Pictured Rocks National Seashore.

 

 

I’m a fair distance ahead when we come around this bend.  I decide to hide out and surprise David.  Which I do.

 

 

 

But I can’t get away with it twice.  He sees me go in here.  Still it’s a lovely view of the trail winding through the rocks.

 

 

I try it a third time but leave my hiking pole outside as a dead give away.  Oh Well.   Nice cool seat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doesn’t this look like a grand chocolate bar that someone covered with melted caramel?

 

 

This trail is so interesting that I’m gong to leave you on the caramel chocolate note and finish it up tomorrow.  Hope I didn’t make you too hungry.  Maybe a chocolate ice cream sundae with caramel sauce?  

This has been a very hard post to do because of all the pictures we took and how really fantastic a hike it was.   What to leave out is always the problem.   See you tomorrow for the rest of the story.