The Rest of the Grand Wash

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

 

 

The Grand Wash hike is the Grand Finale of our shortened visit to Capitol Reef National Park.  If you didn’t see the beginning of this hike, you’ll have missed half the beauty.   You can read it here.

I left you with the chocolate caramel sundae idea after I had gone into several Sherry sized cavities to try to fool David with only limited success.

I go into one more in order to get some pictures from the inside.  I don’t exactly understand how this wears away with water unless it is during the gigantic rainstorms and flash floods that apparently fill this wash with rushing water.

 

 

 

I walk up and in here to get the pictures that follow.  Something is flying around inside but is so fast I can’t get its picture.  Bat, bird, I’m not sure.  When it first zooms down from above, it shocks me and I let out a shriek.

 

 

 

 

Just look at the beauty in here.

 

 

By this time we are on our way back on this 4.5 mile hike in and out from the parking lot in the wash.   The road in, the parking lot and the hike are all in the wash.  Be sure to check the weather before coming here.

 

 

Of course when you are going the opposite direction many things look totally different and you see things you did not see when you passed this way before.   Or perhaps you were too busy watching your step over the rock strewn wash.

 

 

Whatever the reason I didn’t see this elephant head that I call Gaelyn for my friend who loves elephants.   Do you see it?

 

It does have a bit of a trunk problem but the eye and ear are still there.

 

We are still feeling very small in this very large landscape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s all so amazing, the size of it, the details of it, the colors of it.   Sometimes it seems as if the eyes of the canyon are upon us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other times it seems as though we must be under the sea or at the bottom of a huge  canyon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We laugh out loud when we meet up with this.   Oh NO!

 

 

 

The light for photographs has improved as we have hiked. But the sun has gotten stronger and I’ve donned my sunbonnet in defense. It looks pretty quirky but it sure does the trick in keeping the sun off of my face. Those 19th Century farm ladies know what they were doing.

 

 

He’s definitely center stage don’t you think?

 

 

 

 

The minerals which color these rocks are simply marvelous.

 

 

We are nearing the parking lot when we find what looks like petrified wood but isn’t.  Sure fooled us from a distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we get back to the parking lot, we aren’t surprised at all the cars.  We’ve seen a lot of people going the other way as we’ve been coming out.  But mostly we  have had this hike to ourselves probably because of our early start.

 

 

Even if you don’t hike the Grand Wash Trail you really must at least drive down the road and see this magnificent approach to the trailhead.  Here are just a couple looks at the dirt section of the drive.

 

 

 

 

Had it not been for the roadside sign that caused us to stop and take a look we would never have known about the mine located here.  A claim was first filed in 1904  but it was in the 1920’s that uranium ore from this mine was ground up and mixed into drinking water or worn in packets on waistbands or on arthritic joints to “cure” rheumatism and other ailments.  Now that’s pretty scary.

The information tells us there are no statistics to indicate which was more harmful, the diseases or the cure.

 

There are many signs today warning you away from the radiation here. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While others are out hiking the wash in mid afternoon, we relax with the Fremont River on our last day in Capitol Reef National Park.  We sit and read by the river, walk up stream in the river.  The only thing we don’t do is go get on our bathing suits and sit in it.  It’s less than a foot deep but flowing at a good clip.

 

 

 

 

Capitol Reef is definitely one of Utah’s great parks.  I only wish we hadn’t had to cut our stay in half.  We can hope to return some day and spend more time if that becomes possible.

 

 

Not knowing whether we will be able to come west again, David doesn’t want to skip anything even if we have to shorten things up considerably.

It’s been a perfect day here. We’ll see you tomorrow for a short visit to Arches and Canyonlands as we begin our trip back to Doctorville.