Capitol Reef

After leaving Bryce we decided to take a bit of a road trip up to Capitol Reef National Park. The waitress the night before mentioned that the drive was interesting, and combined with the cold wind and less than stellar weather, we thought "Why not"

The landscape soon looked much less red. Which felt odd.


We stopped here and there and I tried to get some shots with fall foliage


Michelle waiting by the side of the road


Vein of gold


This road was amazing, it ran right across the spine of the ridge. Michelle drove very carefully and made sure not to look over the edge


It was cold and felt like we were pretty high up


Yup.


But soon we had descended into the park


Things were looking red again

















Michelle for scale


We drove into the park and you could see signs of flooding everywhere. It's important to keep track of the weather.


Inside Capitol Gorge


You literally drive in a dried up riverbed (or should that be "flash-flood channel"?)





Michelle wanted to show what size some of the holes were


I like the patterns, colours and shape of the rocks.





Sideways


Very hard to read, but they used to mine uranium here and sell it in drinks. You know, a nice refreshing(?!) uranium beverage...


Closed mine shafts in the foreground


We also saw some petroglyphs, which were cool but difficult to photograph. There were going to be many more the next day, but we didn't know :)


It was a long drive home in the dark, but well worth it.