May 1 Driving Blanding to Capitol Reef and MuleyTwist Inn

Woke up to rain and snow in Blanding. Barb’s excellent weather app said the clouds would lift as we headed towards Torrey and Capital Reef N.P.  Time to pack and head west!

First stop, just a few miles down scenic highway 95 was Butler Wash ruins – an easy but rewarding walk along sandstone edged with cactus with a (spring) purple tinge, juniper, pinon pine and small flowers cautiously appearing. Something was leaving bite marks on the cactus! We wondered what brave animal that was.  

 A 15 min. walk brought us to the edge of a canyon, now full of cottonwood, bright green with new leaves. Across the way, in alcoves were some Ancient Puebloan ruins. We admired them from a distance and wondered some more.

In fact, the day was full of wonder and guessing – particularly about the rock formations: why were coloured the way they were, or layered or wavy, or why, west of Hanksville, were they suddenly devoid of colour altogether, like a moonscape? We made lots of guesses, and are willing to educate ourselves, but geology proves to be a complex subject that leaves me thinking that wondering and guessing is rewarding enough.

After many miles of grand landscape – steep red cliffs on one side, yellow-white canyons on the other, dotted with dramatic buttes, we stopped at Hite, right where the road crosses the Colorado River on a lovely silver bridge. 

A sign indicated there was a boat ramp and picnic facilities along with a warning that there was no lifeguard on duty. It was lunch time and we decided to eat by the mighty Colorado and maybe dip our feet in. What a surprise to find no river at the end of the long boat ramp, and only a lonely, weathered picnic bench looking out on a stretch of weedy plants! The backdrop was wonderful though – vertical red cliffs in all directions, so we pulled out lunch and wondered where the river went.

Turns out it was there, but about a 15 min. walk through the weeds and prickly brush and a few dried sections of mud. So we stood briefly at the Colorado and watched the muddy water gallop by us, wondering at the change in circumstances of what was once, apparently, a thriving recreational area.

A description of what has happened to the Hite "MARINA" is posted here. https://rrfw.org/riverwire/sediment-clogs-river-runner-access-former-hite-marina
Very sad. 

Before, when there was more rain, the river came up 70 feet higher. They built the Powell River Reservoir and that has had alot of impact on the sediment levels in the reservoir. 

The Hite Marina has closed. Stores have moved. Boaters have to set their boats on the river 45 miles downstream. Now the boat ramp is dry and the vegetation is slowly taking over the river banks that once were covered with water. There is a strong protest movement to reestablish the Colorado River to what it was like before the dam was built.

Barb sitting right on the "riverfront" watching the river flow. :) 

Beautiful shades of green against the many red colours. 

The river must have been at least 4 meters high at this place. 

Click on the photo to see the panorama in a better size. 

The mighty Colorado River?

The view from above, looking down on our picnic place.

Find our "boat ramp" the big square cement area.

Barb was quietly concerned as the glorious landscape slowly deteriorated as we continued west; we moved through areas where the rocks seemed destroyed by a giant jack hammer and then hit the “dead man’s land” where the familiar formations returned but they were eerily colourless – for miles! Barb had emptied her camera battery on the morning photosafari, driving through the beautiful canyonlands, so we will have to link to another site with a beautiful picture of the Badlands.
http://guytal.com/gtp/gallery/showgallery.jsp?gid=109. The photographer, Guy Tal, has taken some beautiful photos. Defientely worth visiting his phtos of this area.

All was right again when Capitol Reef came into view, and we could wonder again at the marvelous colours, forms and lines of the canyons.

We will be based at Muley Twist Inn in Teasdale, Utah, just outside of Torrey, 15 min. from the western border of the Park. This is a lovely B&B that I have stayed at before, run by an energetic woman who is about my age and just retired after 36 years on the Aspen Ski Patrol! She spends 6 months there, and 6 months here. The rooms are full of beautiful art and crafts (quilts, pottery, iron work . . .). We will have a very happy 4 nights and 3 days here.  http://www.muleytwistinn.com/