April 22, 2007: Southeastern Utah
The landscape in the Colorado Plateau region of the southwest is some of the most spectacular we have seen on our entire trip. Deep canyons, towering rock cliffs, arches, and natural bridges abound. In case you weren't aware, a bridge was created by and spans flowing water, whereas an arch is just an eroded hole in a wall of rock. At left is a bridge in Natural Bridges Nat'l Monument.
We camped overnight in Hite, an old mining boom town that was swallowed by Lake Powell after the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam. We had the campground completely to ourselves. We probably had the surrounding 30 square miles to ourselves too.
In the morning we drove up to Capitol Reef Nat'l Park. The park centers on the Waterpocket Fold, a 100-mile long monocline that has been eroded into canyons, spires and domes by the Fremont River. We camped in Fruita, an old Mormon village that the park service took over.
We headed south towards Bryce Canyon and encountered a storm. The road took us over an 11,000 ft pass and it was snowing pretty heavily up there. The plows hadn't reached the summit, and we had a good scare as we passed a few folks who got stuck.
The landscape in the Colorado Plateau region of the southwest is some of the most spectacular we have seen on our entire trip. Deep canyons, towering rock cliffs, arches, and natural bridges abound. In case you weren't aware, a bridge was created by and spans flowing water, whereas an arch is just an eroded hole in a wall of rock. At left is a bridge in Natural Bridges Nat'l Monument.
We camped overnight in Hite, an old mining boom town that was swallowed by Lake Powell after the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam. We had the campground completely to ourselves. We probably had the surrounding 30 square miles to ourselves too.
In the morning we drove up to Capitol Reef Nat'l Park. The park centers on the Waterpocket Fold, a 100-mile long monocline that has been eroded into canyons, spires and domes by the Fremont River. We camped in Fruita, an old Mormon village that the park service took over.
We headed south towards Bryce Canyon and encountered a storm. The road took us over an 11,000 ft pass and it was snowing pretty heavily up there. The plows hadn't reached the summit, and we had a good scare as we passed a few folks who got stuck.
posted by Thomas and Stacey at 10:39 PM
2 Comments:
What does "camp" entail in the Widger World?
We are self-contained. We can carry 80 gallons of fresh water, 15 gallons of liquid propane, we have a generator, an a/c, a furnace, toilet, shower, fridge, oven, stove, and microwave. We can 'camp' wherever we park if it is legal. In SE Utah, there are many remote places legal and free to do so. There are also campgrounds in state and nat'l parks where it is cheap to 'camp'.
If we had stayed in an RV park (which offers electricty, city water pressure, sewer, cable tv, and wifi connections) we would not have said we had 'camped.'
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