Framedlight

We left Scenic Drive as the sun was starting to go down and hurried to a parking place just off Highway-24, so that we could walk to Panorama Point to see the sun set. There was a beautiful tree which deserved to get the centre of attention. The sunset was not over dramatic but gave some warm soft light which accentuated the red tones of the cliffs. Capitol Reef has some of the darkest skies in the US, so after we had had our evening meal we went back to the edge of the Park to look at the Milky Way.  Mule deer grazing by in Fruita

There is one small side road from Scenic Drive and this takes you to the start of the Grand Wash Trail. Anne and I had done a part of this walk, but had started from the other end on Highway-24, so it was nice to see where we would have ended up if we had finished it. The trail starts in an open area which has a little hut, for the use of visitors, perched under some rather nicely colour matched cliffs. Anne and I had a wander around the area. Some of the rock formations were a little bizarre.  Butch Cassidy was rumoured to have hidden out here, but I think most places in Utah have a claim on that. Back on Scenic Drive The Moenkopi Formation sandstone seen here can form these towers

The Grand Wash Trail cuts through the Waterpocket Fold in Capitol Reef, running east to west from the Fremont River to Scenic Drive, one of only 6 drainage channels cutting across the whole 100 miles of the Fold. It is 2½ miles long but one way only, unless you have a car at both ends. The floor of the canyon was damp when we entered it, a reminder that this walk is best not done in stormy weather, when you might meet a torrent. In many places the sandstone was peppered with holes caused when sand grains or minerals are washed out of the rocks by water. We walked  a little over a mile until we got to the end of a section called the narrows, where the floor shrinks to only 16ft. The walls of the canyon rise up sheer for 500 ft and it was quite dark and oppressive. We met few people on our hike. A group with a leader, two couples, and two boys in their late teens or early twenties, who were listening to the bible on some audio system and commenting on the words. Maybe descendant...