Up Again!

April 23 – I left my overpriced overflow spot at Kodachrome State Park, headed up the road. I guess I shouldn’t fuss about the price since I paid it, but I’ve seen BLM campgrounds that looked as good for half the price, before a geezer discount. The state park elevation was low enough that it barely touched freezing overnight.

I couldn’t resist stopping for a photo as I rolled through the big town of Cannonville. With the exception of a new motel building, this seemed to sum it up. I should have asked about the origin of the town’s name. It certainly didn’t seem like a confrontational spot.

It wasn’t very far out of town when the scenery took on a distinctive new look.

About 20 miles later, I found myself a spot in Bryce National Park’s Sunset Campground. It was nice to be early with lots of choices – they filled last night. I drove through the North Campground first, hoping to find a spot that would orient the trailer for sun on the solar panel – this was the best I found.

With a spot for the trailer taken care of, I headed on up to the end of the road at Rainbow Point and proceeded to do the lazy tourist thing. Here’s a bit of what was showing within steps of the road as headed back down the road to my 8000 ft. elevation campsite.

This, and the next two, were from Bryce Point.

And, yes, there were hikers down there!

Falling!

April 22 -- I left Torrey, Utah, headed south, on Utah’s Highway 12. It’s noted as an All-American Road.

I went up,

and I went down. In each case, more than once. First gear got a good solid workout today, just as I’d anticipated.

The intended destination for the day was Calf Creek. My source mentioned size was an issue, but it seems that our Scamp is certainly smaller than many rigs. None the less, I didn’t fit in the campground!

That didn’t stop me from being a pig in the parking lot since I got there before it filled. The parking was a double loaded driveway, but without any extra length spaces.  At 10 a.m. I was able to do a U-turn and take several spaces at the end of the row. It would have been a real challenge if I’d arrived at 1 p.m. when this picture was taken.

No camping here for me, but there was a hike. Three miles each way, and a fair bit of it was deep sand. In places the trail was getting wide as people tried to stay to the firmer edges, just making matters worse.

Part of the trail was in the shade which I appreciated.

There was a very nice printed trail guide, along with numbered posts to help you know when to look for something. In this case there were supposed to be granaries, plural. I was only able to spot one,

but it was a beauty! Once again, I sure couldn’t figure out the route a person takes to get the groceries.

A little further on, also on the far side of the canyon, were three large pictograph figures. There’s a fourth figure to the right of the obvious three, and there may be something else in the top left corner of the photograph. (As always, click to enlarge.)

This day, my goal wasn’t ruins or pictographs. The goal was the Lower Calf Creek falls. The first view through the trees was tantalizing.

At the falls itself, it was delightfully cool. A nice spot to stop for a bite to eat and watch the water… falling.

It’s a very popular hike. I didn’t see many on the trail going in, but met several in the last ¼ mile that were just starting back. After 30 minutes at the falls, I met about 20 people headed in as I was headed out.

By the way, they’re looking for a campground host for June and July. Comes with a full hook-up site and not a glimmer of connectivity.

$5 for parking or a National Lands Access Pass.

Home for the night wasn’t where I thought I’d be. I ended up in the “overflow” (aka Arch group site) at Kodachrome State Park since I was way too cheap to pay $28 so that I could plug in. $19 was bad enough! All the nice known boondock places between the two were high elevation or already taken.

This post was uploaded and scheduled thanks to the Wifi at Mickey D's in Kanab, Utah.

More Than Fruit in Fruita

April 21 -- Fruita, Utah is known for its fruit trees and Capital Reef National Park

as well as it's beautiful cliffs.

Those cliffs provided the place for lots of petroglyphs. A major portion of this panel was destroyed in 1952 when the large portion in the center fell away.

There are some figures that remain to the left side of the spalled area as well as these animals right at the center point.

To the right side of the now missing section is a number of small figures,

and then a group of larger figures that reminds me of the sort of thing you see on the back window of some family vehicles. This panel is attributed to the Hisatsinom, or People of Long Ago, sometimes called the Fremont culture.

As with many panels, when you look around, you find other images in the same general area. This cliff is clearly somewhat active - there were lots of places with just a partial image remaining and a chunk of rock gone from the cliff face.

Home for the night was the Sand Creek RV Park in Torrey, Utah. Their laundry was the primary attraction, but strong wifi, and a chance to drain tanks were important considerations as well.