Back Country Tour

-
The weather forecast didn't look that great for my third tour day in a row, dry and cloudy in the morning with thunderstorms starting at noon. But that didn't mean that the dogs didn't need to be walked so out we went just before sunrise in the chilly 40 degree temperatures



The lower areas of the desert were still too wet to consider driving out there so I decided to head up high again and see if we could get to Cathedral Valley from the top before the storms hit. It worked! The Elkhorn road was fine the roads down to Cathedral Valley only slippery in a couple of places. The clouds did look rather ominous as we descended towards the South Desert, the Henry Mountains were nowhere to be seen all day



We took a look at the South Desert then went out to the Cathedral Valley Overlook where we discovered a couple of the guests were ready to get into the holiday spirit a little early

Kevin and Amanda had brought their Christmas card props along

Naturally we all had to try them on for size, Eve and Andrew from London were good sports.

And I'm just a natural showoff!

The forecast storms didn't show up until we were back over the hill and headed up to see the leaves at Fish Lake, we got some 'polystyrene' snow up there as we drove past the lake and then as we got back to Torrey the heavens opened and there was a huge downpour. We decided to continue on and see if there were any waterfalls in the park, as it turned out the storm was very localized and Fruita was bathed in sunshine.


The Castle was very nicely lit.

Another great tour in the books, nobody was left behind and everybody got along well.



Location: Capitol Reef National Park, Torrey, UT, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hiking Spring Creek Canyon - December 2015

-
Image
Spring Creek Canyon is just south of Kanarraville and just north of Kolob Canyon near I15 in Utah. It's a beautiful canyon in the spring with lots of flowers and a nice little stream, I hadn't been there in the winter before. Quite a lot of snow at the entrance to the canyon but four or five people had hiked it so the path was easy to find, it did make for rather uneven footing though. It's about 1.5 miles from the parking area to the start of the narrow section here. I was surprised at how much water there was in the creek, the temperature was right around freezing, the sun was melting the snow off the walls I suppose. There be gold in that creek! The canyon splits and splits and splits into a maze of small canyons heading up into Zion's high country. Biff has a favourite hole he likes to climb into. The canyon is quite gloomy down in the bottom but the sun lights up the higher walls nicely. The narrowest section I went through is probabl...
Read more

Deer Creek Lake Trail

-
Image
The Deer Creek Lake Trail starts from Utah Highway 12 on Boulder Mountain on the Boulder side of the summit. The trail is one of my favourites because, although it is enough of a climb to be good exercise, it is never steep enough to hurt the knees. You can make the hike as long as you like by using the Great Western Trail which crosses it. After ascending the initial slope there are great views back over Grand Staircase to the east. The trail crosses a number of meadows between groves of Aspen trees. Janet joined me for the hike and Frikka wanted to show off her new fall fashion jacket just in time for hunting season. We met David and Chantelle from Spanish Forks on their way down from the lake, they had spent some time fishing but without any luck. Biff photo-bombed of course.  The trail monster in the trees... The very first signs of autumn were about here and there. Janet was looking forward to the dogs getting a swim in Deer Creek Lake, but the l...
Read more