Capital Reef National Park

Over the last few years I've passed by this park each and every time while riding highway 24. This was my first visit to Capital Reef National Park. Unfortunately it was a quick visit since it was raining today. I hope to ride through here the next time I’m in the area.

Dalton took this picture and the one below it, the rain hasn't started yet at this point

Amazing views - you can't see this stuff from highway 24

The curvy road through the park, below is the same spot but zoomed in

Colorful canyons, ridges, buttes, and monoliths

The pavement ends at Capital Gorge

We ended up hiding from a thunder storm at these covered picnic shelters

The sun came out for a brief few minutes between rain clouds

Capital Reef Road

Torrey to Green River, UT

The rain was just moving off this morning. Everything was sopping wet which made packing up camp a very slow process. The sun finally did come out for a bit which helped to dry out the tents. Since it had been raining most of the night but not so much this morning and not that much last evening, we considered ourselves lucky. We’ve had pretty good weather the last few days. This was my 7th consecutive day camping and touring, which was a record since on other trips the rain had always managed to change a nigh of camping in to moteling.

Thousand Lakes Campground in Torrey, UT

Everything wet this morning from all the rain last night

Views from the campground

So far we have stayed on the pre-planned route for this trip. The only two things that were changed, was staying in Hanksville a few days ago when the plan had called to stay in Torrey and staying in Torrey last night when the plan had called to stay in Hanksville.

But as we left Torrey we ran in to more rain at Capitol Reef National Park. We rode most of the park in the rain. At the end of the paved road in the park we sat at the covered picnic shelter waiting for the thunder storm to pass. The weather wasn’t looking good for today.

A stop on highway 24

Highway 24

Capitol Reef National Park

The rain starting to fall at Capital Reef N.P.

We got back to Hanksville and stopped for lunch at Stans Burger Shack. The rain kept coming down hard so we deceived to wait it out at the restaurant and figure out what we were going to do. There really wasn’t enough time to ride our original route with the rain delay this morning and at the park and now. The original route had us riding on 95, my favorite road, to 191 then over to 46 in UT which turns to 90 in CO. Then riding 141 and camping in Fruita at the Colorado River State Park. The plan was to also ride through the Colorado National Monument. Out of the whole trip today was longest planned riding day already at 343 miles and since we didn’t start out in Hanksville, but 50 miles west in Torrey, at almost 400 miles total, it just wasn't possible with the rain.

Rained out at Stan's Burger Shack in Hanksville, UT

Lunch at Stan's - those were some yummy burgers

My traveling monkey saturated and heavy with rain

We kept monitoring the weather, which was showing several storms passing through. It was very hard to figure out if we should even attempt to camp tonight. After throwing some ideas out there we decided to just take the quick way and grab a motel room for the night. From Hanksville we took highway 24 to I-70 and grabbed a room at the Comfort Inn in Green River, UT. All we had to do tomorrow is jump on the interstate.

Our 110 mile route today: highway 24, the road through Capital Reef N.P. and I-70

Back to the old country!

After a solid 24 mile ride this morning (what a treat to get up at 6:30 am instead of 5:30 am!), Zdenek and I are headed to the homeland today!

I look forward to enjoying Tim's from the source, visiting my favourite Canadian drugstore, and the ability to look in my wallet and immediately tell how much money I have because the bills do not all look the same. I look forward to visiting a part of my country that, pathetically, I have never been to, and celebrating Canada Day on Prince Edward Island with my fellow Canucks. I look forward to visiting Cape Breton Island and the Cabot Trail (pictured above), and I'm betting this will not be the last time we go. I look forward to spotting whales, seeing the world's highest tides, and visiting one the UNESCO World Heritage sites in North America. And I am salivating at the thought of eating Digby scallops, PEI mussles, and lobster, lobster, lobster!

Off we go!

Bryce Canyon N.P. to Torrey, UT

After our morning hike (see previous post), we hot the showers, then grabbed some food for breakfast at the general store. Then we rode over to the campground packed up and rode over to the end of the road and the last scenic overlook at Bryce Canyon National Park. The road through the park was fun with nice pavement and curves, although there was a bit of slow traffic on it. We only stopped twice as there were just too many scenic overlooks and we didn’t have enough time to stop at all of them.

The road through Bryce Canyon National Park

Yovimpa Point and Rainbow Point at 9,105 ft in elevation are the last overlooks in the park and the highest area of the park

We also stooped at the Natural Bridge Scenic Overlook on the way back out of the park

We departed Bryce Canyon and headed back east on highway 12. The clouds were rolling in threatening rain, but at least it wasn't as hot. We grabbed a late lunch at a subway along highway 12 and arrived in Torrey. There were a few campgrounds in town, but I had looked one of them up on the internet before this trip and wanted to check it out in person before settling on any of the others we have passed. Thousand Lakes campground was on the west side of town on highway 24 but it was worth riding the extra few miles to find it.

Scenic overlook on highway 12

Highway 12

Highway 12 and the nasty tar snakes

Dalton heading over Boulder Mountain on highway 12

More highway 12

Tent camping was $18 per night. There was a store on premises, which stocked beer and ice. There were showers, laundry faculties and a swimming pool. And this place wasn’t as run down as the one in Hanksville that we camped at two nights ago. This place was great!

Our 132 mile route for today: Bryce Canyon N.P., highway 12 and 24

Just as we got our tents up a storm moved through the area. We thought that would be it for rain but a few hours later a larger storm moved in and this one was there to stay. It was raining when we went to bed and it continued to rain for most for the night.

Thousand Lakes RV Park and Campground in Torrey, UT

The tent sites had these cool privacy dividers

The tent sites were a bit cramped but the campground had lots of amenities and it was very clean

With a name like that, we just had to try it

The view from the Thousand Lakes Campground

A big storm moving in with lots of wind and rain