Torrey, Utah - the bad and the very good

 We pulled into Thousand Lakes RV Park in Torrey, Utah on Monday, Sept. 5.    It was still extremely hot, over 100 and the drive up to 9000 ft. was tough on old Beluga.    She made it without complaint even though her temperatures were hotter than usual.     Needless to say we were happy to arrive and get settled.      Even though I made the reservations back in March, we were given  a 30 amp.  electric and water back in site instead of the hoped for 50 amp. full hook up one.    Ah well.     With a little creativity we can work things out for a week.      The view behind Beluga was spectacular!

  The site was extremely narrow, more so than any other we've encountered in our years of RV'ing.  We filled it side to side and pretty much back to front. 

When we first arrived,  I thought we could place our chairs in the tiny spot between the back of  Beluga and the fence and enjoy those views if the temperatures dropped a bit.     We were there for 7 days so it would be fine.     Until neighbors moved in on either side of us.   One was a gigantic fifth wheel with slides on BOTH sides, effectively hanging over the rocks onto our side.    We could barely get out our door and absolultely could not use any of our awnings.    I had to be careful not to bump my head on their slide as I exited Beluga each time.     Sheesh.          On our other side was a trailer and truck which took up most of their side.    They set up their picnic table in their own tiny space, thus preventing us from getting to the rear of Beluga.   Grrr.

The other "bad" thing was that the road in front of the park, and all the way past the National Park, was under construction and restricted to one lane of traffic at a time.      It wasn't noisy or intrusive - unless you wanted to go anywhere.    Then we could expect at least two (or more sometimes) 15 minute delays sitting behind a flagger until the "follow me" truck came to get us.    If you were unfortunate enough to need gas and pulled into the fuel station, you ran the risk of losing your place and having to start the wait all over again.    UGH.       We did manage to get in and out of the little Farmer's Market on Main Street without problem.   We expected them to be working on the weekends, but - joy! -they weren't! 

  

What a spoiled woman I am....moaning about being stuck in construction traffic and having to endure a less than perfect rv spot.     

beautiful scenery to look at, right?

bedroom window view

I realize it's not correct to start with complaints.    One should begin by talking about all the good things, the beauty, the happiness.....before revealing the unpleasantness.     I learned that from Jesse's piano teacher years ago.     I did it wrong, please forgive me.     

 So, now I'll show you all the very good things and places we experienced in our all too brief visit to the Torrey, Capitol Reef area.    Lots of pictures coming, if you aren't interested in rock pictures, exit now.

Once through the afforementioned construction traffic and the not mentioned bored Visitor Center folks, we had an absolute ball.     We tempted fate and pulled out of traffic once to check out one of the viewpoints, a mile or so off the highway on a dirt road.    It was very very hot, but we decided to walk a short way to the edge of a bluff and view the gooseneck of the Fremont River.     It was a fun trail over slick rock with no one else in view.     

see Dave ahead of me?

I couldn't quite make myself get any closer to the edge to get a really good picture of the curve in the river below....way too far below.  

Back at rt. 24 we were able to join traffic going in the correct direction (i.e. the direction we wanted to go) and continue along and into Capitol Reef.    After a brief stop at the Visitor's Center we did a little exploring of the small Fruita Historic District.  It contains more than 2500 fruit trees originally planted alongside the river by Mormon pioneers and visitors are free to pick any of the apples, peaches, cherries, etc., and enjoy them in the park.    The nearby Gifford House makes and sells pies from this fruit and is quite a popular place. often with lines out the door.    I didn't take any pictures of the fruit trees, no place to stop along the road....

As Dave said, I was vibrating.     I love this scenery more than any other and I was clearly on overload, unable to decide which way to turn, what to see, etc.  so his suggestion to go back home and "center" myself and make a plan was gratefully accepted.      Thanks Dave, you always know what I need.

sometimes I get so excited to take a picture, I forget to close the door!

 

 

 

Properly centered and organized we thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our stay.    Let me show you some (lots) of photos of what we saw and did.

Ferns nipple.....

The scenery was spectacular and larger than life, but I try to remember to look at the details around me as we move along.

large, round black rocks tossed everywhere

dry wash bottom

  

In the park itself, we stopped at the Gifford House to purchase two of their oft recommended pies (one cherry and one peach)  and then took the paved Scenic road, enjoying the views along the way, until the pavement ended.   We were urged to continue on the dirt portion of the road through a fantastic and narrow canyon leading to the trailheads for the Golden Throne and a couple others (can't remember the names...)  Pam was right....get it?......the road into the canyon was spectacular.    Unfortunately many others in their rental cars also wanted to do this canyon.    Why, I'm not sure.    They seemed to race ahead of us (on a curvy, one lane dirt road) in their mission to get to the end.   The good thing is that most of them raced in and raced back out past us, cough cough, so that by the time we arrived at the road's end and turned around they were gone!      Our return trip was tranquil and beautiful. 

 

   

  Another day we took rt 12 towards Escalante.     Again, a beautiful road, through those wonderful rock formations, and up into the pine forests.    Along the way we turned off onto a dirt track that looked like it would take us to a reservoir.     Fun drive, low water in Bown Reservoir, but it was the journey for us, not the destination.

yay! desert pinstripes

The real reason for our drive down rt 12, however, was to have linner at the fabulous Hells Backbone Grill in tiny Boulder, Utah.   

This place is a legend among almost everyone traveling through Utah.    To sustain a restaurant of this calibre in a town with less than 300 people is unheard of yet it thrives there with beautifully and carefully prepared meals and drinks, friendly and welcoming service in delightful surroundings.    Small, fresh bouquets of flowers on the tables (and sprinkled over salads and mains) one tiny mint leaf floating in immediately refreshed glasses of local spring water, no detail is lost.  The vegetables served are grown in their garden, the cheeses are local as are the organic, free range and local proteins.

It is only open for dinner and takes no reservations.   Seating is outside only, the dining room has not yet opened since you-know-what descended upon us.   

 

take the picture already!

Oh My......

One of our last days in the Torrey area we just took out our Utah Benchmark Atlas and picked an unpaved road (in the opposite direction from the east bound construction) to see what we might see.  It turns out we picked a road (Fish Creek Cove, I think) that ended up giving us a big surprise.    It started out paved and quickly twisted behind the Cock's Cove formation and down through more fantastic rock formations and then to dirt.  

 

I saw a tiny wooden sign by the side of the road that simply said "petroglyphs".   Nothing more, but it was all we needed to keep going.     We pulled over at a wide spot in the road for lunch, but it was too hot to get outside.    Lunch in air conditioning with majestic views all around isn't a bad thing.

We eventually came to a spot in the road that signaled the end of our drive.    A drainage culvert had caved into a huge hole, waist deep and the entire width of the road.    No way around, no way through.    

Dave crawls into the hole....too deep to drive through says he

As I said, it was murderously hot but that sign said "petroglyphs" and there was a sheer wall of sandstone in the distance.    It had to have petroglyphs on it, it just had too, so I took off my sandals, pulled on my boots and off we went to see.

can you see the pictographs at the base of the wall ahead?

There they were!   And not just petroglyphs, but huge pictographs too!   What a find.  There was some graffiti, some damage to the panels, but some of the "modern" graffiti was from 1873! 

The pictographs were huge, each animal at least 4-6 feet long.   None of them had heads....and it looked like the red dye was splashed as if to show blood from a hunt.   

These drawings and carvings were made by people probably living over 1000 years ago.   It always raises goose pimples when we are in the presence of such things in their silent and beautiful surroundings.

 

What an unexpected and wonderful day!      We hiked back to the Jeep and headed back home by way of a nearby Waterfowl Management area.

There is so much to see.    I know it's a place we'll return to again and again.