2158 miles. That is as far the Landcruiser has brought us so far. Yesterday was possibly the shortest driven distance of the trip at just under 200 miles. As mentioned yesterday we stop just north of Salt Lake City and made it to Fishlake National Forest and Capitol Reef National Park. Both I feel are unrated in the National Park Service.
Before I begin I have to mention that coffee has been an integral part of this trip. Naturally, we had to stop and get a cup of coffee at a place called Caffé Torino. When we walked in there were these giant donut looking things behind the counter. I just had to take a picture of this donuts. The gentlemen that were waiting for his coffee quickly corrected my mistake. “Cronut”, He said, “They are called Cronuts”. For those who don’t know they are a mix of croissants and donuts and are filled with jelly or cream. Ben got Strawberry; I had Maple. “Well, I don’t think I need to eat anything else for the rest of the day with that Cronut.’
Our first stop was Fishlake National Forest, home to the largest single organism known as Pando. All the Aspens around Fishlake are connected through their roots and are a clone of each other. Pretty cool. Since Ben and I had been sitting for a bit we decided to take a hike up to the scenic overlook which looked to be only a short walk away and not that steep. In reality, it was a 7.5 miles round trip and another 1500 ft of elevation on top of already being at about 9000ft. Halfway through the hike, I meet some very friendly wasps that wanted to welcome me to the trail we were taking. Just me. I left with a parting gift of a sting on the back of the neck. Coffee was wearing off anyway. Nothing like a little shot of adrenaline to keep your heart rate up during a hike. The view was worth the walk, not the sting.
I also convinced Ben that we needed to do a little off-roading. We had a Landcruiser, right? What better way to cruise the land? Again, the view was definitely worth the slow crawling up the side of the mountain. The view was the entire valley that we had just driven through. You could see for miles and miles as the mountains when from gold to green to a pale blue in the way off distance. Just fantastic.
Capital Reef National Park. Wow. It is named after a series of white domes that resemble the white domes on capital buildings, all out of Navajo Sandstone. The area itself has been occupied over the years by several groups of people which have each left their mark, from petroglyphic depictions from the Fremont Indians to the Mormons who settled here after the American Civil War, and modern-day hikers coming for the spectacular views. I don’t think I was bored even slightly. Every turn offered a new cliff face that had different patterns, textures, and shadows that changed all the time with the setting sun. We drove down Hwy 24 thinking it was the scenic drive. It wasn’t and had to backtrack to the actual scenic drive which I have no idea how the determined which one was more scenic than the next one. The scenic drive resulted in some more light off-roading into a canyon which offered a great promotional shot for Toyota and Tepui rooftop tents. My rates are reasonable, Toyota and Tepui. Have your people call my people and we’ll take.
We went from the desert to a forest at 9000 ft to Sandstone Canyons all within a few hours’ drive of Salt Lake City. The night sky is amazing and the sun setting against that sandstone is a sight to be seen. I was setting up to take a panoramic picture at the aptly named Panorama Point, in Capital Reef. It took me a good 10 minutes of twirling around to figure out which Panorama I wanted to take. I’m still not convinced I took the right one.
We also were having so much fun that we forgot to get a campsite and ended up driving back to a hotel for the night because everything was pretty full. I only had that Cronut for food, but it was worth it.