TKH
Capitol Reef National Park has made an appearance in “On the Road” before. I recall a submission by frosty and Gin & Tonic if memory serves. Briefly, the park encompasses an approximately 60 mile long geologic feature running N/S. Most people will only see it along highway 24 where the visitor center is located and the old-time orchards. There are opportunities for day hikes along the highway corridor. A smaller fraction of visitors will drive into the park to reach the Burr Trail Road with its famous switchbacks that allow one to climb out on the Western cliffs in one’s car. An even smaller fraction of visitors may make the hike to Hall’s Creek narrows, a slot canyon that is relatively easy to hike in itself, but requires overnight camping.
As part of my latest crossing of Southern Utah using the Hayduke “trail”, I descended all the way to the bottom of the park, continued on in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area until I could climb up on the cliffs to the right. I crossed the crest and then descended into Stevens Canyon which ultimately leads one to the Escalante river drainage. This is known in the biz as the “Baker Route” named after an early settler who grazed cattle in this area and built a trail to drive his cattle. Bits and pieces of this old cattle route remain visible to this day. This traverse had been on my agenda for a long time and it is a truly great route. I had been turned around twice before by unfavorable conditions.
I will try to restrict this to a two-part submission, one for the Capitol Reef section and for the Stevens Canyon section. I easily could go on and on.
In Capitol Reef one has two options for heading South, one is the hall’s Creek drainage also known as Grand Gulch. The latter is visually less interesting but fast. The second route runs through Lower Muley Twist canyon which is almost three times as long as the Grand Gulch route because the canyon is, you guessed it, twisted. I have used both routes on different hikes, I’ll be showing you pictures from Lower Muley in this submission.
I hope that you will enjoy the pictures.
Thomas
Muley Twist Canyon is remarkable for the varied erosion patterns of the rocks and the different kinds of rock one can see. If that’s not for you, I apologize. I personally cannot get enough of red rock, blue sky and green pine/piñon trees.
On The Road – TKH – Capitol Reef to Stevens Canyon-Part 1: Capitol ReefPost + Comments (20)