Plum Hill: Projects and Views: Utah: Capitol Reef, Escalante, and Bryce

Last week, I went on a great REI trip to Capitol Reef and Escalante in Utah (with a brief stop at Bryce on the way back to Salt Lake City). It was a great trip, with extraordinary scenery. Here are a few of the 850 pics I took (yes, this is turning into a catchall blog. Such is life.):

The view from our rooms at the Best Western near Capitol Reef. Not bad!

The first two days, Capitol Reef was closed due to the government shutdown, so we couldn't hike there. This was taken driving through Capitol reef to get to our destination.

For the first part of Day 1 we went to Little Wild Horse Canyon, a great slot canyon.

Entrance to the next part of the slot

Same canyon, with me in it (thanks for the pic, Andrew!)

In the afternoon of Day 1, we went to Goblin Valley. Apparently part of Galaxy Quest was filmed there.

Does it look like it's about to rain? The skies opened up shortly after this. A good thing we weren't in the slot canyon...

And driving back through Capitol Reef in the afternoon.

Day 2, we went hiking on a mesa near Capitol Reef.

The ground was littered with petrified wood in this area -- some huge tree trunks, and lots of small pieces. Since this wasn't in the national park, we were allowed to take 25 lbs plus one piece of any size with us. I took a few small pieces.

And a non-petrified tree among the rocks.

This either looks like a bison looking up or a bear looking down. I favor the bear. ;-)

View of the reef from our day 2 hike. Everything that's tilted up to the right in the background is the reef; the Henry Mountains are beyond that.

Sunrise on Day 3. The great state of Utah funded the national parks within their state starting on day 3, so we got to go into the reef that day. Not that I regretted Day 1 or 2 at all!

Experimenting with wide aperture/narrow focus. I learned a lot about photography from my fellow trip participants and guides.

Driving over Boulder Mountain on day 3, from Capitol Reef to Escalante. The aspens were in full fall color, beautiful.

In Escalante for Day 4. Simpsons-esque clouds!

I can't say I loved hiking through the sand, but there were some beautiful patterns.

and tiny footprints! These are about the size of a quarter.

The lichen made raised patterns on the rock.

Chimneying across a high section of this slot canyon

I love that this crevice looks like a heart from this perspective.

going down the rope ladder to the "pit of despair"

"Moqui Marbles" -- harder deposits in the rock that eventually pop out as small rounded stones.

These striations reminded me of bacon.

Last day: Hiking along an old milk road and the Escalante River.

Aspens down here contrasted nicely with the colors of the rock.

This day involved a bunch of river crossings, and wading up a tributary to a spring that had great-tasting water, and wild mint to add to your water bottle.

Cliff dwelling

Anasazi petroglyph

Another petroglyph. There was a lot of graffiti carved into the rock next to the petroglyphs, which was disheartening. But then again, the petroglyphs are just really old graffiti, right...?