Saturday, April 19, 2008--Scenic Drives

Saturday morning we put on our hiking shoes, packed plenty of water (we have found that our mouths dry out faster in arid, higher elevations), and set off to drive and hike the scenic drive. We drove to the end of the scenic drive. All along the way were fantastic rock formations. This formation was named Egyptian Temple. The rock seems to be chiseled at the top, not rounded as it is at the bottom from moisture and wind. The colors were deep and beautiful.

This rock was worn away in the middle, but still stands strong on the sides.
Here is another rock formation we drove past on the scenic drive.
As we drove through the gorge, we saw rocks streaked with black.....
and rocks streaked with pink and red!
We arrived at the end of the drive and prepared to hike to Pioneer Register and the Tanks.
Most of the trail wandered through the wash at the gorge. There were many rocks and plants to look at along the way.We hiked through sun and shade.Joyce found an erosion hole large enough to rest for a while. We arrived at the tanks a mile after we started. The first tanks we saw didn't have any water.Then we found two tanks in the shade that had water. There was an arch carved by erosion near one of the tanks. The sun reflected off the surface of the second tank with water.

On the hike down from the tanks, we found a claret cup cactus in bloom! These cacti are only found at higher elevations.

When we reached the picnic area near the parking area, we saw a bird begging for food. Maybe he was begging for the Mountain Dew! He was persistent, but no one gave him anything. We still haven't determined what kind of bird it was.

We went back to the rv for lunch then decided to drive toward Hanksville to see if we could get cell phone signals to let everyone know we would be out of touch for a while. As we drove out of the park, we saw the old schoolhouse..

and the Behunin cabin. The Behunins lived in this cabin with their 10 children. Mom and Dad slept in the cabin with the youngest 2 children. The girls slept in the wooden bed of the family wagon while the boys slept in one of the eroded places in the wall of the cliff.
As we exited the park, the landscape took another dramatic change. It looked like we were on a foreign planet. The reds and yellows turned to grey!
The rock formations were similar, just grey!
We could see a dust storm in the distant, muting the edges of the cliffs.
We made it to Hanksville and made a few calls on our cell phones, then started the return trip to Capitol Reef. We stopped to view the petroglyphs at Capitol Reef before going back to the rv.
Sunday we plan to drive to Bryce Canyon in the CRV. Maybe we will have internet there!