Torrey, UT–Part 1

After Kodachrome, I headed to Torrey, Utah.   My campground was just a few miles from Capital Reef National Park.  My plans were to visit the national park and several other attractions within about 1.5 hours of my campground.  I was there during the last 2 weeks of May.

My first day there, I set up the RV and then headed to the park.  I was originally just going to drive through the park and then head back to the RV park.  But while enjoying the beautiful scenery in the park, I decided to go for a short hike on the Capital Gorge Trail.  Of course to get there, I had to head down a dirt road.  I was starting to feel sorry for my car for all the rough dirt roads I have been down recently.   But the scenery was great, even on the road – which is below!

Not far from the trailhead, I spotted a bird that I had never seen before.  It was a Western Tanager and  I quickly realized that there were 2 in the tree and they were both camera shy. 

The Capital Gorge Trail is really a wash.  It’s a bit hard to see, but there is a person walking in the wash below. 

The wash is known for it’s pioneer register.  Below is the first that I came to.  As you can see these, names were etched into the rock cliff in 1911.  This wash was used as a road in the late 1800’s and early 1990’s.  Since it is a wash, they had to regularly clean out large boulders so people could get through.  

I’m not sure if they somehow climbed up the cliff or if the bottom of the wash has eroded a lot in 100 years.  Below is the cliff that the above is written on.  The writing is close to the middle of the photo below.

There is another area where I saw some inscriptions from the late 1800’s, but I liked the one above the best!

Below are a couple of pictures I took during my drives while in Torrey.

There were a few petroglyphs within the park.  The ones above were just off the main road.

One day, I drove to Goblin Valley State Park.  If any of the pictures look familiar and you have not been there, you may be remembering it from the movie, Galaxy Quest.  In the movie, Goblin Valley was used as the planet they landed on looking for a beryllium sphere.  Tim Allen’s character had to battle a rock monster that arose from goblin valley formations.  I liked the movie and it was fun seeing where part of it was filmed.

The first picture below was taken from a picnic area looking down at all the goblins.  From there, you head down a hill into the valley.

There were no trails, you could wander all over the place.  I saw many people climbing the formations and the cliffs. 

Heading back to the campground, I had to stop at the convenience store that had been cut into a hill.  I didn’t really need anything, but I wanted to go inside.  So I bought a drink just to see the inside.  It looked more like a store than the inside of a hill!

Since I was here 2 weeks, I will post another blog or 2 about my time in Torrey!