Capitol Reef National Park
After the initial gloom of rain, a pleasant sun peered through the layers of the atmosphere, revealing the colors of the rocks that make Capitol Reef one of my favorite National Parks.
Looking up at these cliffs, the layers are startlingly apparent, and each layer reveals its time through sediments, particulates, and animal residue, and the order of the layers tells us about the dramatic changes that have been wrought upon this one piece of earth for millions of years. The condition and angle of the layers tell us of the workings of plate tectonics and the shifting of the earth below. Theoretical concepts that were previously intellectualized were vivid before my eyes in this land.
These layers differed in dramatic ways—texture, color, consistency, size, thickness, and erosive ability. One layer was compacted sand from when the area was covered with a desert of sand dunes the size of the Sahara. Another layer was mud and animal residue from a marshy swamp that dominated the area. One layer was bright red, another a cheery peach, yet another a blue-gray.
Our time in Capitol Reef peaked with a drive into Capitol Gorge—a long, winding, unpaved, rocky, narrow, dusty road with shrubs and thorns on either side and towering mountains. We were in the mountain's heart. It was hard to imagine that this road was initially created by the man with the family of ten and eight other workers in just a few days.
We hiked a bit into Capitol Gorge and got incredibly close to petroglyphs on the rock face, much to Auntie Cindy's delight.
And with that we drove out of Capitol Reef and into Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on our way into Bryce.
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