Where's The Church?

What started out as a clear day visiting Pando soon had several clouds invading, becoming completely gloomy and overcast. We didn’t let that stop us from continuing on with our Saturday drive through Cathedral Valley in Capitol Reef National Park. Tom and Justine entrusted my crazy driving to get us through more than a hundred dry washes, rock outcroppings, and heavily washboarded dirt road. Silly friends.

Knowing the dogs weren’t allowed in most places of the park, we stopped at a dispersed campsite to give them a chance to do their business. While there, I grabbed a trash bag and picked up some stray litter, tossing it in the back of the truck to dispose of later. We loaded up and hit the road again with Suki keeping our guests company in the back seat, and Cassie staying warm on Al’s lap up front. Even without much sun, between the Aspens and Scrub Oak, the fall colors were a welcome sight.

We stopped at the Upper Catherdral Valley Overlook, peering in awe at the islands and ridges of rock before us, then zig-zagged the switchbacks to the valley floor. Justine & I stayed in the truck while Al & Tom checked out the Morrell Line Cabin, which was moved there to be used as a winter shelter, left open and stocked with food for anyone passing through to utilize until 1970 when it was sold to the park service. We drove along the Walls of Jericho, a impressively large linear fortress of rock, and then they also got out to explore the Gypsum sinkhole, which they talked me in to seeing for myself after their return. It was a lot deeper than I expected, and wouldn’t want to fall in as there’d be no getting out without ropes and assistance. The winds were blowing sand and dust excessively, so we decided to nosh on our packed lunches there in the truck. I guess we wanted to enjoy our ‘wiches without the sand. Yes, it would have been crunchier, but I’d rather keep the enamel on my teeth a while longer.

Glass Mountain was the next stop on our itinerary. Not really knowing what to expect, it was like a bunch of glass panes are compressed into stones that were tossed up, landing in random directions, then bonded together. Very strange phenomenon, but very interesting to see. Just beyond was the towering Temple of the Sun, and the considerably smaller Temple of the Moon. They really do have a cathedral facade, owning to the namesake of this valley. We snapped a picture of an interesting plant we now know as Silverleaf Mountain Mahogany. We also offered assistance to a fella working on his Jeep, but he said he had things under control. From here, Justine said we would be counting all of the washes we’d drive through until we saw pavement again. That number exceeded fifty before losing count, and know we’d been through at least that many before the counting began. We also marveled at the various colors of rock, from deep browns to rich reds and some that look like a big blop of soft serve ice cream. I wonder if we have any ice cream in the freezer. Oh look, a chipmunk! Okay... getting back on track...

We made it to highway 24 on the east side, then made a last stop at the Bihunin Cabin. Al had stopped here to take pictures on his initial way to our campsite, and since those were under sunny skies, I’m sharing those instead of the ones from this less-sunny day. Tiny as this cabin is, they had THIRTEEN children plus themselves calling this their abode. Maybe they slept standing up, or hung upside down from the rafters, but I can not see that many sleeping spaces fitting in there. I guess they made do with what they had. Okay, so now I’m finding out that they only resided in it for one year before moving elsewhere as the flash floods proved too difficult, and who knows how many kids they had at the time. Still, my original words sound more interesting, lies that they are! Back to the campsite we went, enjoyed more pie and some of the fudgy brownies I made before retiring to our respected wheeled abodes for the evening. Gloomy days can still be fun, and we can say we attended Saturday services at the Cathedral.

So now, we traveled the last 3 days, two of which were planned. Yesterday, we arrived to a camping area to find all of the usable sites taken after climbing over 2000 feet of elevation on a dirt road, the motorhome on the cusp of overheating, then coming back down in first gear with now squealing brakes. Did I mention there were and abundance of dropoffs and washouts? Oh, it was fun! Then we had to scramble for a place, finally getting set up just before sunset. The day had started with frost on the windshield at 8000’, climbed to 10,500, back down to 3500’ up to 6800’, finishing at 4000’ with almost 90° temperatures, crowded and lots of dust. Today, we scouted for a less rutted area, moving about 7 miles to a secluded place with much better views. Al went into town to do a month’s worth of laundry while I stayed back with the pets, worked on pictures and continued the search for a vehicle. He brought home something I’ve been craving for months: Fish and Chips... and it’s COD! Ain’t he awesome? We did a pretty thorough cleaning inside the motorhome last night as it sucked in soooo much dust on that monster hill climb. The outside is horrendously filthy so we may do a quickie wash on that tomorrow.

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