HERE’S YOUR BRIDGE
“Oh will you excuse me?
I'm just trying to find the bridge...
Has anybody seen the bridge?
Have you seen the bridge?
I ain't seen the
bridge!
Where's that confounded bridge?”
From “The Crunge”
by Led Zeppelin
We
got a lazy start the next morning. The
only thing on the agenda was a scenic drive, so we didn’t need to hit the trail
at the crack of dawn. I made a big
breakfast and we each had a second mug of coffee before we broke camp.
We
started our day by driving Hell’s Backbone. The dirt road contours through the mountains
around the headwaters of the Escalante River.
We passed along the upper edge of the Box-Death Hollow Wilderness, which
is one of the better names for a wilderness area that I’ve heard. I like it when they work death right into the
name of the place – it is good advertising.
Views along here were somewhat limited, as there always seemed to be
just enough trees to obscure the vista.
Eventually
that changed in dramatic fashion. A
series of hairpin turns brought us to the Hell’s Backbone bridge. The bridge was considered an engineering
marvel when it was built back in the 30’s.
It’s not exactly the viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but it does span
a narrow ridge separating two canyons in rather dramatic fashion (there is a
1,500’ drop off on either side of the one-lane bridge). The surrounding area also features the best
views along Hell’s Backbone Road, so we stopped for a closer look.
We
wandered around for a bit, checking out the bridge and enjoying views of Death Hollow
and the mountains and badlands beyond. I
walked up the road a short ways for a different vantage and was a little
startled when I saw a van coming up the road towards us. It was the first other vehicle we’d seen that
morning, despite the fact that we were on fairly well known scenic byway. I had been getting ready to walk back across the bridge when I saw him coming. I stopped, since the
bridge is narrow, to let him pass.
Instead, he pulled up next to me and lowered his window.
”Excuse
me”, he said, “do you know where I might find the Hell’s Backbone Bridge”?
I
found this particular question to be quite interesting, since the back half of
his van was actually ON it. Still, I did
a surprisingly admirable job of not laughing out loud. In fact, I was somehow able to explain to him
that he’d found it without cackling.
Apparently it wasn’t exactly what he’d been expecting.
I
spent the next hour giggling. For some
reason, I couldn’t get a picture of Bill Engvall’s face
out of my mind. I could just picture him
saying, “Here’s your bridge”!
From
the bridge we descended back down into high desert, leaving the mountains and
forests behind. The temperature rose as
we descended, but only temporarily. We
turned onto highway 12 and drove into the town of Boulder, where we stopped for
gas and our daily bag of ice. Christy
was still aggressively icing her knee, as we wanted to keep that issue under
control as much as possible.
The
scenery went from nice to stunning after we left Boulder. We began a long steady climb up Boulder
Mountain, passing a bunch of ambitious cyclists along the way. We eventually climbed all the way up to 9,600’,
and the thermometer dropped into the 70’s even though it was nearly noon. We stopped at several overlooks along here,
as much to enjoy the cool mountain air as to get a better look at the
outrageous scenery below. The best
overlook was just an unofficial pulloff a bit beyond
the road’s high point. From it, we had a
spectacular view of Lower Bowns Reservoir far
below. It looked like a mirage, with the
twisted, tortured landscape of Capitol Reef National Park beyond it.
We
would’ve had lunch up there except that the wind was overwhelming. At a couple of stops it was actually
difficult getting in and out of the car.
I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like trying to eat in those
conditions. Aside from the wind, the
only other drawback to this part of the drive was rather heavy traffic. At one point we got stuck behind two couples
on motorcycles. These yahoos clearly had
no business being on motorcycles, and I did not enjoy driving behind them, wondering
what they might do next. However, I was
mildly amused at how the girl on the back of one of the motorcycles kept taking
random photos with a point and shoot camera while sailing along at 50mph. I’m sure lots of people will be tortured by
those blurry photos in the form of a holiday slideshow.
We
eventually reached the end of highway 12.
We turned east on highway 24 and descended back into the desert. We reached the Capitol Reef National Park
boundary a few minutes later, and stopped briefly to make the short walk to the
Goosenecks Overlook above Sulphur Creek Canyon. This is an interesting view, though it’s
hardly the best that Capitol Reef has to offer.
Back in April, 2006 I spent a couple of nights camping in the park on a
solo trip. One day I hiked to the Navajo
Knobs, and that remains one of the most spectacular hikes I’ve ever done. I would’ve loved to do it again, but it’s a
long and rather difficult hike, and it wasn’t on the agenda for this particular
trip.
We
stopped at the Visitor Center only briefly, as it was very crowded. Then we drove over to the Fruita
picnic area, where we had lunch in the shade of an impressive Cottonwood
grove. Afterwards we stopped to check
out some petroglyphs before continuing the drive to the east side of the
park. There we picked up the Notom-Bullfrog Road, which runs south, parallel to the
natural feature that gives the park its name.
Capitol
Reef National Park is centered around the Waterpocket Fold – a geologic monocline (wrinkle in the
Earth) that extends for almost 100 miles.
Information on the geologic history of the area can be found here:
http://www.nps.gov/care/naturescience/geology.htm
The
scenery along the Notom-Bullfrog Road was
intriguing. The folded rocks of the reef
towered over us as we passed hoodoos and other unusual features. To the east were more reefs, all running
parallel to each other. We also had a
close look at the Henry Mountains, which top out over 11,500’. The Henry Mountains have the distinction of
being the last mountain range added to the map of the contiguous United States
(in 1872).
Along
the way we crossed a number of dry washes that lead to various slot
canyons. I was tempted to stop on a
couple of occasions, but the triple-digit number on the display above the radio
dissuaded me. It was early afternoon,
and there wasn’t a hint of shade around.
The
drive was generally smooth, though we were delayed a bit by road construction,
of all things. We passed a few ranches
and farms, which were making full use of irrigation (from where I’m not exactly
sure – probably the Fremont River, which runs parallel to highway 24 through
the park). We did run into a couple of
sandy patches along the drive. My
strategy was to accelerate through them, which seemed to work fine. We did pass one disabled vehicle, which was
either stuck or had a flat tire or both.
We stopped briefly, but the driver waived us on. Apparently he had the situation under
control.
We
eventually reached a signed junction with the Barr Trail, which would take us
back to Boulder. We followed it up an
incredibly steep series of exposed switchbacks.
Christy kept her eyes closed as I guided the car up the incline. Eventually we reached the crest. Beyond we passed the trailhead for Muley Twist Canyon, which is surprisingly well known for
being in such a remote location. A bit
farther on we reached the park boundary.
The road was paved from that point back to Boulder. The remainder of the drive featured fine
scenery as well, as we wound our way through The Gulch and Deer Creek
Canyon. This area featured incredibly
colorful redrock, along with the usual assortment of
twisting canyons and sheer cliffs.
It
had been an incredibly scenic drive, but we managed to save the best for
last. In Boulder we rejoined highway 12
for the drive back to Escalante. Before
long we found ourselves on a narrow spine of rock, with sheer drops off of BOTH
sides. You might ask yourself how that
is even physical possible – I was asking myself the same thing, and I was
driving. It was tempting to get
distracted by the infinite expanse of cliffs and canyons surrounding us, but
not too tempting. This would not be a
good place to run off the road.
I
found a pulloff where I stopped to take it all
in. Far below I could make out Calf
Creek Canyon. The greenery in the bottom
of the canyon was a stark contrast to the surrounding badlands. Calf Creek has a perennial stream, and that
was where we were planning to hike the next day. It features two major waterfalls, and I was
looking forward to visiting both of them.
We
resumed the drive, following a true roller-coaster of a highway down to cross
Calf Creek and then the Escalante River.
From there it was uphill to the junction with Hole in the Rock Road and
on into the town of Escalante. We
stopped at the grocery store and made the most of their marginal
selection. Then we headed over to the
local Outfitters / café / liquor store, where I bought some extra stove fuel
and some beer. Once those errands were
completed, it was on to Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, just west of
town. We had reservations at the
campground there for the next two nights, and we were looking forward to
staying in one place for more than one evening.
The
campground was extremely crowded. Every
campsite was full, and most of them seemed to have more than the usual number
of people in them. We found our way to
campsite 17, which we had wisely reserved months in advance. The site is adjacent to the lake and is
rather scenic. All of the sites there
have canopies that provide some shade.
Unfortunately ours wasn’t very useful in the late afternoon, when the
sun was descending over the lake. Still
it was a good site in a nice, if crowded, campground. The campground does feature free showers for
campers, which we took full advantage of both nights we were there. Another highlight was our second celebrity
sighting of the trip. Trey Anastasio, singer and guitarist of our favorite band,
Phish, was camped at the site across from us.
I thought about asking for an autograph, but decided against it since I
didn’t want to disturb him.
Charcoal
fires were allowed in the park, so we grilled dinner (steak for me, smoked
salmon for Christy). Later, while
washing dishes, I got to overhear two people talking about the hike they were
planning the next morning to the Golden Cathedral. Grrrr!
Back to Utah
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