Capitol Reef and on to Salt Lake City

I slept extremely badly the night before this day. It's important that you know this because I will be ending with this theme. Also, the restaurant in which I ate breakfast made the weakest coffee I've ever seen -- it basically looked like colored water. In any event, I was out of there by 9 a.m., and went to Capitol Reef National Park, determined not to hike, but a little groggy.

Capitol Reef is an amazing formation in which two plates have met, and one has sunk under the other. Geologists call this a fold, I guess. The result are sheer cliffs that string together, and it ends up looking like a reef in an ocean. Hence the name. Once again Southern Utah delivers; it was a really impressive site. The first picture is of "Chimney Rock," the second gives you a good view of the "reef" formation. The NP has a scenic drive that you can take to a place called Capitol Gorge. I thought that was up to my speed, so I drove that and then at Capitol Gorge I, mmm, strolled -- NOT hiked.

Capitol Gorge is actually an old road that was cleared in a dry river bed by Mormon settlers to get from the northern side of the Reef to the southern before the highway was put in. Basically, they used oxen to clear the large rocks away and then horses and eventually cars could drive through. They have an old picture in the park of two Model-Ts driving it; it's crazy. During any rainstorm, the road would become flooded, and often they'd have flash floods, so driving it was a risky proposition. Because it's an old road, the "hike" is quite easy; I did it, very gingerly, in my tennis shoes. I had to do it, because it was there, but also because at .5 miles in there is some "petroglyphs," really graffiti cut into the rocks by people in the late 19th, early 20th century as they were driving through. The picture with me in it is in Capitol Gorge.

There's a lot of great hiking in this area, supposedly, so obviously, I'm going to have to come back.

After this, it was on to the 5 hour drive to Salt Lake City. But first, I really needed some real coffee, and I was a little concerned about finding anything open in rural Utah on a Sunday. But happily, in Torrey, I found Rustlers Roost, 15 minutes before they closed, where they made me the best americano, and my caffeine needs were met. Then I went to the Chuck Wagon (I'm not kidding) so that I could buy a sandwich for the road. In the Chuck Wagon, there were 6 French travelers, about 20 years older than me, trying to buy food for the day. I know enough French to be amused by their panic that all the stores would be closing by 3 or 4. They were trying to find enough food for the 6 of them for the entire day and arguing about it. I wanted to tell them that Cafe Diablo would definitely be open (in fact, it was open at that moment for lunch), but I didn't want to get involved in their heightened state of anxiety.

Driving the back roads of Utah to get the I-15 was a great experience. It really is beautiful country. My original plan was to drive to Manti and see the Temple there, one of the last designed by Brigham Young, but I was getting antsy to be in civilization, so I drove up to Provo, and since it was only around 3, I decided to drive up to the Sundance Resort. I called up Renee to give her my plans, and she suggested that I also drive to Park City.

Now first, let me confess something a little embarrassing. I obviously have some mental block about Utah because I had never made the connection that Sundance and Park City were in Utah, and I also never made the connection that they were near Salt Lake City. It also never occurred to me that there must have been some mountain venue near Salt Lake City for the skiing parts of the Olympics, or that Park City would be an obvious choice. So this mountain trip was so unexpected, but it really shouldn't have been.

I don't have much to report about this trip except to say that it was incredibly beautiful. I imagine in ski season, it would be very different. Both places were worth going to to at least see, but they were both pretty sleepy. The first picture is of Sundance, the second in Main Street in Park City. In Park City, I saw a lot of young hippies/surfer dudes/snowboarders who clearly live there, and middle-aged tourists, much like myself. Most of the stores were closed, and most of the restaurants were mostly empty. Perhaps this winter, I'll come back to see what it's like during high season.

Then it was on to to Renee's. For those of you who don't know, Renee is a "former" colleague of mine (boo-hoo), who moved to SLC with her family two years ago. I blame Ryan, her husband. They have 3 kids, and they live in Sandy. When you walk outside their house, there are mountains. See picture! I realize why all these mountains are surprising me. I hear the name "Salt Lake," and I picture a dry, barren salt plain. But really it's nothing like that.

After a yummy dinner, the adults all drove up Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons. Brainfreeze alert! I had no idea there were so many famous ski areas around here (I'm obviously not a skier). They live 7 minutes from Snowbird. They also live 2 minutes from where Warren Jeffs lived with his many wives before they skedaddled to Colorado City where he could get arrested. Anyway the canyons were beautiful, with waterfalls and running streams. It was hard to believe we were so close to a major city. The picture with Renee and me is at Snowbird.

Tomorrow, I'll see all the sites in SLC. Renee told me that there was a Temple open to the public before they dedicate it, after which it is closed to all non-LDS. She asked me if I wanted to go, and I said "hell, yes." Probably not the best choice of words. So that's on the agenda along with many other things.

I was totally exhausted again; in fact, I could barely keep my eyes open. But happily in this incredibly quiet house, even with 3 children who clearly hate going to sleep, I slept like a baby, which is why I'm writing this at 7 a.m. the following day.