The Adventures of Flat Stanley

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Capitol Reef National Park

Southern Utah unfolds like entering another world. Flat Stanley watch with awe as the scenery of the unknown constructs of earth passed by. The adventure began with a road trip on an unpaved road, called Skutumpah Road, leading through the western boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Capitol Reef National Park’s neighbor. The Grand Staircase is a geological spectacle of cliffs and terraces arranged in sequence, showcasing diverse array of sedimentary rock layers in a staircase fashion. Flat Stanley followed the dirt road as far as he dared in his rental car, but, clearly, this level of adventure was more intended for those with all wheel drive, or at least high ground clearance. So a grand view of the Grand Staircase was not to be had on this trip. Maybe on the next one…

As he passed through the entrance to Capital Reef National Park, Flat Stanley found himself entering an orchard of over 2700 fruit trees. In Fruita, as it is known, there are cherries, apricots, peaches, pears, and apples growing in the government-maintained orchard. And the best part? They are free to pick! If they are in season, the fruits of Fruita can be yours for the effort of climbing a latter and helping yourself.

We took the Scenic Drive that up to a short road through a rock formation known as Grand Wash. Grand Wash was a canyon pass between large sandstone walls, capped off with brilliantly red rock and other sedimentary layers. We stopped several times along the drive to absorb the beauty of this raw and rocky earth.

After the scenic drive, Flat Stanley opted for a short hike to a naturally formed rock bridge. The Hickman Bridge Trail led to a rather unimpressive natural bridge, but the hike was still very nice due to the scenery along the way. It was particularly interesting to see black volcanic pumice stones litter the grounds there, showing evidence of an eruption in the past, but not too long ago…

From there, Flat Stanley was a car trek down a better-maintained unpaved road to see part of the formation that is the namesake of the park. The original Indian inhabitants called the Capitol Reef “The Land of the Sleeping Rainbow”. Rainbows of rock do seem to jut out from the surface of the land, as though sticking up from under a bed sheet. Cool!

They call this rock formation The Castle

On the Scenic Drive

In the Grand Wash

On the Hike to Hickman Bridge

The Actual Capitol Reef

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Bryce Canyon National Park

“You remind me of a man.”

“What man?”

“A man with a power.”

“What power?”

“The power of Hoodoo.”

“Hoodoo?”

“You do!”

“I do what?”

“You remind me of a man.”

Hoodoos are pillars of rock, usually of a fantastic shape, left by erosion. That’s what you see behind Flat Stanley. They are some of the famous hoodoos found in Bryce Canyon National Park, where the landscape is bordering on the surreal. Coincidentally, Hoodoo also means to cast a spell in a folk magic offshoot of Voodoo which involves the use Biblical texts and characters. This land certainly does possess a type of magic that draws you into it, and fills you with awe.

Bryce Canyon is very close to the Paunsaugunt fault line, where the Colorado Plateau was pushed thousands of feet in elevation in some ancient plate tectonic activity. Bryce Canyon is on the low side of the fault line, but that does not mean that it didn’t feel the effects of the Colorado Plateau slipping by. The land experienced stress fractures in the base rock. The base rock is particularly porous, allowing water to seep into the cracks, and into the heart of the rock. Of course winter’s freezes act on this water to change it to ice, which splits off the base rock. Repeat the process thousands of times, add lots of wind and rainwater based erosion, and you’ve got the splendor that is Bryce Canyon National Park.

Very often the power of erosion on a large scale is difficult to observe in a lifetime. Looking at these fragile formations, you may get the impression that they have been here forever, and will remain in the shelter of the canyon wall. But on May 23, 2006, a huge rock fall of about 400-500 tons crashed to the ground and closed off the very popular Navajo Loop trail at a location called Wall Street. Wall Street is a point on the trail where a shear rock wall, about fifty feet tall is split by a distance of about eight feet. Fortunately, park trail crews acted with haste to reopen the trail, removing many boulders as large as cars to do so.

Flat Stanley thoroughly enjoyed the newly-reopened Navajo Loop trail. Just as the hoodoo pillars are a spectacle to see collectively in the distance, it is equally impressive to walk amongst them. The walks on Navajo Loop and Queens Garden trails left Flat Stanley yearning for more.

Arches in the Making