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Surprise views through Glen Canyon

On Sunday we left Escalante and headed for a longer drive to our next campground. As we travelled, we were surprised by the magnificent views we drove through.

The area of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area that we drove through had deep and spectacular canyons. Our wonderful weather, once again, was in our favour!

Colorado River in the background

Arriving at our campground in Monticello, we had an easy back in site. Only challenge was we had a lot of highway noise. Laundry next!

And the views just keep coming!

Friday day we headed out to explore Capital Reef National Park. We stopped as usual at the visitor centre. We got some information, maps, and watched a movie about the geological formation of the park. Most of the Scenic Road through Fruita is closed due to reconstruction of the road. However it is open to the campground and the Historic Gifford House. This is important because they sell small pies at the Gifford House made from local fruit. We decided to get a mixed berry pie and ate it that night. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a store bought pie that good – not even in Mennonite country!

From there we headed back to the highway and decided to go hiking. We chose a hike at the Grand Wash. You walk a dried creek bed and eventually you are walking through the narrows with very high canyon walls on each side. Round trip was almost 5 km.

The narrows

The rocks are very interesting with lots of holes, big and small.

Big holes
Looked like honeycomb!

On Saturday, our first stop was at Gifford House for cinnamon buns and another pie.

Then we did a long scenic drive – some was paved, the rest sand or rocks. Part we had done from the other end near Escalante – The Burr Trail. We started off Hwy 24 onto Notom Rd.

Notom Rd.
We passed through some interesting hills. It was almost like little pebbles of baked clay. If you walked into it you could see your footsteps.

Eventually we reached the end of Notom Rd. where it joins with the Burr Trail. We had driven about half that trail earlier in the week, but had stopped before the pavement ended. The first part from the south end where we were, takes you through some significant switchbacks.

Look for the white truck camper on one of the switchbacks
You can see the road we came up. I was VERY uncomfortable coming up the switchbacks due to the height and narrow road.
Notom Rd joins the Burr Trail at the “Y” near the top of the pic! We came all the way up through the switchbacks!
Back on pavement on the Burr Trail in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

Overall a great day for scenery and once again the clear blue sky and warm temperatures made all the difference. Tomorrow we move on.