I woke up to find a huge patch of poison ivy on my left butt cheek. I must've peed on a poison ivy stick without noticing, damn. We found the laundromat and got our clothes going while enjoying breakfast at Circle D again. Afterward, we packed up our car and picked up some supplies at the grocery store. Mat wandered off to look for beer. He looked through one wall of refrigerated cases, then moved on to the next one. No beer in this wall, it must be in the refrigerated cases on the next wall. He moved through that wall of cases, no beer. It must be in the back area, so he wandered over there. Suddenly it dawned on him, the grocery store does not carry beer, at all! Good old Mormon country.
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| Cool rock striations |
We paid for our stuff and left, heading straight for the gas station that carries Utah approved beer. Next, we drove back down Hole-in-the-rock road to Halfway wash to hike to Zebra Slot Canyon. We hiked the two-mile trail down to the bottom of Harris wash. The rocks here were amazing. Still very orange, but very striated, like muscle tissue. Zebra Gulch was very cool, a beautiful slot of tan and orange stripes. Unfortunately, you can only go about a hundred feet up canyon before ropes are needed, which we don’t have so we just sat and ate some snacks inside the slot before turning around and hiking right back. It was pretty but I don’t think it was a good use of our time.
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| Walking to Zebra Gulch |
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| Zebra Gulch |
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| Zebra Gulch |
Back at the car, we decided we’ve seen enough of the Escalante and want to see what was further on Hwy 12. The waitress at breakfast this morning told us of a drive east of here that is one of the most beautiful areas she’s seen, and she "was a flight attendant so I’ve seen a lot of the world!” We decided to go find out what she was talking about! We drove back to the town of Escalante to use the carwash to wash the fine dust and sand from the car and continued east on Hwy 12. The terrain was beautiful! Soon we came upon the Escalante river bridge, the canyons in this area were more extensive and beautiful than I thought they would be. We drove past Calf Creek campground and wished we could camp there and explore that side canyon. But we continue on.
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| Calf Creek Campground |
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| Scenic Hwy 12 |
We reached the small town of Boulder, UT, and found the Burr Trail road when we realized a good portion of the route is off-road, probably passible for the GTI but only if we go slow. We were worried that we won’t have quite enough time to see the Burr Trail road before we must head back west. We decided to continue on Hwy 12. We did plan on stopping at the Anazasi State Park in Boulder but somehow missed the turn-off, or should I say we didn’t see any signs for a turn-off. We continued on Hwy 12 up and over Boulder mountain, which still had quite a bit of snow on it. There were many little turn-off viewpoints along the way and we stopped at most of them, admiring the dramatically changing landscape. It’s amazing how you’ll be up in a forested ridge, cool and snowy, and look down to a red, hot desert canyon. One of the turn-offs accessed the Great Western Trail, which Mat was very excited to see. Needless to say, the next few hours of discussion while driving was about how to pull off a GWT thru-hike :P
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| "Hit the Trail on the GWT" |
Soon we dropped into the town of Torrey, about 10 miles west of Capitol Reef National Park. Our original plan was to check out Capitol Reef NP, maybe camp there tonight but the wonderful lady at the Torrey Visitor Information Centers informed us that all the campgrounds were full tonight. We were tired from our day’s drive, not to mention the hot four-mile hike we did to Zebra slot canyon earlier today. We decided to get a motel in town and found a lovely family-owned place on the western side of town called Boulder View Inn. The woman who checked us in was very friendly. She asked us where we’re planning to eat and, when we answered with no particular gusto, she proceeds to tell us: “We get tourists from all over the world here to see Utah’s National Parks. I get people from France or Germany checking in and the first thing they ask me is ‘Where is Cafe Diablo’.” Apparently, this little sleepy town boasts a world-class restaurant of Southwest fusion. She kept menus at the front desk so we grabbed one before heading to our room to shower. It’s fairly expensive but since my birthday is tomorrow we figured it would be an excellent way to celebrate!
We cleaned up and walked down the road to the cafe, crossing a side street with GWT trail markers. I have to turn Mat back towards the restaurant before he walks off down the side street to hike the GWT. The cafe was a fully packed house decorated with local art. The walls were lined with paintings from a local artist, hilarious paintings of coyotes running the desert at night. We started with appetizers of Rattlesnake. I've never had rattlesnake before, rather a tasteless meat in of itself but the patties were crusted in cumin and so the meat took on the taste of its spice coating. The waitress also brought out a complimentary appetizer of roasted pickled veggies and homemade bread... delicious! We ordered the pork tenderloin. Fully stuffed, we got the last of our dessert boxed up and walked home in the dark. What a great way to celebrate my birthday and the end of our trip!
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| I have to turn Mat around so he won't walk off on the GWT |
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| Cafe Diablo, rattlesnake on the left |
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