Becka's Epic Southern Utah Adventure

Well, I got back from my Plan B adventure a few days ago, and its time to share the pictures. Instead of visiting the list of places I listed previously, I ended up spending two days at Bryce Canyon National Park, driving through the north part of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, driving past Kodachrome Basin State Park, hiking a bit of Escalante State Park, and dabbling in the awesomeness of Capitol Reef National Park. I decided that instead of sticking to an intinerary I should just go where it felt good, and I was totally right for doing so. I saw a lot of awesomeness. I took a lot of pictures, I'll try to keep it to just the pertinent ones.

This is my little camp spot. You can see Gus the Rockstar and the Octagon...and the snow.

This is a bit of the view. All those columns are called Hoodoos. They formed because naturally acidic rainfall wears away limestone, but mostly because of freezing and thawing of water in and around the Hoodoos. Here are me and my snow shoes. The picture is a bit askew because my tripod (which was a bipod at that particular moment) was hanging from a tree. Anyways, I snowshoed around a portion of the rim of the canyon then down into the canyon, which was amazing! I think I've named the snowshoes Omberto and Viseli, at least for now.
Here's an awesome tree I stumbled on in the bottom of the canyon. I think trees that grow in conditions like that are totally B.A.
I grabbed lunch at the base of one of those Hoodoos, it was cool. Paiute legend says that the Hoodoos were once the Legend People, who were ravens and coyotes and other animals, but looked like people. They were a bad people and were frozen in place, some standing, some sitting, some leaning on each other, and you can see them like that now (this is paraphrasing, but I think I got it mostly right). Before the sandstone becomes a Hoodoo it usually forms bridges or arches. I tried to frame myself in one, mostly I just succeeded in looking like a geek.
My second night there I managed to start a fire. Yeah me! I managed to boil several quarts of water and to heat up a can of soup, it was awesome.
I spent a good portion of my time in the bathroom at the campground using this radiator to warm up my feet and food. Here it is warming up breakfast. I love that radiator.
After leaving Bryce Canyon I took UT 12 intending to hit a few of the state parks along the way. Here I am at Escalante State Park. I found this sign amusing. The park had little nature guides to narrate the hike I snowshoed. Turns out the same minerals responsible for the Painted Desert (or as I prefer to call it, "The Land of the Sleeping Rainbows") are responsible for petrifying wood. Cool.
I found some petrified wood underneath the snow, thought I'd point out just how scared it looks. I got a little lost on this trail, but the magic of hiking it in snowshoes was that I was able to see exactly where I had been and find my way back. I suppose I wasn't really lost at all.
The views from the highway were freaking amazing! I took the scenic way, driving whatever speed I deemed appropriate because there wasn't anyone in front of or behind me. It just doesn't get any better than that. There were a number of side roads I wanted to take (namely Hole in the Rock Road and Hell's Backbone Road), but they'll have to wait for another day. Eventually I made it to Capitol Reef National Park.
Capitol Reef is a park around the Waterpocket Fold, the best example of a monocline in the world. This wrinkle in the Earth's crust was formed via a tectonic collision. More recent forces of wind and water have hollowed out solution spots, which I found moderatly comfortable to sit in.
There are uranium mines all over the southwest portion of the state. This one here was actually another type of mine before uranium became important. Turns out they used to mix uranium sediments in with water to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Brutle.
I took a few short hikes, but mostly drove through it. I must go back, it looks this awesome from the road, imagine what the backcountry looks like! I managed to get out of the park just before sunset, and here's the view I left with. This is the west face of the Waterpocket fold. It's really hard to capture on a camera just how epic all the views are, but I highly recommend everyone go visit.
So, while my vacation was solitary and cold, it was more fun than anything else. I got a bit of pondering done, saw some epic views and traveled some wonderous roads. I'll be back sometime in the summer for some more desert adventures. I just love that whole area. I just have to make it through a few more months of school.

----------------
Now playing: Johnny Cash - Redemption
via FoxyTunes