Thunderstorms Wreak It

Eph Hanks Tower

Road into Capital Gorge

On our last full day in the Park we decided to bike to the end of pavement & head down Capital Gorge to the trail head. A bike to hike rather than worry about parking in the small lot. It was a beautiful blue sky cloud free day... or so we thought. We rode down Capital Gorge & Bill decided to shoot a little video of our route. The canyon walls are really tall & from the bike you certainly can appreciate the beauty much better than from inside the truck. 

Capital Gorge

We locked up the bikes and took off for the 1-mile hike along the canyon floor. Along the way were a few petroglyphs carved into the canyon walls. It was difficult to see them from the ‘idiots’ that feel the need to destroy stuff.

A bit further down you could see the signatures of pioneers that had passed through in the late 1800’s... they would stand in the bed of their wagons and sign their names in the wall. Hoping their signature would survive future floods. A few even used bullets to shoot their names in the cliff walls... although that seems like a waste of ammunition.

Pilgrim signatures

Petroglyph

Empty water pocket...aka Tanks

"arch" below tanks

We decided to take the spur trail up to see the water pockets...aka Tanks. Pretty steep rocky trail, but the view of the canyon floor was certainly worth the climb. A bit nervous about the decent back down, but up we headed. The Tanks were a bit disappointing...very little water in the first few and none in the largest one. We stopped briefly for water & noticed an increasingly dark cloud approaching from the rear. You really do not want to be in a slot canyon if rain is going to dump so out we headed rather quickly.

Blue skies moving slowly towards us

Thankfully, a picnic shelter was at the trail head and we moved our bikes under it. Just in time. The rain, wind & thunder started a few minutes later. The amazing thing was the number of people who headed down into the canyon while it was raining. We waited it out & once it looked safe we took off down the 2 miles of dirt road (more like mud at this point) to the pavement. Another dark cloud was approaching as we reached the pavement. Once again we hunkered down to wait it out. This storm took its sweet time moving off, but once the blue sky opened up we headed out for the 7 miles back to the campground. Since it was still looking rather stormy & no other shelters along the way we put the bikes in Turbo mode and booked it. Actually hit a bit of rain, but we were dry by the time we hit our campsite. 

The first time we’ve been caught by the weather. The forecast LIED.

All in all we had a great time in Capital Reef...lots of good weather. We rode the bikes & did a few hikes every day. The best thing about the Park is the lack of crowds. You cannot say that about Zion or Arches. 

The pizza joint from 5 years ago is also still in business. The owner claimed it was our anniversary & had the whole outside group of people sing to us. Weird right? All because we ordered a brownie for dessert. Got to love it!

*click photos to enlarge