Since I had to wait two weeks for my post-surgery checkup, we decided to work our way slowly, taking in two last national parks (Capitol Reef in UT and Great Basin in NV). Due to my incapacitated arm, Deb had to do all the driving — around 1500 miles back! And while we had enjoyed great weather up to this point, there was lots of rain and strong winds along the route.
Both parks we visited were amazing for different reasons. Capitol Reef is one of five red rock parks/monuments in the region, but it is unique in a lot of ways. It was fairly inaccessible, so the area within and around today’s park was the last area in the lower 48 states to be mapped. It’s famous for it’s “waterpocket fold,” essentially a 100 mile wrinkle in the Earth’s crust that yields some amazing geologic formations. But the park is also marked by the struggles and triumphs of the peoples who made a go of it here, whether early Native Americans or later Mormon pioneers who planted orchards and thrived.
Great Basin is probably not a national park you have heard of — I certainly hadn’t. I found it in the road atlas when I was looking for potential parks/monuments that we could visit on our way back home. It’s a relatively new park (established in 1986) and probably not very visited since it is a long drive from anywhere. And some would say a monotonous drive as you travel across endless seas of sagebrush. But this “sea” is surrounded by mountain ranges that provide a unique feature — rather than rivers flowing toward the ocean, they all flow into the basin. This provides the water for the surprising amount of flora and fauna in the area, as well as the vehicle for carving and shaping of the many limestone caverns there — including the Lehman Caves that we visited. The other thing Great Basin is famous for is their groves of ancient bristlecone pines that live right up at tree line. Some of these are over 7000 years old. Unfortunately, when I was getting ready to hike up to see them, the rain intensified and started turning to snow. Ah well, next time!
From there, we took a leisurely (well, at least for me — Deb did all the driving!) drive back to Seattle, mixing camping out with more frequent hotel stays. It was good to get back home!
While this road trip didn’t go exactly as planned, it was a lot of fun. We visited three national parks and three national monuments. We got to see friends and Deb got in some fly fishing. We also met some wonderful people along the way — both fellow travelers and people from the towns where we stayed. These days, it’s easy to let the politics and emotional disagreements on issues get you down and make you lose hope about our country. But then you take a trip like this — it’s like a salve for the soul. And it reinforces that we, as a people, are a lot more alike than different, and we all are struck with how small we are in the context of the natural world around us.