We spent the entire day driving the main road and the scenic road – and a couple of the shorter spur roads – in Capitol Reef National Park in southern Utah.  It rained off and on all day and there were warnings signs about flash floods so we did not linger on the Capitol Gorge gravel spur road; and in fact, skipped the Grand Wash road all together.  We had seen how quickly water can accumulate on a walking tour in the Sierra Madre Forest in Mexico several years ago when we were walking along a very sandy, very dry creek bottom and it began to rain.  Our guide immediately said, “Everybody get out and get to higher ground.”  Literally, in less than 10 minutes, where there had been a dusty, sandy path there was now a rushing stream wide enough that you would  have had to take a stretched stride to cross it.  It was incredible and gave us a very healthy respect for flash flood warning signs.

The rain had mostly let up by the time we reached the end of the scenic road and turned onto the gravel road through Capitol Gorge.

A close up look at this large rocks showed the amazing power or water.  There was uranium mining in the park area at one time.  The mines have been closed for years, but this may have been an exploration bore hole.  Or, it could be completely natural.  Wind and water do incredible things to solid rock given enough time.                               Just look at the amazing colours! Rock walls this tall and sheer make one feel very small and vulnerable.

The rain was not really heavy, but it was steady so everything was wet, which, I think, just enhanced all the different colours in the rocks.  To be continued…again.