If I Were Going...: North Rim, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Capitol Reef and Curecanti

Curecanti National Recreation Area

North Rim, Grand Canyon National Park

North Rim

I had anticipated that Scott and I would come out of the Grand Canyon (see rafting posts) sunburned and exhausted with sore muscles galore. For that reason, I had booked the Marble Canyon Lodge for the night we returned. I assumed that we would collapse.

But, that was not the case. I came back rested, almost as pale as I left with sunburned hands, chronically dry sky and hair that just needed a few moisture treatments. Plus, I had expected to come back late in the day. Instead, we were back mid-morning.

Window Rock

So, after a yummy lunch at the Marble Canyon Lodge (with iced tea!), we decided to move on.

We easily cancelled our reservations at the Marble Canyon Lodge and drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, which is only 84 miles away.

We decided that we would hope to get a room through a cancellation. If we couldn't, we'd move on and swing back for our confirmed reservation the next night. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. It turned out to be a good strategy because the weather was lovely the first day and gray and gloomy the next.

Colorado River from the North Rim

I have written enough about the Grand Canyon recently (and in former blogs), so I'll just say a few things.

North Rim

We just drove the roads and went to the look-outs. I took a short hike, but the weather sent me back.

I was looking for unique wildlife. I didn't see a Kaibab Squirrel, which lives ONLY on the North Rim.

I did see an Abert's Squirrel but didn't get a picture.

We went looking for California Condors (the Ranger even gave me a tip where you can find them roosting in the early morning -- in the burn scar as you enter the park), but no luck.

In fact, the only thing we saw were some Red-Tailed Hawks, an Antelope Squirrel that I think was a Harris's (as opposed to a White-Tailed) and a couple of Steller's Jays. It was pretty quiet.

Left, Red-Tailed Hawk; right, Harris's Antelope Squirrel

Our accommodations were, first, a large very nice Western Cabin very close to the Visitors Center and, the second night, a more basic Frontier Cabin.

Frontier cabin; photos: Scott Stevens

Both were fine, with a good National park feel about them. I always prefer to stay AT the National Park when I can, even if I have to pay more and get less amenities. One night we had some very tasty pizza at the Deli in the Pines at the Lodge.

Grand Canyon Lodge; photos: Scott Stevens

The next night we ate at the Grand Canyon Lodge Dining Room. I have eaten there before and had a lovely dinner. This time the food (and service) was a bit disappointing. It might have been because it was early in the season.

One of the loveliest things we did is sit out on the terrace by a huge roaring fire while waiting for dinner.

Grand Canyon Lodge fireplace; photo: Scott Stevens

The Grand Canyon Lodge is beautiful and I think the best part is its porches and terraces.

Grand Canyon Lodge

Anyway, the North Rim is a lovely place that most Grand Canyon Visitors never get to see. It's less crowded, a bit more rustic, cooler and more remote. If you haven't been, I suggest you try it.

After that little detour, we decided to work our way home. Our route took us through southern Utah to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Capitol Reef National Park and then through Curecanti National Recreation Area in Colorado.

I have been to all these places before, but I am always amazed at the beauty and grandeur of our "backyard."

Our route took us through Red Canyon, which is adjacent to Bryce Canyon National Park and sports similar -- but less dramatic -- rock formations, including pinnacles, spires, columns and hoodoos. We opted not to go to Bryce just because we needed to get home eventually.

Red Canyon

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Next we drove through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which has been in the news recently because last December the Trump Administration ordered that the Monument's size be reduced by nearly 47 percent to 1,003,863 acres. Conservation, fishing, hunting and outdoor recreation groups have filed suit to block any reduction, arguing that the president has no legal authority to materially shrink a national monument. Plus, it's just wrong!!!!

The Monument is named after the 1776 Dominguez--Escalante expedition that explored the Colorado Plateau in Utah, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada,

Curvy roads

Escalante has three main regions: The Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau and the Canyons of the Escalante (Escalante River).

All regions are administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Over the years, I have been in all the areas of this amazing place, but this time we just drove across the top through parts of the Grand Staircase and Kaiparowits. Our drive along Route 12 took us through broad slickrock badlands and along a curvy ridge with fairly deep drop-offs on both sides.

Lythronax Argestes; art: Dinopedia

Since 2000, numerous dinosaur fossils more than 75 million years old have been found at Grand Staircase-Escalante, including Lythronax Argestes, a tyrannosaurid that is approximately 13 million years older than Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Humans did not settle permanently in the area until around the year 500.

Both the Fremont and Ancestral Puebloan People lived here; the Fremont hunting and gathering below the plateau and near the Escalante Valley, and the ancestral Puebloans farming in the canyons. Both groups grew corn, beans and squash. They lived in brush-roofed pit houses and natural rock shelters. Ruins and rock art can be found throughout the monument.

Cottonwood trees line the creek in the valley

The first record of white settlers in the region dates from 1866, when Captain James Andrus led a group of cavalry to the headwaters of the Escalante River. In 1871, Jacob Hamblin of Kanab, on his way to resupply the second John Wesley Powell expedition, mistook the Escalante River for the Dirty Devil River and became the first white person to travel the length of the canyon.

Rainbow over Escalante

In 1879, the San Juan Expedition crossed through the monument on their way to a proposed Mormon colony in southeastern Utah. Traveling on a largely unexplored route, they found a breach in the otherwise vertical cliffs and named it Hole-in-the-Rock. The narrow, steep and rocky crevice eventually led to a steep sandy slope down to the Colorado River. To get through, they excavated, blasted and rigged a pulley system to lower wagons and animals down the other side. There they built a ferry, crossed the river and climbed back out through Cottonwood Canyon on the other side.

Road through Escalante; photo: Scott Stevens

Capitol Reef National Park

Horses at Capitol Reef

Then, moving on, we arrived a Capitol Reef National Park in the early afternoon as rain was threatening. Even before reaching the Visitor Center, we stopped to photograph some horses -- a Paint, a Fewspot Appaloosa (yep, that's a thing) and a lovely chestnut-colored horse -- against the stunning backdrop

Capitol Reef

Capitol Reef National Park protects 241,904 acres of colorful canyons, ridges, buttes, monoliths and washes.

The name was selected because its white Navajo Sandstone domes and cliffs look like the United States Capitol building (so, it is Capitol, not Capital).

The local word "reef" refers to any rocky barrier to land travel, just as ocean reefs are barriers to sea travel.

Located partially in Wayne County, Utah, the area was originally called "Wayne Wonderland" in the 1920s. The new name certainly gave it much more dignity.

The Park was initially designated a National Monument in 1937 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Even though it had official status, it wasn't opened to the public until 1950 and it wasn't easily accessed by road until 1962. It was significantly enlarged in 1968 and became a National Park in 1971.

Capitol Reef

Capitol Reef encompasses most of the 65-million-year-old Waterpocket Fold, a 100-mile-long warp in the earth's crust that is the largest exposed formation of it type in North America.

The fold, caused by the same colliding continental plates that created the Rocky Mountains, comprises newer and older layers of earth folded over each other in an S-shape.

Photo: Scott Stevens

It has weathered and eroded over millennia to expose layers of rock and marine fossils, because the area was formerly on the edge of an ancient sea. The Fremont River has cut canyons through parts of the Waterpocket Fold, creating green oases in the otherwise arid landscape.

We took a short drive but turned back because we had a rainstorm behind us and numerous flash flooding warnings in front of us.

Colorado Sky

Fremont People lived on the Fremont River around the year 1000. They irrigated crops of lentils, maize and squash and stored their grain in stone granaries. They also left behind a significant number of petroglyphs -- many easily accessible from the main road. In the 13th Century, likely because of a long drought, they abandoned their settlements and moved elsewhere. Many years after the Fremont left, Paiutes moved into the area.

Reconstructed original cabin

In 1872 Alan H. Thompson, a surveyor attached to John Wesley Powell's expedition, crossed the Waterpocket Fold while exploring the area. Geologist Clarence Dutton later spent several summers studying the area's geology. Neither expedition explored the rugged and inaccessible Waterpocket Fold.

Fruita Orchard

Mormons settled the Fremont River Valley in the 1880s, establishing several towns, including Fruita, which is somewhat preserved in the Park. It has cherry, apricot, peach, pear and apple orchards that can be harvested by visitors in early March through mid-October.

There is a small bakery in historic Fruita that sells pies, jams and jellies made from the local fruit. We bought a mixed fruit and peach pie to eat later.

Historic Fruita; photo Scott Stevens

It was a quick drive through the Park. We had both been there and we needed to get home. So, we headed off, traveling from Utah into Colorado.

Curecanti National Recreation Area

Curecanti

Our final stop was Curecanti National Recreation Area on the Gunnison River in western Colorado.

The Needle

Established in 1965, Curecanti has recreational facilities on three reservoirs, Blue Mesa, Morrow Point and Crystal. Popular for boating and fishing, Curecanti has campgrounds, trails, two marinas, boat launches and boat-in campsites.

When we passed Blue Mesa Reservoir, it was incredibly low, with many of the feeding streams and adjacent ponds completely dry.

I later learned that the low levels had less to do with Colorado rain and snowfall and more to do with drought downstream in Arizona.

It is all part of the complicated agreements among the states that draw water from the Colorado River (remember that I mentioned that the Colorado is one of the most regulated bodies of water in the U.S.).

The road through Curecanti offers exceptional views of the Gunnison River (the same river that forms the Black Canyon of the Gunnison just a hop-skip-and-a-jump down the road).

One of the views is the Curecanti Needle, a 700-ft tall granite spire on Morrow Reservoir's southern bank.

For many years the Needle was a marketing symbol of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad's Black Canyon Route that passed the Needle on the north side of the river. Now a popular destination for climbers, the Needle can be accessed only by hand-launched boat or by crossing the frozen river in winter.

Wildflowers

The area boasted some beautiful wildflowers, a few lizards, including this Western Fence Lizard, also called a "Blue Belly."

Western Fence Lizard

I caught a few glimpses of its bright blue underside, but never got a good picture of it.

I also walked right up to a beautiful Green-Tailed Towhee with its bright red crest on full display. But, it flew before I could get an in-focus picture. Drat because the only other one I have ever seen was hiding in deep grass!

Curecanti is breathtaking -- and I bet a lot of Coloradans have never gotten off the main road to see it from above. But, I know a lot of motorcyclists have -- it appears to be a popular motorcycle route.