Day 10 - Torrey to Bluff, Utah
Part 1 - Torrey to Bullfrog Marina
Highways today were east from Torrey on State Hwy 24, south on Notom-Bullfrog Road, west on the Burr Trail Road, up the switchbacks, north on Upper Muley Twist/Strike Valley Overlook Road, and backtracking down the switchbacks to the Notom-Bullfrog Junction. From there we continued south on the Burr Trail/BLM 12000 to State Hwy 276 to Bullfrog Marina. Torrey to Bullfrog Marina
Part 2 - Halls Crossing to Bluff
Although State Hwy 276 crosses Lake Powell on the Charles Hall Ferry and continues on the other side of the lake, Google Maps will not pick that up so the second part of highways today is from Halls Crossing to Bluff. Exiting the Ferry we continued on State Hwy 276, west on State Hwy 95, north on State Hwy 275 into Natural Bridges National Monument and back out, east on Hwy 95, then south on State Hwy 261 to the top of Moki Dugway where we turned onto Muley Point Road. We stopped first at Muley Point East before continuing to Muley Point West, backtracked to Hwy 261 and continued south to US 163. We turned west on Hwy 163 and turned onto Road 2161 to Mexican Hat Rock and out, then east on US 163 and US 191 to Bluff. Halls Crossing Marina to Bluff
Capitol Reef National Park Visitor Center
As recommended, we stopped at the Visitor Center to get maps and road information. While Karen was doing that, I shopped in the visitor center bookstore.
I managed to find a good book on the history of Fruita, the Loop the Fold road guide, and a packet of beautiful Grand Circle pictorial postcards. Who sends postcards anymore? I guess we do now. Loop the Fold CRNP
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| Capitol Dome (Wikipedia) |
Capitol Dome & Navajo Dome
Capitol Dome, the iconic landmark from which Capitol Reef National Park gets it's name, is situated 2.5 miles east of the Park's Visitor Center on Hwy 24.
It's summit, at 6,120 feet towers 800 feet above the Fremont River and State Route 24. The similar Navajo Dome with an elevation of 6,489 feet and a distinctive pointed top is a half mile west of Capitol Dome.
Notom-Bullfrog Road (Mile 9.1)
About 9 miles east of the Visitor Center, we turned south onto The Notom-Bullfrog Road. This road is paved for the first 10 miles, gravel for the next 6 miles, and then 17 miles of infrequently-graded dirt, clay, and sand. It runs parallel to the eastern slope of the Waterpocket Fold. The massive Henry Mountains are on the east side of the valley.
NPS refers to this area as "Geological Features of the South District". Most of the drive down the Notom-Bullfrog Road is simply a scenic drive along the eastern edge of the Waterpocket Fold and "becoming immersed in the geology of Capitol Reef".
The Golden Throne and other "muffin" or "biscuit" shaped formations of Navajo and Page sandstones can be seen from the road. It runs through a section of Bentonite Clay with colorful shades of gray, blue, purple and red in the popcorn-textured slopes. For us, the most interesting is always the pale Navajo Sandstone that contrasts sharply with the dark red chevrons of the Carmel Formation.
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| Tilted Morrison Formation - Notom Road (Wikipedia) |
Waterpocket Fold
The Waterpocket Fold is a 100-mile long warp in the Earth's crust, running north-south from Thousand Lake Mountain to Lake Powell creating a dramatic landscape of rugged cliffs, canyons, striking natural bridges, and intricate arches.
The fold is a classic monocline, a "step-up" in the rock layers. Movement along the fault caused the west side to shift upwards more than 7,000 feet higher than the layers on the east. Geology - Capitol Reef NP
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| Stratigraphy (Wikipedia) |
Geology of Capital Reef Area
The Permian through Jurassic stratigraphy of the Colorado Plateau.
From top to bottom: Rounded tan domes of the Navajo Sandstone, layered red Kayenta Formation, cliff-forming, vertically-jointed, red Wingate Sandstone, slope-forming, purplish Chinle Formation, layered, lighter-red Moenkopi Formation, and white, layered Cutler Formation sandstone. (It all just looks red to us.) Geology of the Capitol Reef Area - Wikipedia
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| Desert Varnish Burr Trail (2010) |
Desert Varnish
Desert varnish is the thin red-to-black coating found on exposed rock surfaces in arid regions. Varnish is composed of clay minerals, oxides and hydroxides of manganese and/or iron, as well as other particles such as sand grains and trace elements.
The most distinctive elements are manganese and iron. The color of rock varnish depends on the relative amounts of manganese (black) and iron (red/orange) in it. Desert Varnish - National Park Service
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| Cottonwood Wash (Wikipedia) |
Slot Canyons
The Notom-Bullfrog Road provides access to three of the most popular Slot Canyons - Burro Wash, Cottonwood Wash, and Sheets Gulch for those strong enough to endure a strenuous hike. Not us. We just kept going.
A slot canyon is a long, narrow, deep and tortuous channel or drainageway with sheer rock walls that are typically eroded into either sandstone or other sedimentary rock.
Some slot canyons can measure less than 3 feet across at the top but drop more than 100 feet to the floor of the canyon. They are subject to flash flooding. Many slot canyons are formed in sandstone and limestone rock, although slot canyons in other rock types such as granite and basalt are possible.
Notom (Pleasant Creek) Ghost Town (Mile 14.0)
The Notom area, four miles south of Hwy 24, was originally settled in 1886 by jack-of-all-trades Jorgen Christian Smith. A linguist of German ancestry, he was a blacksmith as well as the man area settlers turned to for medical help. Although the settlement grew large enough to have its own post office and a branch of the LDS church, it ultimately lost its inhabitants and ceased to exist as a town. At its largest population, Notom had 23 families.
The settlement was first called Pleasant Creek, but the postal authorities requested a change since that name was already in use. Today Notom is the jumping off point for exploration of the eastern edge of Capitol Reef National Park and is home to the Sunlit Oasis. Capitol Reef Ghost Towns
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| Hoodoos |
Hoodoos (Mile 17.6)
The Entrada Sandstone is wind-blown sand deposited along the shoreline of an ancient sea. Slightly more resistant strata within the sandstone protect the softer material below, allowing the hoodoos to form.
The Entrada is exposed at several other locations in Utah, such as Arches NP, Goblin Valley SP, and Cathedral Valley in Capitol Reed NP.
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| Summerville Formation |
Summerville Formation (28.1)
The Summerville Formation, a finely-layered rock with narrow bands of mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, and gypsum, is exposed to the east. It formed along the western shore of a shallow inland sea, as currents deposited sediments.
When areas of seawater were cut off in small basins, the water quickly evaporated, leaving behind gypsum, sometimes in thick layers.
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Oyster Shell Reef (NPS) |
Oyster Shell Reef (Mile 32.3)
At approximately the 32 mile mark there is a dense oyster shell reef dominated by the oysters shells - another form of life from Capitol Reef's distant past.
These 100-million-year-old oysters reflect a time when a sea inundated this area and created the brackish marine conditions necessary to support this form of life. The shells of these oysters were concentrated in the beach deposit preserved as the Dakota Sandstone.
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| Brushy Basin Morrison Formation (Britannia Sample) |
Morrison Formation (Mile 39.6)
For more than half a mile, the road passes between two layers of the 150 million year old Morrison Formation.
On the east are multicolored, rounded hills, of soft claystone and volcanic ash in the younger Brushy Basin layer, formed in a wetland floodplain environment. To the west is the tan coloured, erosion-resistant Salt Wash layer, which is coarse sandstone and river deposited gravel and cobbles.
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| Navajo Sandstone & Carmel Layer (Wikipedia) |
Navajo Sandstone and Carmel Layer (Mile 39.8)
The viewpoint provides views of the steeply tilted eastern face of the Waterpocket Fold. The red, angular exposures of the Carmel layer contrast with the tall, white Navajo Sandstone slopes.
The softer Entrada and Summerville layers have eroded downward more quickly, and form the valley floor.
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| Mancos Shale Strike Valley (Wikipedia) |
Strike Valley
Just before reaching the Burr Trail turn, the Notom-Bullfrog Road enters Strike Valley. Strike Valley is the product of rock layers eroding at different rates, depending on how soft or hard they are.
Erosion-resistant rock layers form into ridges, or hogbacks, while the softer layers erode into valleys parallel to the ridges. Strike Valley is the most obvious evidence of the Waterpocket Fold in Capitol Reef National Park.
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| Burr Trail Switchbacks (2010) |
Burr Trail Switchbacks (Mile 42.9)
We weren't going to pass up the opportunity to go up and "down" the switchbacks on the Burr Trail so once we reached the Burr Trail junction, we turned west.
Apparently, cars ascending the switchbacks have the right of way. Also, you are not supposed to stop on the switchbacks but I don't think that rule applies to our virtual "up and down". No doubt we will be stopping and taking an abundance of photos.
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| Burr Trail 2010) |
The Burr Trail
The Burr Trail is a backcountry route extending from the mountain town of Boulder down through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument into Capital Reef National Park and then to Bullfrog in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
The route covers about 68 miles. Originally, only the switchbacks were named the Burr Trail. Today, the entire road from Boulder to Bullfrog is known as the Burr Trail.
The Burr Trail was used by cattleman in the late 19th century to move cattle back and forth between winter and summer ranges. It was named after John Atlantic Burr, who was born in 1846 aboard the SS Brooklyn somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. He and his family lived in Salt Lake City, then later moved south and established the town of Burrville, Utah, in 1876.
John Burr soon developed a trail to move cattle back and forth between winter and summer ranges and to market. This cattle trail through the rough, nearly impassable country around the Waterpocket Fold, Burr Canyon, and Muley Twist Canyon came to be known as the Burr Trail.
Upper Muley Twist and Strike Valley Overlook
We also decided to check out the Upper Muley Twist Canyon Trail and Strike Valley Overlook. We are not sure if we can get to the Strike Valley Overlook as all indication is we need a four wheel drive but will drive as far as we can go anyway. The Upper Muley Twist Canyon Road is located one mile west of the top of the Burr Trail Road switchbacks. Passenger cars can be driven about 0.3 mile in to the Upper Muley Twist Canyon trailhead. High clearance vehicles, typically requiring four wheel drive, can drive 2.9 miles up the canyon to the Strike Valley Overlook parking area.
Lake Powell - Charles Hall Ferry
Once we finished our shenanigans on the switchbacks, we backtracked to the Notom-Bullfrog junction and turned south on Burr Trail/BLM Road 12000 to connect with Highway 276 to Bullfrog Marina and the Charles Hall Ferry.
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| Lake Powell (2008) |
Hwy 276 crosses Lake Powell by ferry landing on the south end at Hall's Crossing. Ferry service between Bullfrog Basin and Halls Crossing began in 1985. Our ferry ride, as usual, was very relaxing.
Lake Powell is a man-made reservoir on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona. It was created by the flooding of Glen Canyon by the Glen Canyon Dam, which also led to the 1972 creation of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area public land managed by the National Park Service.
The reservoir is named for explorer John Wesley Powell, an American Civil War veteran who explored the river via three wooden boats in 1869. It primarily lies in southern Utah, with a small portion in northern Arizona.
Upon completion of Glen Canyon Dam on September 13, 1963, the Colorado River began to back up. The newly flooded Glen Canyon formed Lake Powell. Sixteen years elapsed before the lake filled to it's highest water level on July 14, 1983. The lake level fluctuates considerably depending on the seasonal snow runoff from the Rocky Mountains.
Trail of the Ancients - Utah
Although we've been in the Grand Circle for quite a while, officially, we are now driving on part of the Trail of the Ancients National Scenic Byway.
The Byway has many different segments in Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico combined together to form the Trail of the Ancients. The route highlights the archaeological and cultural history of southwestern Native American peoples.
The Trail of the Ancients National Scenic Byway traverses the widely diverse geological landscape of the Four Corners region of the Colorado Plateau. It was the first National Scenic Byway that was designated solely for its archaeological sites. The entire route is approximately 480 miles long.
The National Scenic Byway connects prehistoric sites of Native Americans, including the Navajo, Utes and early puebloan people, who lived and farmed in the Four Corners area from about 1 CE to about 1300 CE (Common Era). There were people hunting and gathering for food in the Four Corners region by 10,000 B.C. or earlier.
Trail of the Ancients - Highway 276 Utah
The entire route of Highway 276 is part of the Trail of the Ancients. State Route 276 (split by Lake Powell) runs through the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and crosses Lake Powell via the Charles Hall Ferry, the only auto ferry in the state of Utah. Travel time over the water takes approximately 25 minutes. The ferry's northern port is Bullfrog and it's southern port is at Hall's Crossing. Hwy 276 - Wikipedia
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| Clay Hill Pass Historical Marker (2008) |
Clay Hill Pass
In 1879 the L.D.S. church sent missionary families to San Juan Country to make settlement and better relations with the Indians. These pioneers, consisting of 83 wagon, came through the Hole in the Rock.
On March 5, 1880 they reached the top of this hill, camped, and worked eight days building a road three miles long to bring the wagons safely to the bottom, a drop of 1,000 feet. Clay Hill Pass - Historical Marker Database
Natural Bridges National Monument
Trail of the Ancients - Highway 275 Utah
We have tried several times to visit the Monument but we always seemed to be under time restraints. This time we planned our day to include a tour of the Park.
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| Natural Bridges National Monument (2008) |
Highway 275 runs approximately 4 miles northwest, from the junction of SR-95 to the east entrance of Natural Bridges National Monument. The route forms part of the Trail of the Ancients National Scenic Byway. Hwy 275 - Wikipedia
The Park
Natural Bridges National Monument was designated a National Monument April 16, 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt. In 2007, the International Dark-Sky Association named Natural Bridges National Monument the first International Dark-Sky Park. During the summer, the park provides astronomy ranger programs under spectacular starry skies.
The Bridges
The Park features a large natural bridge carved from the white Permian sandstone of the Cedar Mesa Formation that gives White Canyon its name. (More of that "Permian" and "Formation" talk!)
The main attractions are the natural bridges, accessible from the Bridge View Drive, which winds along the park and goes by all three bridges. The three bridges in the park are named Kachina, Owachomo, and Sipapu which are all Hopi names.
A natural bridge is formed through erosion by water flowing in the stream bed of the canyon. During periods of flash floods, the stream undercuts the walls of rock that separate the meanders (or "goosenecks") of the stream, until the rock wall within the meander is undercut and the meander is cut off. The new stream bed then flows underneath the bridge. Eventually, as erosion and gravity enlarge the bridge's opening, the bridge collapses under its own weight. There is evidence of at least two collapsed natural bridges within the Monument.
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| Owachomo Bridge (Wikipedia) |
Owachomo Bridge
Potential bridge collapse is possible especially along the span of Owachomo Bridge in Armstrong Canyon which is only 9 feet thick at the crest of its span.
Earthquake potential is high along the Moab Fault in nearby Arches National Park. Ground shaking from earthquakes may impact the bridges causing catastrophic failure of one or more of the bridges.
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| Horsecollar Ruin (NPS) |
Horsecollar Ruin
Horsecollar Ruin is an Ancestral Puebloan ruin visible from an overlook a short hike from Bridge View Drive.
The site was abandoned more than 700 years ago but is in a remarkable state of preservation, including an undisturbed rectangular kiva with the original roof and interior, and two granaries with unusual oval shaped doors whose shape resembles horse collars (hence the site's name).
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| Bears Ears National Monument (Wikipedia) |
Bears Ears National Monument
We will travel in and out of the original Bears Ears National Monument during this trip as a lot of Utah's Trail of the Ancients is inside the Monument.
Bears Ears National Monument, was established by President Barack Obama by presidential proclamation on December 28, 2016. The monument's original size was 1,351,849 acres. The monument protects the public land surrounding the Bears Ears and the Indian Creek corridor.
A proclamation issued by Trump on December 4, 2017, reduced the monument to 201,876 acres an unprecedented and exceptionally large reduction in the history of U.S. national monuments. Legal scholars have argued that the reduction is not authorized by law. Several federal lawsuits have been filed challenging Trump's action.
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| Bear Ears Buttes from Hwy 261 (Wikipedia) |
Bears Ears Buttes
The Bears Ears Buttes that resemble the top of a bear's head, are most commonly appreciated from afar as they are set back in rising topography of the Manti-La Sal National Forest.
The best place to see the iconic view of the Bears Ears is from State Route 261 traveling north towards Highway 95. These twin buttes stand over 8,700 feet in elevation. They are sacred places to many Indigenous Tribes and Pueblos who share spiritual connections to the area.
Trail of the Ancients - State Highway 261
We backtracked from Natural Bridges National Monument, then headed east on State Hwy 95 for a couple of miles to the turnoff of Utah State Highway 261. State Route 261 runs 34 miles from the junction of State Route 95 just east of Natural Bridges National Monument to the junction with U.S. Route 163 three miles north of Mexican Hat.
Highway 261 is part of the Utah section of the Trail of the Ancients. It is also completely within the Bears Ears National Monument. The road turns to gravel at the top of Cedar Mesa before it's descent down the steep switchbacks of the Moki Dugway.
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| Muley Point (American Southwest) |
Muley Point
We turned at the top of Moki Dugway to take the road to Muley Point. We'd ventured on this route several years ago quite by accident and decided to do it again.
To reach Muley Point, take the first (unmarked) road west at the top of the dugway, and travel the 5 mile gravel road to the overlook. The Muley Point Overlook provides a million dollar view of the Goosenecks, vast sweeping desert valley, and distant Monument Valley.
Moki Dugway Hwy 261
Highway 261 makes you feel like you are on top of the world - and you are!! We never tire of it. Arriving back on highway 261 is a good feeling for us. As much as it never seems to change - it really never stays the same. Karen even notices when some rocks have moved or a part of the road is changed - sometimes made wider and sometimes missing a shoulder.
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| Hwy 261 Switchbacks (2007) |
Highway 261 provides some excellent scenery and some amazing overlooks, but it is not for those who are afraid of heights. Karen and I have come to claim it as our own special road.
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| Hwy 261 Switchbacks (2007) |
We have more pictures of hwy 261 that any other place we're travelled. We have been on this road almost every year since 2002. I've been on it several times on extra trips. We don't even try to explain any more how this road makes us feel - it just does.
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| San Juan Goosenecks (2008) |
Goosenecks State Park
We visited this State Park in 2008 and again in 2018. For this trip we opted not to take the time, firstly because it's not really worth the cost and secondly the same vista overlook from Muley Point is far superior.
Nevertheless, the Goosenecks are pretty spectacular and it is also interesting to note that Goosenecks State Park is part of the Trail of the Ancients and one of the stops listed in the itinerary.
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| Painted Desert from Hwy 261 (2019) |
Painted Desert
The Painted Desert seen in the Four Corners area runs from near the east end of Grand Canyon National Park and southeast into Petrified Forest National Park.
The Painted Desert is known for its brilliant and varied colors, that not only include the more common red rock, but also shades of lavender. It was named by an expedition under Francisco Vázquez de Coronado on his 1540 expedition.
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| Mexican Hat (2008) |
Mexican Hat Rock
We decided to head west on US Hwy 163 to the Mexican Hat Rock. This curiosity is named for it's resemblance to a sombrero, or a "Mexican Hat."
The rock rises above the west bank of the San Juan River. Mexican Hat is a caprock of Cedar Mesa sandstone atop a pedestal and talus cone of the Halgaito Formation, a bed of red shale and siltstone. (Oh boy! I'm getting quite good at "geology" talk.)
Bluff, Utah
The Town was founded in April 1880 by the famous "Hole in the Rock" expedition of Mormon pioneers, whose mission was to establish a farming community on the San Juan River. After forging about 200 miles of their own trail over difficult terrain, the weary settlers arrived at the site in April 1880. The pioneers built their cabins in close proximity to each other to form a fort. The town survived despite hostilities from Navajos, Utes, belligerent cattlemen, outlaws, and nature.
Bluff is located in the scenic and very sparsely-populated southeastern Utah canyonlands. The town was named for the bluffs near the town site.
Bluff is bordered on the south by the San Juan River and the Navajo Nation, to the east by farmland to the west by vast panoramic landscapes of Valley of the Gods and Monument Valley, and to the north, 300-foot sandstone bluffs, from which it derived its name.
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| Desert Rose Inn (2010) |
Desert Rose Inn
We registered at the Desert Rose Inn and quickly unloaded the car before heading to the Twin Rocks Cafe for dinner. Now all we had to do was simply relax and tour around the area.
In 2008 we used Bluff as our home base as we visited the surrounding area. We will re-visit many of those areas again on this trip.
Bluff Fort Historic Site
Before heading back to our hotel, we toured the Bluff Fort Historic Site. The grounds include actual wagons and other artifacts from the Hole in the Rock journey, the rebuilt old log meetinghouse, replicas of cabins, Ute and Navajo dwellings, the ruins of the Kumen Jones home, and the original Bluff Relief Society building. Hole in the Rock Foundation Bluff Fort Historic Site and Visitor Center
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| Bluff Fort Historic Site (2018) |
The mission assigned to the pioneers on behalf of their leader, Brigham Young, was to make peace with the natives of the Navajo Nation in the area, in purpose to convert them to Christianity and thereby to expand the (what they called) "Mormon Kingdom of Zion".
There are very few sources about the daily life of the settlers, but one can get an impression from a letter written about them and published in "Harper's Weekly" on December 9, 1893, and as follows:
"Is it possible in any fertile spot in Utah, no matter how remote from civilization, not to find a prosperous band of Mormons? It might have been so before '79 (1879), but now we find many interesting settlements. One, a carefully laid out village, built on the bottom-lands of the San Juan River and the cliffs, is fitly called Bluff City. I cannot imagine a finer example of Mormon enterprise than these two hundred people, with their wealth of cattle and horses, leaving good homes, and facing the dangers and hardships of an unknown country." Bluff Fort - Wikipedia
 Post Note - Day Ten:
It was extremely difficult to document today's virtual drive down the Notom-Bullfrog Road as most of it is about the "geology of the Capitol Reef area". It took me a very long time and no matter how much I read, I couldn't wrap my head around the "Permian, Jurassic and Triassic" periods and the various "Formations". In the end, the "Loop the Fold Road Guide" that I ordered from Capital Reef National Park came to my rescue. This clear and concise booklet, complete with photos, really told me everything I needed to know. Although we've always marveled at the beauty of it all, we never really knew what we were looking at.
Once we were on the Burr Trail and heading to Lake Powell, we were back in familiar territory - so much so I didn't have any trouble describing the area and finding our own pictures taken from the many times in previous years that we've been in the area.
We will stay in the area now for a few days until we are ready to move on to the Colorado portion of the Trail of the Ancients.
Staying at the Desert Rose Inn is always a highlight of our trips. We do know that the cabins no longer have two beds (at least as of the last time I was there) but we will make them have two beds for us on this trip.
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