On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Good morning, everybody!
This is a brief return of OTR. These are pictures I’d hoped to run a few weeks back, so I’m glad to finally be able to run them. I will continue tomorrow and Monday, and we’ll see how things stand then.
The move is going well, but slowly. It’s a complicated situation but the end is in sight and normal life should re-commence in a couple of weeks.
Without further ado, enjoy the pictures and the day!
These are a continuation from HinTN, long-overdue thanks to yours truly losing them and then access to my old email. The delay is 100% my lame-ass fault.
These are from Capitol Reef National Park.
Capitol Reef – Approach from Boulder Mountain
As you drive from Bryce to Capitol Reef NP you cross Boulder Mountain, which affords a first look at the area around Capitol Reef. It is primarily a long geologic feature called the Waterpocket Fold, a huge sandstone formation that runs north and south to the west of the Henry Mountains.
Capitol Reef – Arch in the Making
The park is so big that we took a four hour jeep ride just to try and get a sense of the land. Of course we saw a nascent arch. They are everywhere in this area when you start looking.
Capitol Reef – Petroglyphs
The park includes a very hospitable river bottom with lush grasses and fruit
I just love seeing petroglyphs, it’s an amazing way to touch mankind from ages past. Looking at them you can almost see a bare arm scratching on the walls during a smoky, boring night or rainy day.
Have a great day, everyone. We’ll return to Utah tomorrow!
Amir Khalid
Knowing as I do what kind of graffiti we see on modern walls, I am a little surprised that no one has ever reported seeing ancient peoroglyphs of a less than wholesome nature.
rikyrah
Wow.
Beautiful pictures ?
Mary G
I missed OTR, but know what hell moving can be. Glad to hear it’s coming along. Great pictures, H.
OzarkHillbilly
There are some petroglyphs on a limestone knob not too far from me. A number of thunderbirds, some spirals, a few phallic symbols, and at least one that appears to be a man and a woman engaged in coitus. ;-)
?BillinGlendaleCA
Pretty area.
Wag
I love all of the National Parks in Utah. Each is a unique expression of a part to the southwestern ecosystem.
One of my favorite memories of Capital Reef is traveling through in late August one year at a time when the apricot orchard planted by Mormon settlers years ago was in harvest mode. For a small fee, one could pick as many apricots as you liked. The intense summer heat concentrated the flavors of the apricots, and they were the best I’ve ever had. The apricot version of a Palisade peach, for those who know western fruit.
debbie
Beautiful!
arrieve
What a lovely surprise on a beautiful October morning where I’m coming down with a cold and exceedingly grumpy. Beautiful pictures. I haven’t been to any of the Utah parks and now I’m dying to go.
otmar
Nice one.
I’ve been there, must have been ~ ’94.
Luciamia
@Amir Khalid: the Vikings wrote some rude things at the places they raided.
Kristine
Lovely photos!
Best of luck with the balance of the move.
Snarlymon
Capitol Reef is one of my favorite places in Utah. I learned to love and respect the desert while hiking it’s trails. Frying Pan Trail. I wonder why they call it that?
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
If you mean sexually suggestive ancient art, giant male organs are pretty commonplace, as are female organs. I see Ozark got there first, as usual.
StringOnAStick
@Amir Khalid: When I was in Italy for a 2 month class in 1996, every weekend we took a train to some new town to check out the local sights. We had a Austrian lady with a degree in Art History with us one day, as we looked over what had been a 14th century “party palace” that had then been out in the country and not close to the prying eyes of the court. There were lots of frescoes of giants, nubile maidens, scenes from mythology. The Art Historian described the frescoes as the “soft p0rn” of their era; it was shocking to hear such a proper Austrian lady explain it this way but once you see it, it can’t be unseen.
What was also interesting when you looked closer was all the 17th century graffiti scratched into the bases of the frescoes, but had been restored over the graffiti so you saw the art as it was originally conceived. Most of the graffiti was of the “Anthony was here – 1743” variety, so the form of most graffiti really hasn’t changed that much.
laura koerber
Are yo planning to drive over the mountain to Boulder and Escalente? Do so! Nonstop eyeball orgasms the whole way and part Boulder is the scariest and most outrageously lovely road in the lower 48.