David had another day off work, so we decided to explore the northern portion of Capitol Reef NP. We took Hartnet Road just outside the east side of the park and into the northern desert area. We traversed 28 miles of rough dirt road across BLM, private and NP property, to reach the cliff overlooking Cathedral Valley with its iconic Cathedral Buttes. Part of the road traverses a layer formed from ash from the eruption of Boulder Mountain that we now identify with Petrified Wood. So we stopped and looked around and sure enough, we found petrified wood in the rocks along side the road. It is all over. Cool! The road traverses several different ecological layers, which made the drive interesting and the scenery spectacular. We ate lunch at the overlook for Cathedral Valley taking in the view. We made our way down the switchbacks of Cathedral Valley Road to get closer to the Cathedral Buttes. They are beautiful. But the cliffs lining the sides of the valley are also spectacular and reminded us of the Flying Buttresses you see on medieval churches (like Notre Dam). We exited the valley to the north on Baker Ranch Road and followed a winding passage across several dirt roads into Fish Lake National Forest. We climbed up to 9600 feet (Some of the road grades were over 20%) before descending to Utah 72, which we followed back to Utah 24. The Behemoth is covered in dust once again but it did a great job on 60 miles of dirt and rock roads.
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| Chimney Rock in Capitol Reef NP |
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| A old drill rig on Hartnet Road |
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| Door on the old drill rig |
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| High Desert in Capitol Reef NP |
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| Trail into the desert |
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| The Cathedrals in Cathedral Valley |
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| Two of the Cathedrals |
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| Cathedral Valley |
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| Looking into Northern Capitol Reef from Fish Lake National Forest |
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