Leslie and David's Wanderings: 8 June 2021 Canyons and Petrified Wood

David was given a day off with all the telecons canceled. So we wanted to take advantage of the time. We researched some of the slot canyons in Capitol Reef NP, and picked one off the Notom Road on the east side of Capitol Reef NP. The trails start on BLM land and then take you into canyons in the Reef in the NP. We also were interested in taking the Burr Trail road, which climbs a steep series of switchbacks in the NP before descending through the Circle Cliff area of Grand Staircase Escalante NM. We arrived at the trailhead for Sheets Gulch around 9:30 and the temperatures were in the low 70s. The trail follows the wash up hill at a fairly gradual grade. At about 1.5 miles, the first narrows began. We scrambled over a couple of easy obstacles when we came to a large boulder blocking the wash. David climbed over but Leslie popped her bad knee out climbing over (OUCH!) and had to stop to regroup. She finally worked her way past the block and we continued into the tight narrows. We scrambled over several more blockages and pour offs when we came to another big blockage. David took one look at it and knew Leslie would not risk it. Leslie urged him to continue on and she would wait. David scrambled over the blockage and continued a bit further up the canyon, climbing over a couple of additional obstacles and the canyon began to open up. At 1.8 miles he came on a large piece of petrified sitting in the middle of the wash. We were surprised because we had not heard about petrified wood in this canyon with our research. That seemed like a good place to turn around and head back to Leslie. We didn’t even make it to the border with the NP. When climbing down the obstacle to Leslie, he slipped and skinned his arm on the canyon wall. Its not canyoneering if you don’t leave some blood behind! On the hike out, we kept a close eye on the rocks in the wash and sure enough we found several small pieces of Petrified Wood (which we left them where we found them since it is BLM land). The hike was 3.7 miles with 673 feet of elevation gain. We continued down Notom Road to where it intersected Burr Trail Road. The road climbs up a series of steep switchbacks to the top of the reef before descending into the Water Pocket. We stopped at the top for the trail head for Lower Muley Twist trail which had a dramatic view over the Water Pocket. We decided this was a good place to enjoy our lunch picnic. Following lunch we worked our way down into the Water Pocket before exiting the NP into the Circle Cliffs area of Grand Staircase Escalante NM. While at the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, we had read about there being a concentration of Petrified Wood in the Circle Cliffs Area. A bit of research only turned up a reference to a campsite just off Wolverine Loop Road. So we turned off Burr Trail Road and followed the 28 mile Wolverine Loop Road dirt road deep into the Circle Cliff area. It was beautiful! We eventually came to the campsite we had read about and found other already parked there. We walked around the campsite and there was 250 million year old petrified wood everywhere! From large 2 foot in diameter whole pieces to small fragments. David walked up the dry wash from the campsite and the hillsides were covered in petrified woof! This petrified wood was more black in color and had fewer colors since it was petrified with minerals from volcanic ash. We also found a lot of Geoids mixed in with the petrified wood. Once again we left it all where we found it for future generations to marvel at. Amazed by the sheer quantity of Petrified Wood, we headed on down the road. We came to an intersection and saw a sign for Wolverine Petrified Wood Natural Area. Intrigued, we drove down to the parking area and read the billboard. A picture of a lady standing alongside a towering piece of petrified trunk from a large coffer particularly intrigued us. So we grabbed some water and headed down the trail to the area marked on the map as having the petrified wood (1 mile in). Almost immediately we saw pieces of petrified wood. We climbed out of a dry wash crossing and could see large chunks of petrified wood on the hillside above us. As we wandered amongst the petrified wood there were very large chunks, 2-4 feet in diameter including whole trees! David crossed over a ridge and looked back and there it was! A huge 7-foot in diameter petrified tree trunk, at least 70 feet long. We of course had to get our pictures with it. There were millions of pieces of large petrified wood chunks not to mention the smaller pieces. Absolutely amazing to see 250 million year old whole trees! We reluctantly headed back to the Behemoth. The hike back was up hill and in the unrelenting sun (there was very little shade). Back at the Behemoth, we were grateful for the air conditioning! We followed the Wolverine Loop road back to Burr Trail Road and headed down Burr Trail to Boulder. There we picked up Utah 12 back over Boulder Mountain to Torrey. It turned out to be a much longer day than we planned since we spent so much time enjoying the petrified wood.