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Show Heart of Capitol Reef Worth the Dirt Road Trip The Golden Throne on the Capitol Reef Scenic Drive shows some of the uniqueness of terrain in that national park. This Navao sandstone dome is w mttjKMmKmz. z.Mt'M&. jutavwdjirmn v. 1 uhmpubbu colored by the small cap of carmel sandstone remaining above it, Navajo is best known in its off-white coloration which typlifies the Capitol Ileef region. CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK It's a winding, sometimes dusty, gravel-covered dirt road that doesn't always please visitors with new cars. For the watchful, it's a time portal that permits a sojourn through rock layers laid down by wind and water long before man even the dinosaurs walked the earth. For even the most casual visitor, the Scenic Drive at Capitol Reef National Park is a trip through some of the most breathtaking scenery in south Utah. The Scenic Drive is also a bit of history itself, in a way, for it was built by Mormon settlers almost a century ago. In 1884, Latter-day Saint pioneers were penetrating the most formidible .and remote reaches of the in-termountain west. Tenacious men and women already had a firm hold on what were to become the Fruita nad Hanks ville communities. Hardy pioneer companies had already reached the San Juan Mission, in force. Then, as now, an ancient and eroded spine of craggy cliffs stretching almost one-hundred miles from Thousand Lake Mountain to the Colorado blocked easy passage. This jagged "Water-pocket Fold" separated southeastern Utah and the Four Corners from the rest of Utah, from the cultural mainstream. Today, Utah Highway 24 whisks commercial and tourist traffic through the Waterpocket Fold at near interstate highway speeds. In 1962, modern engineering and federal monies helped build a paved two-lane road through the Fremont River canyon. But in 1884, wagon passage through the Fremont River canyon was nearly impossible. There were dozens of crossings of the then-meandering river, wagons mired at every bend. Pioneers settling the flood plain at the confluence of Sulphyr Creek and the Fremont River decided to open a wagon passage through the water-pocket Fold. These settlers of Junction (later "Fruita") set their sights on Capitol Gorge, a deep, tortuous dry wash about 10 miles south of the settlement. Capitol Gorge (or "Capitol Wash") had long been used by men on horseback and foot. Prehistoric Fremont Indians, country cousins of the Anasazi, etched their petroglyphs on the arching cliff walls. Modern man began leaving his calling cards before Mormon settlers arrived. On September 20, 1871 two prospectors named J.A. Call and Wal Bateman carved their names in the soft sandstone. It is likely that Call and Bateman, whose families were Cedar City residents, were trying to locate mining claims after learning of Major Powell's second expedition. After Bateman and Call scratched their names for posterity, others followed them and today the "Pioneer Register" reads like an historical document in Utah history if you know the story of the men behind the scrawled letters. Moving south from Junction (Fruita) along the west face of Capitol Reef, the road builders including the energetic Elijah Cutler Behunin crossed washes and cluttered slopes until they reached Capitol Gorge. It took many men, horses and days to clear a wagonway through debris in the narrow gorge. After winding through Capitol Gorge, the road eventually led to Caineville and Hanksville through the gray, moonscape-like Mancos Shale formation and became known as the "Blue Dugway" east of the Capitol Gorge passage. Eventually, the Capitol Gorge-Blue Dugway Road became Utah Highway 24. Much of it remained unpaved until after World War II; the road from Torrey to Fruita wasn't blacktopped until the '50s. Although beautiful, old Highway 24 was slow, rugged and hard on vehicles. And it was dangerous at times, especialy in Capitol Gorge. In sudden desert thunderstorms, the rainfall runoff of an entire plateau is funnelled through the gorge, dangerous enough when driving a car, even worse when driving a lumbering horse-drawn wagon. The debris left in the aftermath of the frequent flooding was time-consuming to remove. For travelers and residents of southeastern Utah alike, the early '60s road construction through the Fremont Canyon and the eventual paving of all of Utah 24 was a great boon. A new era had dawned but another was over. Travel to and through Capitol Reef was no longer arduous and a little dangerous but, at the same time, it was also no longer an adventurous challenge in itself. Many older visitors to the park today recall with pleasure the sense of accomplishment they felt in just getting to Capitol Reef 30 years ago. Although the main Capitol Gorge passage itself is open only to foot travel today because of the expense that might be otherwise involved, visitors can approach and enter part of the gorge over the same dirt road that Elijah Cutler Behunin and comrades traveled almost a century ago. In a real sense, getting to the "sights" of the Scenic Drive Grand Wash, the Golden Throne, Capitol Gorge is a significant part of the experience. A little dust, many twists and curves, slow speeds, dips through dry washes: it's a small remnant of Utah history and of a time when a tourist had to "have it bad" for Capitol Reef just to make the trip. Today the driveable portion of pre-1902, Highway 24 the Scenic Drive-is only a bout 10 miles long and ends deep within Capitol Gorge. It begins at the visitor center in old Fruita, crosses the Fremont River and passes the campground. Then, it becomes the dirt road of history again. Over the years, almost every feature along the old road that looked like something familiar to somebody was tagged with a name; thus, the Golden Throne, Fern's Nipple and Egyptian Temple. Also, early settlers are memorialized in feature names like "Eph Tanks Tower." Today, National Park Service personnel are encouraging touring families to notice and appreciate the geologic aspects of the Scenic Drive as well as its scenery. They have produced an experimental "Geologic Tour for the Layman" and visitors can purchase illustrated guidesheets or rent a cassette tape and player at the visitor center. Numbered posts along the drive indicate tour stops. Perhaps because Capitol Reef was isolated for so long, it may be the least well-know n of the Utah National Parks. In 1971, it assumed its present size of 372 square miles when Congress changed its status from a National Monument to a National Park. Park Superintendent Derek Hambly expects that visitation will move well at the half-million mark this year. For tens of thousands of visitors in a hurry on a short vacation, the historic Scer.ic Drive still provides the quickest way to taste the history, geologic story and magnificent scenery of Capitol Reef National Pari;. |
