June 16, 2004 - Capitol Reef - Part 4

These "plugs" as they're called, are volcanic material that squirted up through the cracks in the sandstone.  Since they're harder than the sandstone, they erode away slower.

Well, amongst all these things pointing up, we might as well trudge the 75 yards to see something that goes down, eh?

Ever try to take a picture of something so enormous and surprising as a huge hole in the ground?  I think I failed.  That's Barb with the red pants on, standing on the other side of this gaping hole with no fence around it.  The hole is 200 feet deep and 50 feet across.

The hole was surrounded by things pointing up, and was right at the base of and slightly under that cliff in the first picture.  What a world of contrasts.

AHA!  A monolith Barb can relate to!  And what's with these freckles on the road we've seen patches of, anyway?

Why, they're critter holes.  And from the flies/bees? flying around them, and poking their heads into them, they might even be some kind of nest, eh?  And some stark evidence of what the water can do to our road.  Got a little narrow here.

Lots of evidence that this place does in fact get water at some time--cracked mud!  Been a while I'd guess.

Some heavy mud, and some not-so-heavy mud it looks like--curly cracked mud!

There were temples of the stars too, but they weren't nearly as impressive as these two.

 This gypsum looked and felt just like glass.  Sharp enough to cut you easily.  Really interesting the way it layered up on itself.

Leaving the temples and the glass, we head off the flat valley floor at a pretty good clip.  Wash boarding, which means slow down, was about the only issue with this stretch of road.

Once again at the lower elevations we came across a wash that was covered with this white almost powdery substance.  Almost like a layer of salt.  Neither of us were brave enough to take a taste to check it out for sure; may be also be lime.  Now we're transitioning to rock country--a different kind of rock that is.

So ended our off-road road trip.  And a couple of the mule deer checking out the fruit in the orchard behind us.  We're parked at the Fruita Campground.  Never did find out about that funny name, other than that this area was known for its orchards planted by the Mormon settlers.