I had three days worth to load and managed to wipe it out.

In essence, we have been taking all the scenic roads and seeing some spectacular scenery. Joyce has found flowers and taken lots of pictures. We are in Blanding Utah tonight and go to Mesa Verde tomorrow.

After I get over my peeve with myself I will try to reconstruct it.

After breakfast we took off to explore the Waterfold Pocket area of the park. To get there you take a dirt road for 20 miles. That's just to the park boundary. Then tou can drive another 30 miles to the roads end. Beautiful scenery, some wildflowers and lots of "washboard ruts".

April 13, 2014

Took scenic Rt. 12 from Cannonville today. Goes thru the Grand Escalante National Memorial. Why it's called that I don't know. This is one of the most awesome highways I have ever driven. Tall red rock mesas, deep canyons, narrow roads with steep ascents and descents. One section approaching the town of Escalante is a series of steep switchbacks. From the top it is called 35 Mile View. We could see much farther than that, I am sure. The sign board showed different mountains that were visible along the horizon and Navajo Mountain was visible and we had seen that from Lake Powell.

At one of the roadside exhibits we could see a granary by the Anasazi people. Must have been 500 feet up an almost sheer wall.  Stopped at the BLM welcome center at Escalante and looked at the exhibits. Discussed the road ahead. They said a steep climb and then a steep descent. Figured I wouldn't have to stay at that elevation, 9603 feet, for very long.

Moved on and stopped in Boulder for lunch. Had trouble finding a place to park and ended up in a lodge parking lot. Ate there which was a mistake. Very overpriced for what we got. A small bowl of watery soup and a tiny biscuit for ten bucks.

After lunch we started the climb over Boulder Mountain. Peak elevation of 9603 ft. Needless to say our car struggled to pull the camper up the mountain but made it just fine. As long as I was driving the elevation did not affect me more than if I had healthy lungs. I did get out a couple of times but was careful with my activity.

Arrived at Capitol Reef and set up camp. Wind blowing hard and temp was in 30s when we got up.