Late Spring Utah - May 2023: Part 3

Part 3 of 4

Cathedral Valley, Hanksville Dinosaur Quarry, Poison Springs Canyon

May 18th (continued from part 2; go to Part 1)

Click a photo to view a larger size—highly recommended

Capitol Reef National Park

From Boulder Mountain UT-12 drops down into sunny Torrey where I filled my tank for the next leg of my journey. My thoughts were on a return to Cathedral Valley and the weather looked promising. I phoned the Capitol Reef National Park information line and got the latest road conditions—good to go. I drove east on UT-24 and into the park. I had thought maybe I'd drive into the park and drive Grand Wash Road, which I'd missed previously, and maybe take a short hike. But once I turned off the highway at the visitor center I changed my mind. It was a circus in the park with all the cars, trucks, RVs, buses, pedestrians, bikes, and what not. I did spot a couple pop-up campers, and we exchanged waves, but I turned around and got the heck out of Dodge as quick as I could.

I turned back east on the highway exercising caution around the various attractions with their tourist traffic. The road reports didn't mention an issue with the ford on the Fremont River, but I checked out the flow as I drove down the highway anyway.

Hartnet Road

I turned off the highway at Hartnet Road and drove the short distance to the ford. It looked fine, so I ventured across. [The park service cautions that the Cathedral Valley loop is strictly 4WD/high-clearance.] I decided to stop in the shade along the road beneath a cottonwood tree for lunch before venturing into the desert. I set out my little table and my Home Depot bucket with its padded seat.

My picnic spot in the Fremont River bosque.

Many of my readers know about WanderTheWest.com - an interesting and informative forum for campers, most of whom have pop-up truck campers. Many years ago one of the moderators offered bumper stickers and I had applied one to the back of the camper. It just has the tent logo and the letters WTW. Never got any comment about it. As I was having lunch a white pickup with a pop-up camper came through the ford and stopped next to me. The driver yelled out "Wander the West!" Wow, cool.

I walked over and had a short chat with the gentleman and his wife in their full-size pickup with ATC pop-up camper. He introduced himself and I recognized his name and face; I introduced myself to Vic. Thought at first I'd met him at a meet-up, but he assured me I had not. He thought I just recognized him from the forum where he uses his picture as his avatar. A very cool meeting. They drove on ahead and I finished my lunch.

After climbing out of the river valley the land quickly gets interesting.
Double-wide exposure pano—click for a larger version.

A rugged canyon off to the right side of the road.

As I drove north I couldn't help but see the clouds building and there was even a rain storm to the northeast. I crossed my fingers. The road was in pretty good shape though there were quite a number of places where it crossed an arroyo or even continued along the bottom for a short while. The bottom was a fine gravel, very moist from previous rain. I used 4WD as a precaution and kept my momentum up. It was definitely shifty under tire and sometimes there was a ledge on either side. I did drive through a couple of small rain showers. These isolated storms were moving across the area from NW to SE.

The rain clouds were getting closer as I entered the Bentonite Hills.

I skipped the Lower South Desert Overlook road, as I'd done it before and recalled it was a few miles long. I wanted to make sure I got to the official campground while there were still sites available. It has only 6 sites and is first-come. I did, however, turn off for the Upper South Desert Overlook as it was within sight of the "main" road.

As I pulled into the tiny parking area I found my newly met friends already parked. There is a tall hill as part of the overlook and I could see Vic and his wife at the very top. By the time I walked to the lower overlook they had made it down. We got to talking again about camping and travels when suddenly Vic had a eureka moment. He'd misheard me when we'd introduced ourselves. Now he realized he knew who I was. He is a regular reader of this blog and has used my adventures as take off points for his own travels. What makes this small-world moment even more amazing to my mind is that he drove down from his home in Canada. We enjoyed more conversation before they headed on out. They were going to do the whole loop before returning to Fruita where they were staying in a double campsite with relatives. It's great fun, and gratifying, to meet my audience while on the road—it's only happened a couple of times.

The expansive view from the lower overlook.
Double-wide exposure pano—click for a larger version.

Cathedral Valley Campground

When I pulled into the campground I was delighted that the site I'd hoped for was open. When I was last here one of my new friends from the previous days' S.U.W.A.  meet-up was camped in this site. It features a short path to the edge of the bluff with an overview of Cathedral Valley itself. Three of the other sites were occupied when I pulled in and by the evening all would be full. I set up camp.

It was a windy afternoon and evening, but my site was somewhat shielded from the worst. I made a point of making it to my "private" overlook for the golden hour to take pictures. There were quite a few clouds moving across the sky, so lighting was hit or miss. I probably spent about 90 minutes trying to get good light. I'm not always so patient. 

I think of this as the main cathedral complex of the valley.

This is a larger view of Cathedral Valley proper.

And finally, a dramatic view of the eastern end of the valley in the last of the sunlight.

Friday May 19

Cathedral Valley (continued)

The morning started mostly sunny, which was very nice to see. My plan for the day was to head out via Cathedral Valley proceeding easterly. If I timed things right I hoped to reach the highway and scoot up toward Hanksville in time to make the 1pm tour at the Hanksville-Burpee Dinosaur Quarry. BLM announced tours three times a day during the week and twice on Saturday for two weeks in May and one in June (skipping Memorial Day week.)

Cathedral Valley Road

I descended the switchbacks below the campground into the valley. I took pictures of the "cathedrals" from the various angles provided by the path of the road. I again enjoyed the wildflowers; a recurring theme this trip.

Photo of the main cathedrals taken as I started down the switchbacks.
You can see the road farther along in the lower right as it crosses the valley.

An "end view" of the two cathedrals seen in the photo previous to this one.
There was a short path to this view point.

Looking upstream from an arroyo. Notice all the lava rocks rounded by eons of tumbling.

The road crossed a number of arroyos. These were generally narrower with steeper banks than on Hartnet Road. High clearance definitely required as even I dragged my behind in one. There was also an evidence of recent water in many, probably from the storms I saw moving through the afternoon before. There were clouds developing above the snow capped mountains to the west, but most of the sky was clear.

Looking back at the main cathedral complex.

There were lots of lupine around, as well. This one was in a small wash; note the moist soil.

The Temples and Glass Mountain

I turned off onto the short side road to visit the Temples of the Sun and Moon even though I wasn't all that impressed with them my previous trip. That could have been because it was about a million degrees that afternoon. Much nicer this morning. There was a junction with a small sign I hadn't noticed last trip, "Glass Mountain", pointing to the right. Hmmm, I'll check that out first. I soon came to a small loop and to the side was a strange lump. I asked a man standing beside his pickup "Is that Glass Mountain?" "Yes," he replied, "it's much more interesting from the other side." And was he ever right.

Glass Mountain with a human for scale. Really more of a lump than a mountain.

Temples of the Sun and Moon arise behind the Glass Mountain.

I took a number of photos and chatted with another visitor and we speculated what the heck this was. It looked like sheets of soft crystal had been broken up into chunks, stirred up in all directions and orientations, then smushed tightly together to form this hump.

A closer view of the gypsum crystals.

The globemallows were growing every where.

About the time I was going to leave a large SUV came in with "Waterpocket Adventure Company" on the doors. The visitor I had been talking with asked the man who stepped out of the truck about the glass mountain. I overheard him saying that it was composed of gypsum crystals and geologists were not exactly certain on how it formed, but that gypsum as it crystalizes changes direction as it grows, so the haphazard took to the formation was its natural growth. The knowledgable guide was showing two clients the area. He was the owner/operator of a tour company that provides a number of different tours around the Capitol Reef area with a speciality in geology.

He also explained that the Temples, as with the other formations in Cathedral Valley, were built from thin, alternating layers of Entrada sandstone and much softer siltstone overlain by the marine Curtis formation*. This explains their appearance. He sounded like an interesting guide should you be looking for a hosted day adventure.

[* actually, I didn't remember him saying all this, but filled in the details from a USGS paper on the area I found online. ]

Temples of the Sun, foreground, and Temple of the Moon

I returned to the main loop road and continued. I came through some bentonite hills and saw an older gentleman metaphorically scratching his head. I pulled alongside to see if he needed help. He asked if he was on the right road to find the Temple of the Sun. I assured him he was and they were not far up the road. I laughed and said the first time I visited I had to stop and ask someone coming out if I was on the right road, too. The east entrance is a bit more ambiguous than the west due to there being some side roads.

A globe of Evening Primrose along the roadside.

I passed through one more section of rocky undulating terrain, then was approaching UT-24 near Caineville. My GPS said I was about 15 miles to the turn-off for the quarry. The lady at the BLM office said it was 8 miles from the highway and to allow about 25 minutes. I was cutting it close, but thought I'd make the 1pm tour just in time.

A note on camping in Cathedral Valley. The NPS is quick to point out camping is only allowed in the one campground and I don't suggest you ignore this prohibition. However, much of Hartnet Road leading in (or out, depending) is not within the park, but is BLM land where you are allowed to camp providing you adhere to their commonsense dispersed camping regulations. I did see a couple of double-tracks off Hartnet Road where you might find camping, though I didn't explore those, and they might be risky. Close to the campground is Polk Creek Road which comes in from the national forest. Not far past the gate on Polk Creek Road, which marks the park boundary, is a dispersed camping area according to my sources. However, on this trip the gate was reported locked by the park service as the road beyond was still under seasonal closure. There are a number of roads off Cathedral Valley Road on the north (east) side. Exercise good judgement on any of these side roads as it may be a long time before anyone else comes along to help dig you out. There is one obvious site on the main road, west of the Temples turn-off (you can even see it from a satellite map.) 

Hanksville Dinosaur Quarry

Heading east on UT-24 I nearly missed the junction even though I had it marked in my GPS. I was warned there was no road sign for Cow Dung Road, which is the turn-off. The quarry had put up their own sign, but I didn't see it until I'd already turned off. Their sign is green, about 3' wide by 5' tall (not that big if you are going the speed limit) and sits on a small knoll just east of the turn-off. It is hard to make out what it says, but there is a bright yellow arrow mid-way down that points north, toward the quarry and a small, unpainted board under the sign which read "OPEN."

The road travels through sandstone, salt flats, and bentonite hills - the very picture of a Utah desert. The going was slow as you have to watch out for inverted speed bumps, i.e., nearly invisible erosion troughs crossing the road. I passed the Mars Desert Research Station that I'd heard rumors of before. I'd take a photo on the way out. I was really beginning to think I'd drive forever when the road finally arrived at the dig. There was a rail fence with cars parked up to it and two chemical toilets. 

Inside the fenced area was a blue tarp pavilion with a number of folks sitting in camp chairs underneath. It was a couple of minutes past 1pm and I thought these were the other people out for the tour. When I stepped under the awning all heads turned toward me and I said "I hope I'm not too late." "Nope, right on time," someone said to the amusement of all. Seems I was the only one there for the tour and everyone else was part of the crew finishing their lunch in the shade.

Hudson, an intern of the Hanksville-Burpee Dinosaur Quarry, offered to show me around. We started with the area he was working and he explained the pneumatic tools everyone was using—a micro jackhammer device like a vibrating ice pick—to carefully separate the fossilized bones from the surrounding matrix. The sound of the gasoline powered air-compressors to run the tools was a constant. I'll spare you the names of the species and the types of bones as I remember very little to be honest. He explained how every bone was recorded as to position and orientation.

You can see the pneumatic pick in the hand of the man in the dark blue shirt.

Dinosaur bone fossils

Every angular black stone on this random piece of ground is a dinosaur bone.

However, I do remember that the entire area is filled with bones. That this was a Jurassic stream and many dinosaurs washed up here, especially young ones. Hudson pointed to the ground where dark, jagged stones were actually a piece of bone. Looking carefully you could see the pores. Pretty amazing.

A spacial record is kept of the in situ location of every single bone excavated.

A view to the northwest from the quarry. This whole area is full of bones according to Hudson.

Hudson also said that they were always happy to give folks who drove out a tour. You don't have to come at any specific time of day. I'd say look for that green sign near the highway and if the "OPEN" board is up, you can probably get a tour. They only work the quarry for about 6 weeks every year, May and early June. I was told when they leave for the season, they cover all their work in progress so fossil hunters wouldn't be able to find the excavations.

As I drove away I stopped a couple of times to take photos, including the Mars Desert Research Station where they apparently practice "living and exploring" on Mars.

Are we on Mars? Or maybe only in Utah.

On the way out a glimpse of the north end of the Henry Mountains.

When I got back to the highway I drove into Hanksville to top off my gas tank. Then I drove south on UT-95 following the coordinates I'd programmed into my GPS for the junction with Poison Springs Canyon Road.

Poison Springs Canyon Road

The day had stayed clear and it was quite warm. Although the highway intersection is not marked, there is a wooden BLM sign a short way down the dirt road cautioning the road is high-clearance 4WD and giving distances to various landmarks/destinations. As I left the highway a wide vista opened up. I don't know if this rising feature has a name. On an old USGS geological map it is simply labeled "Canyon Lands." Seems reasonable as it's in the general direction of Canyonlands National Park and The Labyrinth.

Road to Canyon Lands.

The road then dropped down into the canyon which had pink sandstone walls. The road followed the bottom and had been graded once upon a time. It was surprisingly rough and bumpy. None of the videos I'd watched mentioned this aspect. I could barely make 5mph. 

Going slow enough to spy this Spiny Desert Lizard.

An early section of canyon with a blooming Cliff Rose.

That's water to the left side of the road. The road itself can become inundated.

It was an interesting canyon, but not unique and not quite up to the praise of the YouTube review I watched, IMHO. Before the trip I had scoped out two possible campsites and entered their coordinates in my GPS. It took the longest time to limp only a couple of miles to the first spot where I found many vehicles already camped. About this time ATVs started to come out where they'd been exploring farther in. The next possible campsite, which hadn't looked as nice as this one, was over 5 miles farther. I felt no inclination to drive that far on this awful road (especially since I'd then have to drive it again on the way out.) I did go a bit farther just to see a little more, found some blooming cacti, then turned around to head out. Many more ATVs passed as I made my way out. Still, if you drive a vehicle that does well on rocky roads you may enjoy the canyon.

This is where I turned around.

Close-up of one of the blossoms in the previous photo.

Go to Part 4 for the Henry Mountains and Red Canyon.