Hanksville and Beyond

We decided not to get out and photograph the next morning because it had rained and was was heavily overcast.  So after a quick stop at the Ranger Station to fill up on water, we headed out.

As we exited Natural Bridges National Monument and hit Highway 95, we turned right instead of left.  Out the window went our planned trip to head down Comb Ridge on its eastern side, stop in Page, Arizona to do laundry, camp at the base of the Vermillion Cliffs at the namesake national monument, camp at Point Sublime on the north side of the Grand Canyon, explore the Paria area of Vermillion Cliffs, and then drive up Cottonwood Canyon Road to Kodachrome State Park.  Instead, it was on to Hanksville and beyond, the only fixed destination being to wind up in Kodachrome State Park four days later.  Instead of heading south, we wound up going north.

I must say, it’s different driving with no destination in mind.  It shouldn’t be, but there’s a sense of the unknown, even if the route you would have traveled otherwise would have been one you’d never driven before.  It’s subtle, but instead of everything simply being new, there’s this sense of anticipation, of the unexpected.  I’d spent a lot of time over the previous six months pouring over details of the different locations and routes we would take.  Consequently, there was little that was totally unexpected (ok, except for the (mis)adventure) during our travels.  I generally knew what we were getting into (things like - “we will have two options where to turn right, but will have to turn right at one of them”).  Now we were heading on a road I’d never researched, entering into an area that I had no clue what was there, or if we would find anything of interest.  We were going so far off our planned route that we didn’t even have more detailed maps of our locations - only our broader (though highly detailed) state gazettes.  And it was a blast!

I guess I shouldn’t overplay it, because I knew we’d be going through an area that we were thinking of visiting in 2018, but there was definitely an exponential difference between the (lack of) knowledge I had of where we were going and where I’d planned to take us.  I hadn’t even thought of looking into this area in my planning.

And in the end, it didn’t matter in the least.  (Call it lesson learned.)  The route northward on Hwy 95 took us through some beautiful canyon areas similar to Natural Bridges NM, with deep cut canyons and stark, light colored rocks.  Chock up a location to add to the 2018 trip.  Then the rock started changing color and we approached a rise.  Seeing a dirt road running off the highway up to a hill, I turned off and headed up.

Definitely worth it:

Looking down from the hill, we realized we were looking at the Glen Canyon National Recreation area.  As we headed back to Beat, we figured another fashion shoot was called for.

Onward we drove.  As we crossed the Colorado River, we came across an incredible rock formation and we both had the exact same idea - “Stop here if you can.” If I didn’t say it first, I was definitely thinking it as Ann said it.  Fortunately there was not only a pull out, but a road that led down to exactly where we wanted to be.  We both grabbed our gear and started photographing.

For starters, there were these incredible honey-combed rock features that gave the eye a million possibilities.  Then there was this incredible mix of sun breaking through, then being blocked by clouds as a storm approached in the distance.  The possibilities seemed endless, although the sun soon took a pretty steady stay-behind-the-clouds position.  

Unlike so many other places we’d been to on this trip, the scale of the images I was seeing changed constantly, so there were compositions in addition to landscapes.

Only to look back up and see another landscape

And to have Ann call me over for something, and the need to stop while on the way because . . .

Not every image was successful, but it didn’t matter.  This was one of the major reasons why I love photography so much, the experience of being there, immersed in the environment and enjoying the craft of photography, the act of photographing and the joy of seeing.  We worked our way down-river for a bit, and eventually turned around.  A couple of hours had already passed.

But it wasn’t over.  As we were getting close to Beast, I saw yet another image.  “Hey, Hon, go on back to the rig.  I’ll catch up - I just saw another image.”

Realizing I hadn’t made many many iPhone images to post on Facebook, I pulled out my iPhone and made a couple of images.  Which, led me to seeing another image that was worth pulling out the camera again.

Not bad for a “quick stop.”  Add another location to the 2018 trip list.

Hanksville was what a necessity stop should be.  A decent lunch at a recommended restaurant (Duke’s Slickrock Grill), and some decent conversation with folks (namely a Swiss couple who spends about 6 months a year in the US, much of it driving around in a rental RV) while doing laundry.  

After the laundry was done we realized it was earlier in the day than we’d imagined, so we decided to go onward deciding that dinner at Hell’s Backbone Grill in Boulder sounded like a really good idea.  But if we found a place we wanted to stop before then, we’d stop (the Swiss couple gave us the name of a great forest campground so we had several places we could stop if desired).  

The route from Hanksville to Boulder took us through Capitol Reef National Park, which was much more interesting than I’d remembered when we’d drove through it on our trip a couple of years ago.  There’s another location for the 2018 list, although it was already on the list.  And add to the list the Dixie National Forest along Highway 12, where that recommended campground was.  

We made it to Boulder just in time to beat the dinner rush at Hells Backbone Grill.  And as usual, it was superb (and that means excellent!)!  

During dinner we asked our waiter, “Is there anywhere around here we could park our RV for the night, we’re pretty small and self sufficient so we don’t need hook-ups or anything.”  He responded that the only RV area in town with hookups was over by the fire station (which we saw on the way in - basically a gravel parking lot), “But if it were me, I’d just drive down the Burr Trail and find an area to pull off at - there’s a lot of them.”

So after dinner you can probably guess what we did.

Turned out to be not too bad a day for just winging it!