Day 15: Showers!

Miles travelled: 6210 to 6406 (total of 196 miles/ 315 kilometres)
Weather: clear & sunny
Highlight of the day: Showers, getting a camp site at Capital Reef & making the geology walk!

We must have been tired after our day walking in the sun to various arches the day before as we slept in until 6.48 am! WOW! Bagels and coffee for breakfast again, then we made our way to Balanced Rock to do a travel bug photo shoot (travel bugs travel from geocache to geocache). We arrived at the Information Centre in Moab before 9 am, and despite being a Sunday they were open and passing out info. We were given a listing a showers (ah, bliss!), given advise regarding which Laundromat and internet café were the best, and an information sheet showing petroglyphs in the Moab area. Showers! They were bliss! We went to the Slip Rock Campground, and for $3 each we had untimed showers. Warm water we could stand under. Nice!

Scott dropped Disa off at an internet café, where she downloaded photos, posted trip notes up to 15 May (the converter in the van isnt working and we dont know why, so weve stopped writing up our notes on the laptop and just save the power for downloading photos and geocache info!) and generally used the power to charge the laptop, camera batteries etc, while Scott did the laundry. Scott then joined Disa, emailed his kids, enjoyed a coffee, and then we went off in search of Moab Man.

Moab Man. The b!#$!@#$d. Somehow we missed the incredibly obvious wall of petroglyphs right next to the road, and wound up wandering around washes and such in the heat. Yeah, well, we saw him. Grrrhhhh!

Anyway, onwards! Off towards Capital Reef! We head north out of Moab, and there was quite a bit of construction. And a beige-y ute (pickup for our US readers) REALLY trying to push Scott to speed. Scott stuck to his guns “ we’ve really just had it with the dangerous high-speed driving in the US, high speed and using mobile phones at the same time usually “ so he stayed within the speed limit, but then pulled over into the slow lane as soon as we were past the construction. The beige ute zoomed past, then pulled over as well, and a red car behind him pulled through going even faster. . .and the beige ute started to sparkle. Little lights “nice and subtle“ Utah Highway Patrol!! Gotta feel good about not speeding now!

Had lunch at a real life truckstop. It had trucks, truckers, bench seats, friendly waitresses and incredibly bland food.

Found a quick geocache at an Indian relic, a beehive shaped mud food store built into a cliff cave.

Arrived at Capitol Reef National Park visitors centre at 5:10PM and enquired about camping the night to be told €œYou better hurry there were only 2 spots left last I knew. We hurried, at the National Park speed limit of 15 MPH, and just managed to snavel the LAST space (of 72) ahead of 5 or 6 others who were left to fruitlessly circle the campground. We were feeling rather full of ourselves then discovered there was a guided tour of Cohab Canyon starting just opposite the campground in 10 minutes time.

The tour was fantastic. The guide gave us a geologic history of the area, the history of the ancient Fremont Indians and the recent Mormon history of the place as well as pointing out and naming, rocks, plants and animals along the way. He also clued us into the apple pies sold at the museum / gift shop, Gifford House. Tour took two and a half hours and the only drawback was the incredible heat. The sun was strong and there was no shade or wind for the 1st 90 minutes. Once we were in the canyon it was blissfully cool. Cohab Canyon (short for co-habitation canyon), was called this as it was the escape route used by the polygamist Mormon settlers to avoid authorities. They, the Mormons, settled the area and grew fruit. Their orchards and old buildings are still there and maintained by the National Parks Service. The Fremont Indians were a unique culture and not another tribe of Anasazi. We saw examples of their tools and rock drawings the next day.

8:30 Dinner then planning the next day. Disa suggested an 11 mile bushwalk starting at the other end of Cohab Canyon connecting with the Frying Pan and then to the Grand Wash. I had my doubts. 11 miles in the heat along a path named the Frying Pan (arent they trying to warn us?) but was too proud to wimp out. Went to sleep to a sound we hadn’t heard so far in the US – rain on the roof of the van.