Photo Friday: Random stuff from the trip home

My followers will know that I was out in Arizona and Utah in April, and that the trip ended somewhat abruptly when I broke my foot. Even so, since I was several days' drive from home, I didn't completely stop seeing cool stuff.

On the 3rd day after the injury we drove over to Capitol Reef National Park, in hopes that at least my hiking buddy could do some good stuff and maybe we could find a campsite out of the wind, which had gotten seriously nasty. The drive between Escalante and Torrey remains one of my favorite drives. It presented a few new challenges this time, as the winding road meant I had to use my injured foot more than was comfortable.

 Because of the wind (which carried an awful lot of dust and sand), we didn't even try to have breakfast before starting out. We found enough shelter, just over the edge into the Escalante/Calf Creek drainage, to enjoy the meal without grit.

Views from the overlook showed a lot of dust in the air.

Farther along the drive, with food inside me and my tea handy for sipping, I was happy to pull over at another viewpoint to look down on the Calf Creek canyon.

I really can never get over all that rock :)

In addition to passing through the canyons and along the tops of fins, Utah 12 climbs to 10,000' on the side of Boulder Mountain.
Spring may be around the corner, but up here it's moving slowly.

Of course, the first thing to do on arriving in Capitol Reef is to head to the Gifford Homestead and pick up some pie (and a cinnamon roll if you are early enough--as I finally was).
View from the porch of the Gifford house. A lot of those trees are apple trees--they must have been much smaller when the Gifford family lived there, but it was still a fantastic setting.

I spent a lot of my time there hanging out in the picnic area with my foot elevated and an ice pack on it, while Zeke went on a hike. It's a beautiful spot, so no regrets. I did get out to one viewpoint, where the wind was trying to blow people into the void.

Goosenecks viewpoint

In the end, the wind defeated us. After some unsuccessful attempts to find a sheltered camp, we gave up and headed our separate ways. After driving far too long, I got a hotel that night, to get out of the wind and enjoy a hot shower. 

The next day I got smarted, driving for an hour or so then stopping and icing and elevating the foot. I stopped that night at Farewell Bend State park along the Snake River on the Idaho-Oregon border. I found that in some ways camping was easier--and more scenic. I hung out in the car through some fun thunder showers, then the sun came out.

Farewell Bend State Park

The next day I made it home, and to the urgent care clinic, where the most interesting photos were the x-rays showing the fractured bone in my poor foot.

I wish we could have done everything we planned, but if we had, I still wouldn't have all the photos edited, so there are consolations?

Next week is the First Friday Photo bloghop from Many Worlds From Many Minds. If you like to post photos, join in and help Eden Mabee grow this start-up hop. I'll share a few out-takes from the trip, or maybe some footage of the local beavers!

 

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2023
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Comments

  1. Great pictures! I love the Farewell Bend State Park one. That's really eye-catching.

    July 4 is Alice in Wonderland Day, a commemoration of when the story was first told to the Liddell sisters by Lewis Carroll in 1862.

    J Lenni Dorner (he/him 👨🏽 or 🧑🏽 they/them) ~ Speculative Fiction &Reference Author, OperationAwesome6 Debut Author Interviewer, and Co-host of the #AtoZchallenge

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  2. Thank you for the shout out. Though as you know how I flubbed and missed this month's First Friday Post, I'm glad to see you stopped over to see and commented on my ROW80 post. And I absolutely love your Farewell Bend State Park picture... what a perfect shot!

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