Painted Desert

While the majority of visitors to Capitol Reef National Park enjoy the main, paved road section, there is another equally spectacular but distinctly different segment of the park that requires 57 miles of driving a graded, dirt road loop.

This route takes visitors through Cathedral Valley where they can view many large, free-standing monoliths. The drive requires a low-water crossing of the Fremont River, which may be challenging during spring runoff. About a mile after that crossing, the road winds its way into an area called “The Bentonite Hills.”

We had seen photos of this area before which had aroused our attention, but viewing them in person was a far more impressive experience. The ground surface looks like colorful popcorn or styrofoam packing material. Formed from a combination of volcanic ash, silt, mud and fine sands, this “Brushy Basin Member” of the Morrison Formation (late Jurassic period) becomes a slick, slimy mess when wet that’s impassable not only by vehicle, but even on foot.

While gazing across the softly contoured and banded layers, we felt like we had been transported to another planet. Colors may alternate between shades of brownish-red, grayish-green, slightly blue, maroon or grayish-white. Upon driving into this multi-hued area, we quickly realized that this was going to be a much longer trip than expected as we began to take photos.

Photo taken 03/2017