Utah Day 1 - The long road trip

Arrived in Vegas just before noon. Rented a jeep Grand Cherokee....with a sunroof. YEAH!!! The trip to Hanksville Utah took about 7 hours over roughly 430 miles. After pulling off the interstate things became interesting. First was a herd of so many deer, I couldnt count. Of course they were cautious of me, but a neat sight of course.

Just before reaching Hanksville, I traveled through Capital Reef National Park. What a neat neat place. When the sun starts to set, the rocks change colors dramatically. The first photo is the goosenecks. Whoa..watch your step.

Dont be in a hurry to get anywhere fast. Utah has alot of open spaces. It does take time to get from points A to B. After about 30 minutes or so, I came across Factory Butte. To my understanding this has been turned into a recreation area for dirt bikes and ATV's which, being someone who is not a rider, is disappointing. In my own opinion, it takes away from the natural surroundings by scarring the terrain with tire tracks and loud noises. But when nobody is around, you can actually hear your ears ring from the silence.

So...When I got to the dirt road turnout from the "Trail of the Ancients" highway it was dark. I had to drive 11 miles in the dark on this trecherous dirt road where I almost hit an owl. When I finally arrived at Burr Point, the moon was shining bright and lit up the canyon very nicely. Burr Point is at the rim of a canyon near the dirty devil river. It is about an 1800 foot drop at the rim and, well is quite breathtaking.

I fell asleep for the night and woke up around 3AM. I got the camera and shot a photo of the moon setting behind the Henry Mountains. Beautiful!!!! I went back to sleep for a while and woke up just before the sun rose. I opened the sunroof and snapped a photo of the stars.....again Breathtaking!! Click on the image to enlarge.