Despite our good intentions to hit the road by 7:00am, we left Escalante at quarter to eight. It was a beautiful morning with perfect temperatures in the mid sixties. We had unestablished expectations and felt like the day would not hold the awe inspiring moments that yesterday did. We were so wrong.
This area of Utah is incredibly beautiful. 
We entered Capitol Reef National Park with similar expectations – more rocks. Again, so wrong! It was hard to take it all in. Winding through narrow canyons framed by stunning red, green, white and yellow rock formations is otherworldly.
We stopped to view some petroglyphs.
And continued on through the park which encompasses a 100-mile Waterpocket Fold (Google it). This is a buckling of the earth’s surface resulting in in potholes that fill with rainwater.
As we reached the edge of the park, we dropped down into desert and the formations began to change.
The landscape began to look more like a moonscape.
And then in almost a blink of an eye, we were in an alpine forest. The Bookcliff mountain range rises to 9,600 feet above sea level. This was a fun road with gentle curves. This is also cattle country with open range herds. We had to slow or stop multiple times for our bovine mommies and babies. No bulls. 
We stopped at the top to look back over the terrain we just navigated.
But, all good things must come to an end… we finally had to jump on Highway 70. The speed limit is 80 miles an hour and the cross winds felt like they were blowing at a similar speed.
After nearly 100 miles of that, we were very happy to pull onto Highway 139. This road could use some work. It’s beautiful but in disrepair. 
We pulled into Meeker around 4:30pm. Tomorrow we are supposed to go to Rocky Mountain National Park and Trail Ridge Road but the weather may prevent it. We will likely get wet but are monitoring thunderstorms. We will make the call in Granby. We will end our day in Golden one way or the other.
More barns today which makes Cathy happy. 
Sorry for the bugs on the lens. You should have seen our shields! Both have been cleaned are ready for tomorrow’s ride. Till then!
Monkeybutt Chronicles 
Very interesting read and beautiful pictures. Colorado is definitely a specal location in the US. There is something that cannot be told in words, really beautiful.
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