11 April, Goblin Valley UT

On BLM land, looking out at the San Rafael Reef. Behind me is a mass of red and white stone standing up high above the dunes here. The red material appears particularly soft and looks in this light like melting wax.

Spent the day in much harder stuff, threading the Sandy Gulch in the Waterpocket region of Capital Reef NP. The trail follows the riverbed, starting in flatter terrain much like where I am now, and running back into the hard sandstone of the reef. Fascinating to see how the river has cut into the rock. A poor man’s Narrows, there were some spots where pools remained under dry falls. I had on hiking boots that I didn’t want to get wet, and the bed of the river turns into a marvelously wet and thick clay when wet, so I had to make several crossings by wedging myself hand and foot in the canyon. At these points I rather regretted bringing binoculars, as they swung about perilously, and one strap has a nasty habit of letting go from time to time. But no mishaps. When the clay dries it cracks and then curls up into chips of many different sizes but all that deep red color. Heard birdsong from up in the rock ledges and the junipers that cling there tenuously. Must be a paradise for the singers, safe from any landbound predators. Saw and heard several wrens that I later identified as rock wrens, and then some of the ubiquitous bushtits. There is a rock wren at my campsite, who likes to sing from a shelf of hard material balanced on a row of four incipient needles, and someone with a low, rough whistle is out in the valley.

The riverbed was scattered with all kinds of rock that didn’t seem to belong. Basaltic pillows ranging from fists to tents in size. Chunks of what seems to be petrified wood. Large hard greenish stones. There are large holes in the canyon walls and I wonder if this is what fell out.

A perfect day, and now it is time to cook some lentils.

(cdm, in ContinuingEastwards | 11April2006 )