Capitol Reef National Park, Utah.

[C Lee Nickel]

The wife and I are heading up there next week for our anniversary for 4 days, and that's a part of Utah I've never been to. Anyone know the area, been there, and know of any cool, interesting, "off the beaten path" less touristy sights to see? I read up on Wayne County, Utah, and there are only about 2700 people in the whole county...and that's only about 800 more than there was in 1900! Sounds like our kind of place.

We aren't Jeeping this trip...car and motel in Bicknell, Utah, so that will limit us getting WAY back in the hoo-ha, but I'm reading many of the forest roads are good gravel and suitable for cars, so we aren't afraid of that. And if we like it as much as I expect, there will possibly be Jeep trips in the future.

Ghost towns, mining camps, old abandoned ranches, etc. are the stuff we like.

Thanks!

[Blaine]

I haven't done NEAR enough exploring in the SW....
Enjoy your trip. Post lots of pics.....

[Malamute]

There have been some good trip reports on that general area on the American Adventurist forum. Likely many on Expedition Portal forum also, but it can be a bit overwhelming in the enormous content. A search there may turn up information.

[C Lee Nickel]

I haven't done NEAR enough exploring in the SW....
Enjoy your trip. Post lots of pics.....

Heck, I LIVE here and I haven't done near enough exploring . It's a big place with lots and lots of nooks and crannies. About as far as I've made it into southeast Utah is the Henry Mountains north of Lake Powell, and up into the southern part of Canyonlands National Park north of Hite, and that was nearly 10 years ago.

Here's a pic from this past April of the kind of stuff we usually do getting way out in the boonies. We were out north of Saline Valley in California in a remote part of Death Valley National Park. That's my little red rig, and my buddies "brand-new-to-him" Stewart and Stevenson M1078 on it's "shakedown cruise"..he used to travel in a Wrangler Rubicon, but it was the unfortunate victim of an accident last year and "is no more"

northofsaline.jpg

[C Lee Nickel]

There have been some good trip reports on that general area on the American Adventurist forum. Likely many on Expedition Portal forum also, but it can be a bit overwhelming in the enormous content. A search there may turn up information.

Thanks for the tip! I don't remember hearing of either one so I'll check them out!

[ywaltzucanrknrl]

Great area, I've spent several vacations in that area---it is not far from where I lived in SW Wyoming at the time. I'm a geologist and easily entertained in areas like that, so take this with that in mind. Green River has a great dinosaur dig not far out of town and the Powell Museum is worth seeing. Dixie National Forest and also Fishlake National forest are nice. I could spend a couple of weeks around Capitol Reef---so like I say I'm easily entertained with places like it. Kanab is close and has some neat information about all the movies that have been filmed there and Zions is close to Kanab. Really beautiful area----and there are plenty of remote areas and public land----mostly in the desert---the National Forests are more well traveled. When I say close, it's relative---I've lived in Wyo all my live and four hour drives here are normal. I could spend the rest of my life in that area just wandering and never run out of things to see.

[Malamute]

There have been some good trip reports on that general area on the American Adventurist forum. Likely many on Expedition Portal forum also, but it can be a bit overwhelming in the enormous content. A search there may turn up information.

Thanks for the tip! I don't remember hearing of either one so I'll check them out!

Hope you find some interesting things on them.

You mentioned California, I was never interested in going there, but many of the guys on American Adventurist are in Cal, and have put up some pretty interesting trip reports of various remote places, its really interested me to see some of it. They also do some get-togethers and do cleanups in some places that get too much use and abuse. Nice folks. The HOME page, rather than the forum, has some good articles and reports.