5 May ‘08
Monday
Again, there is soooo much to see in this area that we decided to stay over one more night. Heading southeast from Boulder, the Burr Trail Scenic Backway crosses some of the most stunning wilderness in the southwest.
Monday
Again, there is soooo much to see in this area that we decided to stay over one more night. Heading southeast from Boulder, the Burr Trail Scenic Backway crosses some of the most stunning wilderness in the southwest.
We were asked to “envision being on a cattle drive in the Old West and retrace the path of John Atlantic Burr, a rancher for whom the road was named”. Our drive took us 66 miles, from the start of the Burr Trail in Boulder to our final destination of Ticaboo and the Bullfrog Marina on the shores of Lake Powell.
Our ride took us through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Capitol Reef national Park, and the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. We had “improved roads” on both ends, but just over 10 miles inside Capitol Reef and 11 miles of BLM land were graded “dust”…The Burr Trail took us through some striking scenery. We were blown away by the drive, especially through the Glen Canyon and then down the switch-back of the Burr Trail. We made dozens of photo stops along the way and one stop to examine the Deer Creek Campground. The shear rocks that towered above us by 100’s of feet,
and all with the most dramatic coloring you could imagine. Driving down the Burr Trail was just a tad more exciting than Louise had wanted… The road was dusty dirt, wide enough for one car at a time, either up or down, with a very few pullouts. The drop was from the side of the roadway, the switchbacks, were “amazing”. When we pulled into the park at Bullfrog, Arizona, they told us that the best place to launch the kayak was in their “primitive” campground. We found the entrance to the campground and headed toward the water. The “roadway” was nothing but 2 tracks that lead off into hundreds of different directions. We tried a couple of them out before finding that each of them led to areas around the water that was of “high bank”. There was a place that we wanted to find, as there were a few campers already there and they were right at the water’s edge. What we finally found was a sign that said “For 4 Wheel Drive Vehicles Only”…Yep, that’s us… We did find a place to park, get the kayak ready, and head out into Lake Powell again.
This time we were right across the bay from the ferry terminal. There were quite a few houseboats out on the water this time around. The water has warmed up considerable, although we didn’t get in ourselves to really test it. I did put my hands and feet into it, but stopped at that.