Capitol Reef and Grand Staircase

This day's journey took us from Moab, UT (The Arches and Canyonlands National Parks) through the Capitol Reef National Park and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to Bryce Canyon National Park. It was essentially a half day's driving along some very twisting highways and more beautiful scenery.
Capital Reef was named for a line of white domes and cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, each of which looks somewhat like the United States Capitol building. The local word reef refers to any rocky barrier to travel. Its history includes abandoned Indian settlements with a few petroglpyhs, and pioneering settlements, also abandoned, by the Mormons, whose crops included peaches (the orchard is still there producing fruit). In the twentieth century uranium was discovered. It is a popular hiking area so we found the Visitors Center awash with hikers checking the condition of trails.
The Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument is one of the most recent areas to come under Federal protection. Part of the name comes from the Escalante River which flows through the northern region of the area. The Grand Staircase is derived from the series of five geographical plateaus which step upward from the highest level of the Grand Canyon area to at least 9,600 feet (the highest pass over which we traveled). Along the way, the plateaus when exposed do look like steps, and in the highest level the views overlooking the valleys and canyons below were breathtaking. As an additional bonus, the leaves of the aspen trees in the mountains had turned to their gorgeous golden color.
Our exploration of Bryce Canyon begins tomorrow.